Confrontational Actions Research Articles

The horror of today and the terror of tomorrow: The role of future existential risks and present-day political risks in climate activism.

In response to the urgent global climate crisis, climate activism has risen as a potent force. Decision-making regarding climate collective action includes individuals' perceptions of the anticipated future existential risks of the climate crisis (risk of inaction) and present-day political risks of climate activism (risk of action). Our research, spanning four studies (two correlational surveys and two pre-registered experiments), focused on climate activism in Germany (N = 1027). We consistently showed that heightened politicized activist identification was associated with both confrontational and non-confrontational climate collective action across four studies. Furthermore, the anticipated existential climate risk was associated with non-confrontational climate action and present-day political risk with confrontational action. Politicized climate identity remained a robust predictor across different action tactics, while the content and temporality of risk (future existential vs. present-day political) in one's environment determined the transition between engagement in confrontational and non-confrontational climate action dynamically. Nevertheless, we did not find causal links between risk perceptions and collective action. We discuss our findings in line with ESIM (Elaborated Social Identity Model), and potential explanations for the lack of causal relationship and future directions for alternative methodologies and comprehensive conceptualization of risk perceptions are suggested.

How does the geography of surveillance affect collective action?

AbstractHow does residing in the proximity of surveillance infrastructure—i.e., checkpoints, the separation barrier, and military installations—affect support for cooperative and confrontational forms of collective action? Cooperative actions involve engagement with outgroups to advance the ingroup cause (e.g., negotiations, joint actions, and peace movements), whereas confrontational actions involve unilateral tactics to weaken the outgroup (e.g., boycott, armed resistance). In the context of West Bank and Jerusalem, we combine geo‐coded data on the surveillance infrastructure with a representative survey of the adult population from 49 communities (N = 1,000). Our multilevel analyses show that surveillance does not affect support for confrontational actions but instead decreases support for cooperative actions. Moreover, we identify a new, community‐level mechanism whereby surveillance undermines cooperative actions through weakening inclusive norms that challenge dominant us‐versus‐them perspectives. These effects are empirically robust to various individual‐ and community‐level controls, as well as to the potential of reverse causality and residential self‐selection. Our findings illustrate how cooperative voices and the fabric of social communities become the first casualties of exposure to surveillance. They also speak to the importance of considering structural factors, with broader implications for the socio‐psychological study of collective action.

Activism without hope? Four varieties of postapocalyptic environmentalism

ABSTRACT Hope has long been seen as essential to motivate social movement activism. However, as seen in the transition movement and collapsology networks, a ‘postapocalyptic’ environmentalism that views catastrophe as ongoing or unavoidable is gaining ground, reflecting an increasing awareness that environmental catastrophes are already here or have become inevitable. If hope can no longer mean hope in averting catastrophe, what role does hope play and what form does it take? Can there be activism without hope? Based on interviews with participants in the transition movement and collapsology networks in Sweden, I propose a typology of forms of postapocalyptic activism. In the first (‘campaigning’), hope is accompanied by confrontational action. In the second (‘mourning’), loss of hope brings about a withdrawal from such action. A third form (‘building’) shows how new hope is generated through non-confrontational action, while a fourth form (‘doing the right thing’) is represented by confrontational action resting on other motivations than hope

A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice

A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice

Auditors’ Responses to Real Earnings Management: The Effects of Timing and Potential Consequences on Auditor Decision-Making

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigate whether the timing and the potential consequences of a transaction influence auditors’ decisions regarding real earnings management (REM). Based on the results of an online experiment with 159 certified public accountant (CPA) participants, we find that the timing of a transaction acts as a signal of management’s intent that auditors use to infer REM. While the timing of the transaction helps auditors identify REM, whether auditors take confrontational actions (i.e., actions taken by auditors to confront a client for the final resolution of an REM issue) also depends on their evaluation of the transaction. We find that auditors are more likely to take confrontational actions when the transaction occurs at the end of the reporting period and is likely to result in more severe negative consequences to the firm’s future operations.

