Normative Solidarity Research Articles

Solidarität: Vorschlag für eine soziologische Begriffsbestimmung

Abstract Although solidarity is a key issue in sociology, surprisingly little attention has been given to the question what constitutes solidarity from a sociological perspective. In this paper I suggest a concept of solidarity which might work as a general framework for theoretical and empirical investigations. The central idea is that solidarity norms make up the core of the concept. Solidarity norms demand from their addressees that they transfer resources without compensation either to a collective or to individuals. It is argued that there are two levels of solidarity to be distinguished: (1) the level of social systems where solidarity is manifested in solidarity norms and (2) the level of individuals where solidarity is embedded in commitment to solidarity norms. I differentiate between four universal solidarity norms which can be found in associations on every level of social aggregation: norms of provision, of sharing, of supporting, and of loyalty.

Achieving offshore software development success: An empirical analysis of risk mitigation through relational norms

Behavioral risks such as shirking and misappropriation of information assets are more prominent in offshore software development context and could adversely affect offshore outsourcing success. This paper studies the moderating effects of different relational norms on the link between behavioral risks and offshore software development success. We focused on three major modes of relational norms: norm of flexibility, norm of solidarity and norm of information exchange. Using PLS path modeling to test a sample of 40 US corporations engaged in offshore software development, we found that the norms of solidarity and flexibility reduced the negative effects shirking risk on offshore software development success. Our results suggest that client firms shall benefit by forming the right mode of relational norms to achieve offshore success.

Solidarity, Strikes, and Scabs

This article studies how participation norms affect workers’ willingness to strike. A factor analysis on the responses of 468 Dutch union members about appropriate behavior during a strike produces two factors. The first factor reflects a “solidarity norm” favoring group solidarity; the second factor reflects a norm about the treatment of defecting colleagues, which we call the “free-rider-punishment” norm. Using OLS regression, we show that adherence to these norms significantly affects union members’ willingness to strike, controlling for group identification, and past participation in strikes. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of how solidarity and free-rider-punishment affect future participation.

How the Debt Crisis Exposes the Development of Solidarity in the Euro Area

Concept of solidarity – Factual vs. normative solidarity – Development of solidarity in the euro area – Transition from negative to positive solidarity – Solidarity as a legal concept – European Stability Mechanism – European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism – European Financial Stability Facility – Pringle judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union – ECB bond-buying programmes

The contribution of non-formal social protection to social development in Botswana

This article documents the non-formal system of social protection in Botswana, identifies opportunities for synergies between the non-formal and formal systems, and considers the challenges of integrating the two. Non-formal initiatives depend on traditional forms of social protection such as self-help, self-organisation, membership of a social group and cultural norms of community solidarity, reciprocity and obligations; whereas the formal social protection system is undergirded by statutes and laws, institutionalised in policy and legislation, publicly funded and delivered within national norms and eligibility criteria. The article argues that integrating the two could produce a complementary and responsive system of social protection that takes account of indigenous and other non-formal systems of support and enhances the delivery of social protection services, and that other countries in the region might derive lessons from Botswana's experience.

Education Funding and Individual Preferences for Redistribution

The analysis of the association between welfare state institutions and individual-level attitudes has become an important research topic in the past years. This article focuses on the association between the institutional set-up of the education system, the division of labour between public and private sources in funding human capital formation, and preferences for redistribution. Applying a multilevel research design with International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) survey data for 20 OECD countries, the main empirical finding of this article is that individuals in countries with high levels of private spending on education are less willing to support government-induced redistribution. One possible interpretation of this finding is that the specific kind of education financing influences the prevailing norms of social solidarity and expectations vis-a`-vis the state.

Normative and functional intergenerational solidarity in Lithuania

Current discussions in European countries about welfare policy focus on the issue how rapid social changes undermine intergenerational solidarity as a basic precondition of personal wellbeing. Therefore, intergenerational solidarity becomes a very important research area to explore several issues: (1) functional solidarity, or how exchanges of mutual assistance and support are organized among different generations within family; (2) normative solidarity, or how attitudes of familism/defamilism strengthen/weaken reciprocal support of adult children and their parents and what are expectations towards state’s support for family. The article is a study about social attitudes concerning various welfare regimes, normative and functional solidarity in Lithuanian families. The empirical data is taken from the Generation and Gender Program survey done in Lithuania in 2009. In our analysis of functional intergenerational solidarity we cover three areas of mutual assistance: emotional support, material or financial support, and assistance in taking care of dependent family members – children and elders. The issue of normative solidarity in Lithuania is also explored within the international context and how attitudes about intergenerational solidarity might be interpreted as a functioning social norm.
 

