Regional Collective Action Research Articles

Are avocados toast? A framework to analyze decision-making for emerging epidemics, applied to laurel wilt

CONTEXTWhen emerging pathogens threaten global food security, collective action for disease management is key for protecting food systems. We evaluate how the informal exchange of information about epidemic and economic outcomes can influence the management decisions of individuals and the resulting epidemics, in the context of the avocado laurel wilt epidemic in south Florida. OBJECTIVESIn scenario analyses, we addressed how socioeconomic networks, laurel wilt epidemic networks, policy incentive structures, and social behaviors combine to influence (a) information exchange across this region, (b) growers' decisions about disease management, and (c) epidemic spread and yield loss. We identified the scenarios in which regional avocado health fared best. METHODSWe built an agent-based model to simulate laurel wilt epidemic expansion and establishment across south Florida over a 10-year period. The model used parameters specific to patterns observed and quantified from the laurel wilt epidemic in south Florida. Based on the locations and sizes of avocado orchards there, we simulated disease expansion and information dissemination through multilayer socioeconomic and epidemic networks and evaluated the effects of “carrot” and “stick” policy incentive structures and behaviors like “stubbornness” in decision making. Scenarios were simulated for multiple parameters across a 10-year time period, and the regional health of avocado and management decisions of growers were analyzed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSIncreased social connections led to lower regional crop health due to increased exchange of information reinforcing selection of less expensive but less effective management choices. This information exchange was particularly impactful during the lag phase of epidemic expansion, when the cost of disease management outweighed the cost of disease. Managers who were resistant or “stubborn” against adopting these less expensive and less effective management strategies, particularly during the lag phase of epidemic expansion, contributed to greater regional health. In these scenarios, growers responded more to policies which penalized individuals than to policies which rewarded individuals. SIGNIFICANCEBy quantifying varying degrees of stubbornness, and how growers may weight past experiences and new information, we represented key aspects of decision making and its many influences on regional collective action in this novel agent-based model. The model demonstrates the caveats of information exchange across social networks during epidemics, and the valuable role that policy makers and informed educators can have, particularly during the lag phase of epidemic expansion. Decision makers and stakeholders must understand the influences of information exchange to overcome the challenges of collective action for crop health.

Enfoque de paisaje para apoyar el manejo forestal sostenible en la región Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México

Forest landscape structure comprises a mosaic of natural and human-modified units, which when well depicted, may help to plan and implement forest management policies, which commonly assume territorial homogeneity. Usually, forest policies lack the use of spatial tools that can help scale up conservation program in heterogeneous forested landscapes. This paper applied a conceptual-methodological framework as baseline to guide regional strategies and scale-up community collective action based on local forestry ejidos and communities. The study case was conducted in the Mixteca Alta, a forestry region in Oaxaca, Mexico, where common property prevails. Zoning was made based on biophysical, social, and forest management criteria. A total of 97 communities were surveyed and the region was disaggregated into five zones based on precipitation, watersheds, community forest management experience and level of regional collective action. Each zone was recognized as having different forestry potentials and intervention needs, ranging from restoration to timber and non-timber product management. This zoning proved the potential to guide forest projects and promote joint regional forest development. The potential use of landscape zoning was discussed in the light of the current need for scale-up forest policies.

Hybrid Aesthetics Classification in Malay Neo-Classicality Reinventing Identity Through Aristocratic Structures

South East Asian architecture identity in urban centres has been generally focused on either timber vernacular identity or large masonry building. The local agenda is increasingly crucial amidst the importance of tourism and city-branding which necessitate the enculturation of urbanism within an overall resistance to extensive globalisation. Traditional public typologies such as palaces and mosques in Asia hold the promise of resources that can add place-branding and identity to towns and cities, while at the same time a high resource for new forms and patterns. Through an extensive morphological and evolutionary mapping of such typologies, the aim is to develop a classification that can define stylistic categories and aesthetic predispositions, such that these classifications can be used to manage, market and enhance such historical narrative of towns and contribute to identity-making in the urban-scape. Throughout the Asian region, particularly in nations previously under Colonisation, there is a common resource of public typologies which have not been identified in terms of early stylistic changes and nuances that would contribute towards heightening of Asia’s common heritage and increasing awareness of such hybrid forms. These, if classified and defined, can consolidate towards the continuing agendas of identity-making in cities; including the management of preservation and conservation actions and policies. Many of these structures have been neglected as they are either seen as vernacular or part of a Colonial narrative and imprint. Many of these individual heritage preservation efforts has been the initiative of their local sites and communities. The present privileging of national agendas and interest over regional collective action is not in the interest of awareness and action. In the past, national barriers have actually amplified the problem and reduced the potential of asserting the global and regional significance of such structures.