“We stand in the Luddite legacy”: tracking patterns of anti-GM protest and crop-trashing in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Concern over the uncertainty associated with genetically modified (GM) products in the late 1990s in the UK led to an extensive anti-GM campaign. Activists adopted a broad array of tactics from conventional protest marches and rallies through to more unconventional and confrontational actions. An important part of the protest repertoire was the physical damage and destruction of GM crops. These were intensified following the decision of the government to license a series of field scale evaluations (FSE) of GM crops intended to determine their potential impact on biodiversity. The aim of the article is to determine why crop trashing events played an important role in opposition to GM in the UK by considering the geographical spread and recognition of such actions. The paper draws on a protest event catalogue of anti-GM protests over the 1996-2016 period to identify their intensity, tactics, and locations. The findings suggest that crop-trashing was primarily adopted in response to the availability of targets. However, it also points to the rural setting as a space in which different norms and histories provide a justification for destructive acts in the face of uncertainty.

Radical Democracy and Sacred Values: John Dewey's Ethical Democracy, Sheldon Wolin's Fugitive Democracy and Politics of Tending, and Cornel West's Revolutionary Christianity

Radical Democracy and Sacred Values: John Dewey's Ethical Democracy, Sheldon Wolin's Fugitive Democracy and Politics of Tending, and Cornel West's Revolutionary Christianity

Cenário da desertificação no território brasileiro e ações de combate à problemática no estado do Ceará, Nordeste do Brasil

A desertificação é um problema de ordem ambiental com repercussões sociais e econômicas. Tal problema é alvo de discussões nos âmbitos científico, acadêmico e institucional, tanto no entendimento conceitual quanto na compreensão das suas causas e consequências, com vistas a ações de mitigação. Nessa conjuntura, o presente trabalho tem por objetivos evidenciar o cenário da desertificação no território brasileiro e realizar um panorama das ações de combate a essa problemática que têm sido executadas no estado do Ceará, Nordeste do Brasil. Para tanto, a pesquisa, quanto ao objetivo, é exploratório-descritiva e possui procedimentos de investigação bibliográfica e documental. O estudo da desertificação no Brasil tem se dado por diversos setores, carecendo, ainda, de incentivos para pesquisas que melhor aprofundem o conhecimento do fenômeno nas áreas vulneráveis, assim como na efetivação de estratégias que consigam frear esse processo. Quanto ao contexto do Ceará, as ações de enfrentamento perpetradas têm conseguido, mesmo que de modo pontual, reverter quadros de degradação ambiental. Tais ações contemplam as dimensões política/institucional, com envolvimento do Estado, dispondo de técnicas e treinamento da população para o enfrentamento do problema; ambiental, mitigando os processos de deterioração natural a partir de intervenções físicas no ambiente; e cultural, orientando a população sobre a necessidade de conservação e convivência com as peculiaridades do semiárido. Destarte, as estratégias de mitigação dos efeitos da desertificação têm alcançado implicações positivas, o que faz necessário sua replicação em outras porções do estado cearense acometido por esse fenômeno.

Mortalidade infantil entre indígenas no estado do Pará

Objetivo: Analisar o perfil de mortalidade infantil indígena. Método: Estudo epidemiológico, transversal realizado com 254 óbitos em crianças indígenas menores de um ano, notificadas ao Sistema de Informação da Atenção à Saúde Indígena, no estado do Pará, no período de 2013 a 2018. Resultados: Identificou-se proporção maior de óbitos em crianças do sexo masculino (53,9%; n=137), nas etnias Kaiapó (38,2%; n=97), Munduruku (27,6%; n=70) e Xicrim (13,8%; n=35). Os óbitos ocorreram nos hospitais (53,9%; n=137), e nos domicílios (24%; n=61), e as principais causas foram: as afecções perinatais (27,2%; n=69); as doenças do aparelho respiratório (18,9%; n=48), doenças infecciosas e parasitárias (15,7%; n=40). Conclusão: A mortalidade infantil indígena é mais elevada em algumas etnias, o que favorece ações de enfrentamento naquelas mais acometidas. É necessário a valorização da cultura indígena e o reconhecimento dos problemas socioeconômicos a serem contemplados num plano de ação para redução desse indicador.