“Why can't you pay if you can eat?”: Tales of How Women Encounter Unpleasant NGO Practices in Bangladesh

AbstractIn Bangladesh and globally, microcredit has been recognized as a key development tool in the alleviation of poverty. Many international development agencies and donor countries prioritize microcredit to alleviate poverty because of reported success stories of microcredit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in mobilizing poor women to participate in incomegenerating activities. Microcredit NGOs construct success stories of alleviating poverty and gender equity in relation to the repayment rate, but little is known about how they deploy strategies to collect loan installments from borrowers. Using ethnographic data collected in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, I examine how microcredit NGOs create unequal power relations between fieldworkers and borrowers to facilitate secure loan recovery. Reflecting on the women's experiences with microcredit programs, I demonstrate how these microcredit NGOs impose the provision of group liabilities, a ‘forced choice,’ upon the borrowers and how they socialize the borrowers into a culture of shaming to enforce repayment obligations. Instead of contributing to the development of norms of cooperation and solidarity that socially and economically empower the entire community, I argue that NGOs instead empower a group of female borrowers, serving their capitalistic interests, which often stimulates social conflict and negatively affects social solidarity.

The “War” Against Climate Change and Christian Eco-Justice: Ethical Implications of Martial Rhetoric

Some climate activists and analysts appeal to martial language, emphasizing the seriousness of the problem by calling for a “war” against climate change. Drawing on a Christian ethic of eco-justice, this paper analyzes the implications of such rhetoric, measuring it against the norms of participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability. These norms reveal that martial rhetoric runs the risk of inspiring authoritarian, divisive solutions that distract from the genuine conflicts caused by climate change and the long-term changes required in response. While climate change is an urgent problem, a Christian ethics of eco-justice should encourage action on this issue with metaphors that are more empowering and inclusive than war.

Filial Piety and Functional Support: Understanding Intergenerational Solidarity Among Families with Migrated Children in Rural China

Using the intergenerational solidarity theory, the author examined how functional solidarity (intergenerational support regarding to elder care) impacts normative solidarity (filial piety) among families with migrated children in rural China. Data was drawn from a survey of 1,443 elders in three inland migrant-exporting provinces of China. The study revealed the following findings: (1) the elders did not evaluate children’s filial piety lower after their migration, which suggests an adjustment on the elderly parents’ part regarding the traditional expectations of filial piety. (2) Migrated son’s filial piety was indeed evaluated lower than those of daughters, which suggests a continuation of the traditional norms of patrilinealty for filial piety. (3) Elderly parents’ evaluations of migrated children’s filial piety were positively related to migrated children’s provision of financial care. (4) Elderly parents who took care of grandchildren had a positive evaluation of filial piety than those who did not. (5) An exchange-based intergenerational support mechanism did not have an impact on rural elderly parents’ evaluation of children’s filial piety. The author concludes that taking into consideration of the economic and cultural context of rural China, functional support, in the form of intergenerational support and exchange, suggest the continuation as well as changes of filial piety among rural families.

Beyond the social protection paradigm: social policy in Africa's development

The experience of sub-Saharan Africa with social development in the period between 1981 and 2005 has been grim, indeed. Over the period, policy focus has turned from a wider vision of social policy to narrow social protection concerns. This is what we refer to as the social protection paradigm (SPP). We offer an assessment of the paradigm. In its place, we offer an alternative vision encapsulated in the idea of transformative social policy, stressing the multiple roles of social policy and its wider vision of society. Social policy, in the context of meeting Africa's development challenges, must embrace these multiple roles, framed by the norms of equality and social solidarity. Résumé L'expérience du développement social de l'Afrique subsaharienne entre 1981 et 2005 était sombre. Pendant ce période, l'attention de la politique a tourné d'une vision au sens large de la politique sociale a une plus étroite qui concerne la protection sociale. Ceci s'appelle le paradigme de la protection sociale. Nous offrons une évaluation du paradigme. A la place, nous proposons une vision alternative qui contient l'idée d'une politique sociale transitive, et qui met l'accent sur les rôles multiples de la politique sociale et une vision au sens large de la société. La politique sociale, dans le contexte des besoins de développement de l'Afrique, doit adopter ces rôles nombreux, encadrés par la vision acceptée de l'égalité et de la solidarité sociale.