MEDIOAMBIENTE Y DIVERSIDAD EN EL ACTIVISMO LEGAL TRANSNACIONAL. AGENDAS Y REDES DE PRESIÓN EN EL SISTEMA INTERAMERICANO DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

Este artículo analiza el activismo legal transnacional de redes de acción colectiva regionales ante el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos. A partir de la construcción de una base de información empírica sobre el activismo de las organizaciones no gubernamentales que participan en el Sistema Interamericano, identificamos las trayectorias, actores relevantes, estrategias de movilización y repertorios que impulsan las redes transnacionales. Demostramos cómo las redes de organizaciones en defensa de derechos relacionados con el medioambiente y la diversidad sexual han conseguido establecer vínculos sólidos y coordinados regionalmente, promoviendo novedosas agendas con incidencia continental, buscando generar la inclusión de nuevos temas de derechos humanos en las prioridades internacionales.

Community Forest Owners Evaluate a Decade of Payments for Ecosystem Services in the Mexican Cloud Forest: The Importance of Attention to Indigenous Sovereignty in Conservation

ABSTRACTPayments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have taken a variety of forms that depend on many mediating factors, such as national and local politics, land tenure, regional collective action, the capacity of intermediaries, and socio-ecological context. This diversity has produced unsurprisingly mixed experiences, with many falling short of achieving the twin goals of environmental and social benefits and some causing adverse consequences. This study examines one rare PES case that has contributed both to forest conservation and to community livelihoods. In this study, community forest owners from four indigenous communities in the Mexican cloud forest evaluate their participation in ten years of a public PES program to support watershed stewardship. We argue that attention to indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in program implementation contributed to widely appreciated socio-environmental benefits. Though many PES programs are implemented in indigenous communities, scholarly debates have rarely dealt directly with these issues.

The Index of Asia-Pacific Regional Integration Effort

The Asia-Pacific region is not typically seen as one geographic or socio-economic space. Yet, 58 regional economies occupying the space of 28 million square kilometers from Turkey in the West, Russian Federation in the North, French Polynesia in the East and New Zealand in the South belong to the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). This commission provides a forum for member states that “promotes regional cooperation and collective action, assisting countries in building and sustaining shared economic growth and social equity”. In 2013, ESCAP’s members adopted the Bangkok Declaration to enhance efforts towards deeper regional economic integration. Yet this document neither proposes a concrete modality or modalities of achieving deeper integration, nor provides a sense of distance of individual countries to a “perceived” integrated Asia-Pacific. This paper aims to comprehensively quantify recent integration efforts of economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We provide an “index of integration effort” based on twelve metrics that measure the relative distance of a given economy to the region as an economic entity. Generally, we find that while the region has trended towards becoming integrated in general, both the level of integration and integration effort are inconsistent among Asia-Pacific economies. We discuss potential applications and extensions of the index in developing our perspective of the region’s economic and social dynamics.

Building resilient pathways to transformation when “no one is in charge”: insights from Australia's Murray-Darling Basin

Climate change and its interactions with complex socioeconomic dynamics dictate the need for decision makers to move from incremental adaptation toward transformation as societies try to cope with unprecedented and uncertain change. Developing pathways toward transformation is especially difficult in regions with multiple contested resource uses and rights, with diverse decision makers and rules, and where high uncertainty is generated by differences in stakeholders’ values, understanding of climate change, and ways of adapting. Such a region is the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, from which we provide insights for developing a process to address these constraints. We present criteria for sequencing actions along adaptation pathways: feasibility of the action within the current decision context, its facilitation of other actions, its role in averting exceedance of a critical threshold, its robustness and resilience under diverse and unexpected shocks, its effect on future options, its lead time, and its effects on equity and social cohesion. These criteria could potentially enable development of multiple stakeholder-specific adaptation pathways through a regional collective action process. The actual implementation of these multiple adaptation pathways will be highly uncertain and politically difficult because of fixity of resource-use rights, unequal distribution of power, value conflicts, and the likely redistribution of benefits and costs. We propose that the approach we outline for building resilient pathways to transformation is a flexible and credible way of negotiating these challenges.

Acciones colectivas territoriales en Chile, 2011-2013: de lo ambiental-reivindicativo al autonomismo regionalista

In Chile, the last decade has led to an intensification of social conflict, evidenced by an increase in collective action. In this scenario, since 2011 various regional and local issues can be counted among those with a strongest presence in political life and the media, a process evidenced in collective actions. However, although national social sciences have described the escalation in conflicts and reported the existence of a new cycle of State-society relations, there is little research on the characteristics of each of the phenomena taking place along this line. The following article seeks to outline the main regional collective action developed since 2011, with the working hypothesis that within a national framework of regional social conflicts, different phenomena coexist that do not necessarily point to social transformation and the establishment of a new cycle of State-society relations. It is argued that, notwithstanding a politicization of local movements based on plural demands, this process is leading to an anti-centralist and grand narrative in favor of a transformation towards a greater political and financial autonomy of the regions.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP. Linking and leveraging.