City-Level Action in a City-Wide Urban Commons. Amsterdam, 1977-1983

In the late 1970s, Amsterdam's squatted domain grew to comprise hundreds of buildings, and a city wide network of workspaces, bars, cultural venues and other infrastructure. The squatted domain, as it developed at the time, can be viewed as an urban commons. For a section of the squatting community, the whole was far greater than merely the sum of its parts, which led to the creation of a horizontal, city level organization. Commoning strategies applied at the city level were organizing squatting days, setting up a collective process for legalization, and promoting alternative urban development. However, evictions prompted confrontational action and a number of groups adopted a confrontational identity. Operating outside the city-level organization, autonomous action teams formed. They perfected the skills involved in the defense of squats, and had informal leaders. Nevertheless, groups with both prefigurative and confrontational collective identities worked together, despite the cooperation being tenuous. The upshot was that a large number of squatter collectives were never evicted, but that squats were legalized instead.

Ação coletiva e políticas públicas: mulheres camponesas na construção da Política de Saúde das Populações do Campo, da Floresta e das Águas

Este artigo analisa a atuação do Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (MMC) no processo de construção da Política Nacional de Saúde Integral das Populações do Campo, da Floresta e das Águas (PNSIPCFA). Configura-se como um estudo de abordagem qualitativa, embasado no reconhecimento e na valorização das ações coletivas desse grupo social na área da saúde pública. As técnicas de coleta de dados consistiram na realização de observação participante, entrevista exploratória e grupo focal. A partir dos achados empíricos e com base no conceito de ação coletiva em Alberto Melucci, considera-se que as ações dos movimentos sociais influenciam a construção da política pública e a produção da realidade social, pois os resultados evidenciam o protagonismo do MMC em espaços representativos de planejamento, elaboração e avaliação de políticas públicas, como o Grupo da Terra, o observatório de acompanhamento e avaliação da referida política e os conselhos municipais de saúde. O MMC realiza ações de enfrentamento, resistência e pressão no Estado por meio de marchas, caminhadas e atos públicos, em parceria com outras organizações, em defesa da saúde pública e efetivação da PNSIPCFA. Também é protagonista no que se refere a ações de formação/capacitação junto ao Movimento para a disseminação e compreensão do conteúdo da Política.

TRADITIONAL ECONOMIES AND SOCIAL PROTEST IN WEST GERMANY AND ITALY IN 1966-1974

Every crisis of the world capitalist economy prompts a new wave of interest in long economic cycles. In the second half of the 20 century, the emergence of new social movements and activity of «traditional» working class can be analyzed as important barometers of socio-economic development in transitional economies of European countries towards postindustrial society. In this article the author employs a theory of the dynamics of protest waves developed by Ruud Koopmans to analyse social processes in West Germany and Italy between 1966 and 1974. Special attention is given to study of different types of social protest movements: spontaneous, semi-military groups and those affiliated with political parties. A special emphasis is put on showing how the protest wave started with confrontational actions, subsequently entered a phase of moderate mass mobilization, and ended up with a twin process of institutionalization and radicalization.

