Emergence Of Collective Action Research Articles

Social movements for sustainable agriculture in France: A polanyian perspective

Several strands of social movement activism have recently coalesced in France to push a new agenda for sustainable agriculture into the policy arena. Activist groups are forming alliances nationally and across Europe to devise common strategies. The emergence of collective action by these groups has been undertheorized in social science literature dealing with sustainable agriculture. This article suggests one approach to bridging this knowledge gap by considering the origins of these movements in the context of theory based on Karl Polanyi's (1957) book, The Great Transformation. Viewed as examples of Polanyi's concept of the double movement of societal self‐protection, the histories and goals of these groups are interpreted as reflecting an ongoing struggle to define a place for nonmarket social and environmental concerns that are threatened by an increasing emphasis on agricultural competitiveness in global markets.

Political theater and student organizations in the 1989 Chinese movement: A multivariate analysis of Tiananmen

Social movement research has often been divided between organizational and cultural analyses of collective action. Organizationally oriented theorists have viewed indigenous organizational structure as the critical variable in the emergence of collective action. Political culture and cultural frame theorists have focused instead on the cultural frames that resonate with audiences, mobilizing them to action. But social movements cannot be the result of one or the other of these factors. An analysis of the 1989 Chinese movement illuminates the multivariate aspects of this social movement. This movement was a two-tiered movement with an organized student leadership tier and a mass audience. Enmeshed in university organizations and student networks, the student leaders relied on an organizational structure that had been emerging since the mid-1980s. This organized leadership tier employed cultural symbols and acts to mobilize mass audiences that were beyond the scope of the students' organizational linkages. The “political theater” of the organized student leaders was complemented by institutional changes that had been occurring over the decade of reform in China and a political opportunity that allowed wide coverage of the students' activities.

Collective Action and the Second-Order Free-Rider Problem

This article examines the relationship between the first- and second-order free-rider problems in collective sanction systems, with special emphasis on the relative robustness of cooperation in the first and second levels. The results indicate that second-order cooperation exhibits surprising robustness relative to first-order cooperation. The implication is that hypocrisy, though universally maligned, may play a crucial transitional role both in the emergence of collective action and in the continuity of collective action under adverse circumstances.