Building adherence-competent communities: Factors promoting children's adherence to anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS treatment in rural Zimbabwe

Given relatively high levels of adherence to HIV treatment in Africa, we explore factors facilitating children's adherence, despite poverty, social disruption and limited health infrastructure. Using interviews with 25 nurses and 40 guardians in Zimbabwe, we develop our conceptualisation of an ‘adherence competent community’, showing how members of five networks (children, guardians, community members, health workers and NGOs) have taken advantage of the gradual public normalisation of HIV/AIDS and improved drug and service availability to construct new norms of solidarity with HIV and AIDS sufferers, recognition of HIV-infected children's social worth, an ethic of care/assistance and a supporting atmosphere of enablement/empowerment.

Encouraging innovation in business relationships—A research note

How do buyer–supplier relationships affect innovation? This study suggests that the relational exchange norms of flexibility, information sharing, and solidarity (the bright side) encourage buyer innovation. However, negative (dark side) aspects of relationships with suppliers—loss of supplier objectivity, increasing buyer expectations, and supplier opportunism—may accompany the bright side and subsequently reduce buyer innovation. The study reports on the simultaneous effects of the bright and dark sides on innovation and the resultant effect on supplier performance as evaluated from the buyer's perspective. Using data from the travel and computer industry, regression models reveal that the bright side encourages buyer innovation. Buyers reciprocate this support by enhancing their supplier evaluations. The findings indicate that rising buyer expectations—supposedly a dark side of relational exchange—encourage innovation, while loss of supplier objectivity reduces relationship performance. These findings imply that the bright and dark sides are not mutually exclusive dimensions of good versus bad behavior.

Trust As A Precursor Or Outcome Of Relational Norm Development: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of US And Hungarian Managers

This study proposes and tests a model delineating relational norms and their relationship with the construct Trust and compares the results across two culture groups. The norms of Solidarity, Flexibility, and Mutuality are proposed as precursors to the formation of Trust. SEM results confirm two opposing models for U.S. and Hungarian respondents. Relational Norms have a strong positive relationship with formation of Trust for the Hungarian respondents, acting as a precursor of Trust. Whereas, the relationship between trust and the relational norms is weak for the U.S. respondents, and indicates that Trust is a precursor to the formation of Relational Norms.

The norm of solidarity: Experiencing negative aspects of community life after a school shooting tragedy

• Summary: Recent rampage shootings at schools have provoked intense academic discussion. While there have been two recent school shootings in Finland, there is not much empirical research focusing on these incidents. What is particularly lacking is research on community reaction to this type of mass violence. In this article, we take a look at the negative aspects of solidarity after a shooting incident in a small Finnish community of Jokela. We explore community experience on shootings through two types of empirical measures. The research material consists of a mail survey of the local residents and focused interviews of professional experts. • Findings: Our results suggest that there was a rise in social solidarity after the shooting tragedy. However, the increased level of solidarity was also followed by a variety of negative phenomena such as strengthened group divisions between youth and adults, social stigmatization, and feelings of collective guilt. These experiences are familiar in the cultural trauma processes. • Applications: In general, the article points out that mass violence has long-term impact on people’s social engagement and interaction patterns. Similar processes can be argued to be particularly significant when studying relatively small communities.

The Crowding Out Effects of Monitoring in Franchise Relationships: The Mediating Role of Relational Solidarity

Franchisors monitor their franchisees to ensure that the latters' performance is consistent with the franchise agreement. Though agency theory suggests that monitoring and subsequent corrective action lead to improved performance and reduced opportunism, the psychology literature argues that, in certain circumstances, monitoring can “crowd out” the very behavior it was designed to eliminate (i.e., opportunistic behavior). Our results show that the extent and ease of monitoring reduce the crowding out effects of monitoring, whereas monitoring enforcement heightens these effects. Our findings also show that the exchange norm of relational solidarity fully mediates these effects.

La solidaridad de mercado y sus sujetos en el capitalismo de consumo: un análisis del discurso neoliberal sobre piezas de publicidad en Chile

El carácter neoliberal del proceso de modernización y la instalación de un modelo de sociedad de consumo ha implicado un cambio en la norma social del vínculo social, desde una solidaridad mutualista a otra altruista, y en los sujetos de ese vínculo. En este contexto es pertinente indagar la relación entre esta nueva norma de solidaridad y las formas de subjetivación correspondientes. Con ese objetivo se realizó un análisis de discurso desde el modelo de la psicología crítica de Parker (1990,1992) sobre doce piezas publicitarias de ayuda o promoción de la solidaridad, emitidas por instituciones con fines de lucro. En los resultados se describe la solidaridad neoliberal y los tipos de sujetos solidarios que pueden realizarse a través del consumo.