Towards a Neo-bipolar Model of the World Order: Scouting Game in Africa

The article lays out a hypothesis that the global order slides into a new bipolarity in the context of the escalating geo-economic and geopolitical confrontation between the two poles that currently dominate the world - the United States and China. The neo-bipolar construction cannot yet be regarded as an established new world order, but the general movement of the world economy and international relations in this direction is obvious. The neo-bipolar bipolar confrontation manifest itself with varying intensity in different regions of the world. The author argues that at present the peripheral regions which are strategically important for the prospects of competition are becoming an important testing ground for relatively “safe” elaboration of methods and tactics of geo-economic rivalry and h mutual exchange of systemic attacks. Today, Africa has become practically the leading theater of the new bipolar confrontation. The article analyzes the economic, military and strategic aspects of the rivalry between the United States and China on the African continent. It provides a comparative analysis of the new African strategies of the two superpowers adopted at the end of 2018. The author asserts that in the context of the emerging global bipolarity, the strategies of the USA and China represent antagonistic programs based on fundamentally different initial messages. In the case of the US strategy, this is to deter by denial the spread of the competitor’s influence using tough policies, including forceful (while not necessarily military) confrontational actions. While China seeks to neutralize the opposition of the United States and its allies to Beijing’s expansion on the continent and to win the freedom of interaction with any partners in Africa causing minimal direct confrontation possible. Therefore, despite the seemingly “peripheral” importance of the confrontation on the continent, for the establishment of a neo-bipolar world order, the proclamation of the new US regional geopolitical strategy, which focuses on the containment of China in the name of protecting democracy and independence, can serve not only for Africa, but for the whole planet the same milestone signal as Churchill’s Fulton speech for the final advent of bipolarity in the postwar world.

Risk Representations and Confrontational Actions in the Arctic

Risk Representations and Confrontational Actions in the Arctic

Research on China’s renewable portfolio standards from the perspective of policy networks

Currently, wind and solar energy have not been well utilized in China, and the rate of abandoned wind and solar facilities in China is increasing annually. Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are an effective system for promoting large-scale renewable energy integration and consumption and realizing the goal of renewable energy development. To clarify the interactive relationship between the different levels and multiple actors in RPS, this paper uses policy network theory to analyze the interactive relationship of stakeholders from the three aspects of network subject, network structure and network interaction. The policy network of the RPS consists of the policy community, professional network, intergovernmental network, producer network and issue network. Under the RPS, to meet their own needs, participants affect the formulation and implementation of the RPS through the actions of confrontation, alliance, competition and cooperation. In different stages of developing the RPS, the openness and integration of policy networks change accordingly. This study overcomes the limitations of past simple analyses of the actor relationship in the policy process and thereby offers certain reference significance.

Classification and dynamic evolution of public's environmental risk coping actions in China

Existing studies on public attitudes and actions towards sites elections of projects with existing environmental risk usually make simple binary partition and mostly focus on public confrontational actions. Whereas, no attention has been paid to the complexity and dynamic convertibility of public's risk coping actions. This paper constructs an integrated framework for environmental risk coping actions referring to risk social amplification theory and risk protective theory. Through the comparative analysis with three typical projects of nuclear facilities in China, it has been found that there are four different types of risk coping action based on dual dimensions of risk perception and risk communication, namely, acquiescence–support and acquiescence–adaption, belonging to low‐grade risk coping actions, and two high‐grade risk coping actions, prevention–mobilization and prevention–protest. Under specific conditions, the dynamic conversions from low grade to high grade among the four action choice models also existed. Findings of this paper try to provide a theoretical interpretation for getting a better understanding of the public action choices in relation to environment risk. In the meanwhile, policy enlightenment to risk governance for government has also been discussed.

Suspicion of White-Collar Crime: A Case Study of Retaliation Against Whistle-Blowers

Norwegian law regulates and prohibits retaliation against whistle-blowers, but there is no conviction so far where a court passes a prison sentence because of such crime. Rather, victims of retaliation have to sue their employer for compensation if they suffer retaliation in the form of job loss or other consequences. This article starts by briefly reviewing literature on retaliation against whistle-blowers. Next, we distinguish between retaliation as concrete, individualized measures and retaliation as a coherent process over time. The process may start with ignorance, move into rejection, and finally sanctions. This article continues by presenting the case of two whistle-blowers in a Norwegian municipality who have experienced retaliation. Then, we apply incident-based and process-based retaliation measures by comparing classifications in groups and stages. This case study is a result of critical, provocative, and confrontational action research.