Beyond aspiring to become the “next” Silicon Valley, how can a region leverage innovation-driven entrepreneurship for economic and social progress? Given the poor performance of government support for entrepreneurship, should the job be left to the private sector? Moving beyond the traditional public-private debate, the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) ( ) charts a new approach. REAP builds on an ecosystem framework drawing on recent research highlighting distinct, yet interdependent, roles of innovative capacity (the ability to develop new technology), entrepreneurial capacity (the ability to scale startup businesses), and the economic clusters supporting a region. Rather than focus solely on entrepreneurship (as do many government initiatives) or innovation (often focused on increased R&D investment), REAP builds on evidence that successful regions link the two to establish a comparative advantage through innovation-driven startups. MIT REAP's 2-year program brings together regional teams of entrepreneurs; risk-capital, corporate, and university leadership; and government. Although this approach is simple to describe, most regions have found it challenging to link high-level stakeholders for sustained effort (and are often surprised by the many connections that are “missing” from their ecosystem). Teams undertake data-driven, regional diagnoses, including assessing strengths and weaknesses in their regional capacities, and benchmark their ecosystem using our novel methodology for measuring entrepreneurial quality through the use of business registration records and predictive analytics ([ 1 ][1]). These insights are turned into action: Teams aim to catalyze their innovation ecosystem in a measurable and sustainable way and build an organization for ongoing regional collective action. For example, REAP Scotland is leading changes in Scotland's economic-development approach to emphasize entrepreneurial mentoring (an area that had been previously downplayed) and the development of a dynamic network for Scottish entrepreneurs and expatriates (a potential strength that had not previously been leveraged). These initiatives upgrade the region's entrepreneurial capacity in order to match its traditional strength in innovative capacity (see [www.hie.co.uk/business-support/entrepreneurship/mit-reap/][2]). 1. [↵][3]1. J. Guzman, 2. S. Stern , Science 347, 606 (2015). [OpenUrl][4][Abstract/FREE Full Text][5] [1]: #ref-1 [2]: http://www.hie.co.uk/business-support/entrepreneurship/mit-reap/ [3]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [4]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DScience%26rft.stitle%253DScience%26rft.aulast%253DGuzman%26rft.auinit1%253DJ.%26rft.volume%253D347%26rft.issue%253D6222%26rft.spage%253D606%26rft.epage%253D609%26rft.atitle%253DWhere%2Bis%2BSilicon%2BValley%253F%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1126%252Fscience.aaa0201%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F25657229%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [5]: /lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6Mzoic2NpIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjEyOiIzNDcvNjIyMi82MDYiO3M6NDoiYXRvbSI7czoyMzoiL3NjaS8zNDgvNjI0MC8xMjAzLmF0b20iO31zOjg6ImZyYWdtZW50IjtzOjA6IiI7fQ==

Can Payments for Environmental Services Strengthen Social Capital, Encourage Distributional Equity, and Reduce Poverty?

This study examines the relationship between the Mexican payment for environmental services (PES) programme, social capital and collective action, equity in distribution of benefits, and poverty alleviation in a case study in the Sierra Norte region of the state of Oaxaca. We address these issues with a household survey in two communities; and survey and ethnographic data on the six-community organisation - the Natural Resource Committee of the Upper Chinantla (CORENCHI). We suggest that the Mexican common property agrarian system greatly facilitates payments to entire communities of rights holders who then have the potential to build on existing social capital through having to make decisions about the use of their common property. Much of the work on social capital, distributional equity, and poverty alleviation has been theoretical or speculative but our study provides empirical support for part of this work. We find that PES in these communities has strengthened social capital and collective action, including in the emergence of regional collective action in the inter-community organisation. We also find that the PES payments are perceived as fair by the communities because of the high degree of participation in distributional policies, with a modest positive effect on a multidimensional measure of poverty.