Globalization, Inequality and Financial Instability: Confronting the Marx, Keynes and Polanyi Problems in the Advanced Capitalist Economies

Three unique features of the contemporary period of globalization stand out in contrast with the epoch of integration early in the 20th century: the rise of manufacturing capacity in less-developed countries; the expansion in cross-border financial trading; and the fact that integration is occurring within the context of big government capitalism. Considering the effects of these transformations for the U.S. and Western Europe, the paper examines three fundamental issues: the expansion of the reserve army of labor (the Marx problem); increased financial instability and corresponding fluctuations in aggregate demand (the Keynes problem); and a diminishing capacity for governments to promote stability and norms of social solidarity (the Polanyi problem).

Globalization and the Transition to Egalitarian Development

The single most important fact about the contemporary pattern of global economic integration is that it is being guided by a predominant commitment to neoliberal economic policies. Considering both the global North and South, this paper examines three basic problems resulting from neoliberal globalization: the expansion of the reserve army of labor (the Marx problem); increased financial instability and corresponding fluctuations in aggregate demand (the Keynes problem); and a diminishing capacity for governments to promote stability and norms of social solidarity (the Polanyi problem). The paper advances an alternative egalitarian policy approach for the contemporary era, guided by the writings of Keith Griffin.

Cosmopolitism and Issues of Ethical Identity

Y. A: What, if any, moral obligations are attached to our ethnic identity? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] KAA: I'm inclined to say that the most straightforward answer to your questions is: None. That's because I think it's not the ethnic identity itself but the particular features of the way it works in social and ethical life that is likely to generate moral obligations, not the ethnic identity as such. In a moment, I'll give you some examples of the sort of thing I have in mind. But first, I think it's important to distinguish between ethnic identities and national identities in approaching this question. By national identities, I mean, roughly, ethnic identities that are identified with a modern nation state. For national identities, the major obligations we have are in virtue of our shared citizenship: they are political obligations, civic duties. But where an ethnic identity is not a national one, where it is not associated with a state, the answers are more various, I believe, because ethnic identities are various and so are the relations of individual people to their ethnic identities. As you know, I am inclined to approach such questions from the perspective of the individual. So I would begin by saying that one of the central questions many people have, wherever they live, is they take their ethnic identity up as an important element of who they are. I don't say whether they chose to take their ethnic identity up, because in some contexts you may have little choice as to you take your ethnic identity seriously, because you live in a society where others will respond to you as a member of some ethnic group, you like it or not. What sociologists call ascriptive identities--like gender and, in may places, race-shape your experience of the social world because others are going to respond to you as a member of the group, whatever you chose. Of course, you still have choices to make, about how you are going to respond to an identity ascribed to you by others. But where your identity is a subordinated identity, so that powerful social groups are able to dominate people of your ethnicity, one natural response is to develop a norm of solidarity: we will work together to relieve our social burden. What sort of argument could you develop for the view that this might be not just a natural response, nor even just an attractive response, but an actual duty? Well, if there are other members of your group who are engaging in a social movement to relieve the burdens of ethnic oppression, and you are benefiting from their struggle, you might have a duty to bear your fair share of the burden of the struggle. After all, we normally suppose that we have a duty of fairness to share the burdens of sustaining institutions and practices from which we profit. (That's why we often condemn so-called free-riders: people who, metaphorically speaking, take the train but don't pay for the ticket.) These obligations go along with obligations that everyone has, which derive from considerations of justice, to work to undo social oppression. You might also think that where an ethnic group is carrying a particular cultural tradition that is of value, its members might feel they ought each to contribute to protecting that cultural tradition, as long as doing so doesn't place a great burden on them, something that will get in the way of their living a decent life. People who are especially well-placed to contribute to an important goal ought, generally speaking, I think, to pursue it if they can. So, against a particular background, I think ethnic obligations can arise, but, as I say, I think it does just depend on the background. And usually what sustains ethnic practices isn't duty but desire: people value some of the ways of doing things that they grew up with and they keep them going for that reason, not because they feel obliged. Even when they do feel obliged, it will often be an obligation of piety--a sense that you should do things for your parents and earlier ancestors, to sustain a legacy they have left you. …