Community Leadership in Rural Tourism Development: A Tale of Two Ancient Chinese Villages

Researchers are paying increasing attention to questions of community leadership and rural tourism development. Based on leadership theories and the literature on community leadership and tourism development, this study developed a framework for community leadership in rural tourism development and used it to examine two ancient Chinese villages. We used the longitudinal case study method to collect data, and we used textual analysis to analyze these data. The results show that the rebel leadership characteristic of confrontational actions played an important role in starting the tourism industry in both villages. However, this leadership was difficult to maintain because community leaders and residents had limited power compared to that of outsiders. Losing control of tourism development in the two villages led to banal management, which prevented the emergence of strong community leadership. In the future, we argue that resilient community leadership should be nurtured in the two villages to address more complex problems occurring in tourism development, such as those characterized by vision tensions and conflicts of interest among the stakeholders affected by tourism development. Finally, we suggest that, based on the longitudinal method, future research can focus on the relationship between resilient leadership and the resilience of tourism communities.

«Крымский консенсус» российской элиты: причины и последствия

The article is devoted to the process of formation of the Russian intra-elite consensus about the reintegration of the Crimea and Sevastopol. In particular, the text examines the range of relations between domestic establishment and foreign partners in the context of the «Ukrainian question». The article also analyzes the causes of the «polite policy» in the 2014-2015. It is stated that the United States and the European Union for its straightforward and confrontational actions actually forced the Russian elite to take a tough stance on Crimea. This article discusses an alternative point of view on the reintegration of the Crimea, in particular, of the liberal society that opposed Vladimir Putin. However, the author concludes that for the whole elites managed to come to the consensus about the Crimea that allowed the president of the Russian Federation to continue acting in the Ukrainian direction. At the same time, the spread of conflict in the Donbass caused some unrest in the domestic «ruling class», which led to the conclusion of the Minsk Agreement and freezing of the «Russian world» project.

Promoção da saúde do trabalhador: análise das ações propostas por concluintes de um curso de capacitação (2012)

A incorporação do conhecimento do trabalhador nas ações de promoção e prevenção da saúde pode potencializar a luta por melhores condições de trabalho e a defesa da saúde do trabalhador. Este estudo bibliográfico teve como objetivo analisar, a partir do referencial teórico da saúde do trabalhador, as ações propostas pelos concluintes de um curso de capacitação para a promoção da saúde do trabalhador da saúde, em 2012. Do total de 221 projetos analisados, os trabalhadores de saúde constituíram o público-alvo prioritário (84%), além dos gestores (12%), oriundos de várias regiões do país com predomínio das propostas das regiões sudeste (107 projetos) e nordeste (55 projetos), e com atuação em diversos locais de trabalho. As propostas de intervenção intentaram resolver ou minimizar três conjuntos de problemas: a) relacionados ao ambiente de trabalho, b) a gestão do trabalho e c) a saúde do trabalhador. A análise das propostas apontou para uma realidade de trabalho permeada por ocorrência de acidentes de trabalho por exposição a material biológico, perfurocortante, radiação ionizante e de agravos relacionados a sobrecarga osteomuscular, relacionados a saúde mental como o transtorno mental e comportamental, depressão, alcoolismo além de estresse, burnout e assédio moral. Entre as ações de enfrentamento constatou-se a presença significativa de propostas conformadas nos moldes das abordagens tradicionais da saúde e segurança no trabalho, junto com outras sustentadas nos pressupostos do campo da Saúde do Trabalhador. Considerando o referencial do campo da saúde do trabalhador, conclui-se que permanece o desafio pela superação da abordagem das relações trabalho e saúde-doença fundamentado na ideia cartesiana do corpo como máquina, vinculado à medicina do trabalho e saúde ocupacional, cujas propostas sugerem a supressão de agentes/fatores de risco ambiental como meio de promover a saúde no trabalho.