Myths and Legends: Exploring Differences in Regional Governance and Collective Action in the North American City

In their 1986 book Goldberg and Mercer find institutional and structural differences between Canadian and American cities attributable to the different ways that political culture has affected the evolution of urban regions. The American preference for individualism and competition, for limited government intervention and for local autonomy have all contributed to a political climate that encourages local government fragmentation and renders formal metropolitan restructuring difficult. This phenomenon is institutionalized in the principle of home rule. These features of the American system are widely cited to explain the relative rarity of metropolitan forms of government. But what of metropolitan governance? New regionalism emerged in response to the challenges of formal government reorganization and is based on the principle that metropolitan coalitions are easier to establish and more flexible than metropolitan reform. This form of regional coordination is more compatible with local autonomy. However, in theory metropolitan collective action may also be more difficult to establish in the American context that privileges individualism and competition. This article is structured around a series of questions: First, is metropolitan governance more difficult to establish in the American context? Second, are certain forms of metropolitan governance more common in each country, reflective of their political cultural and institutional differences? Finally, what do these findings suggest for theory building? Is one theory about the sources and determinants of metropolitan collective action sufficient? This article hypothesizes that despite important differences it is possible to explain the emergence and form of metropolitan governance with a single theoretical framework.

Regional Public Goods in Finance, Trade and Infrastructure

This paper analyzes the potential for regional collective action in Latin America in the areas of finance, trade and infrastructure. Seven priority areas emerge. First, regional cooperation within increasingly important global financial and trade institutions (the G20, the Financial Stability Board, the Basle Committees, the IMF, the WTO, etc) may enhance the influence of the region in the pursuit of its common interests. Second, regional harmonization of financial markets regulations and cooperation in supervision could play a key role in achieving a safer and more efficient financial integration into the global economy. Integration of regional securities and insurance markets and setting up regional catastrophic insurance facilities may also bring significant efficiency gains. Third, some degree of collective pooling of reserves (through a Regional Monetary Fund) would also contribute to a safer and more efficient financial integration. Fourth, completing missing links in the spaghetti-bowl of regional (and extra regional) free trade areas (FTA's), deepening trade liberalization within them and, especially, harmonizing rules of origin and other trade practices under current overlapping FTA's, could render major efficiency benefits. Fifth, given that at present high freight costs are limiting trade expansion (especially intra-regional trade), even more than remaining tariffs and quotas, selected regional transport infrastructure initiatives and harmonization of regulatory frameworks can lead to significant efficiency gains. Cooperation in logistics and in maritime and air transport negotiations can also deliver large benefits. Sixth, regional infrastructure and regulation in telecommunications and energy can also lead to significant efficiency gains. Regional development banks can contribute to set up or strengthen specialized regional institutions required to solve the complex coordination, cost-allocation, financing and conflict resolution problems that are at present limiting regional collective action in these areas.

The two ways of global governance after the financial crisis: Multilateralism versus cooperation among governments

In an ever-more interdependent world economy, the number of global and regional public goods, from financial stability to sustainable growth, quickly increase and call for greater global and regional collective action. This paper tries to understand which mechanisms, if any, have been adopted to achieve a proper degree of international cooperation after the 2008 financial crisis. The analysis shows that the movement toward a new economic global governance is not the result of a single strategy but, rather, an original blend of different solutions enhanced by flexibility and experimentalism. Some of these solutions involve efforts to strengthen multilateral agreements and the effectiveness of supranational institutions and regulatory measures; others aim to develop new forms of cooperation among governments, through a “concerted practice” form of action. Informal contacts and meetings among political leaders and the G-20 summits become the preferred rooms in which to exchange points of view, to coordinate action without assuming legal obligations, and to monitor voluntary compliance. The parallel approval of similar pieces of legislation at the national level signals the willingness of governments to cooperate effectively, while leaving space for opportunistic behaviors.

The Two Ways of Global Governance after the Financial Crisis: Multilateralism vs. Cooperation Among Governments

In a greatly interdependent world economy, the number of global and regional public goods, from financial stability to sustainable growth, quickly increase and call for greater global and regional collective action. This paper tries to understand which mechanisms, if any, have been adopted in order to achieve a proper degree of international cooperation after the 2008 financial crisis. The analysis displays that the move towards a new economic global governance is not the result of a single strategy, but rather an original mix or blend of different solutions enhanced by flexibility and experimentalism. Some of them are an effort to strengthen multilateral agreements and the effectiveness of supranational institutions and regulatory measures; others aim to develop new forms of cooperation among governments, through a «concerted practice» way of action. Informal contacts and meetings among political leaders and the G-20 summits became the preferred rooms to exchange points of view, to coordinate action without assuming legal obligations, to monitor voluntary compliance. The parallel approval of similar pieces of legislation at national level signaled the willingness of governments to effectively cooperate, though leaving space for opportunistic behaviors by some of them.

Overcoming Global and Regional Collective Action Impediments

AbstractAt the outset, the article traces the increased prevalence of transnational collective action to globalization, technological progress, population growth and enhanced surveillance. The article then identifies 15 factors that facilitate successful collective action at the global and regional level. Generally, collective action problems with more of these facilitators are easier to address and, in some instances, will require no explicit policy intervention. By identifying essential facilitators and inhibitors, the article indicates where collective action has either a good or bad prognosis. Thus, scarce policy resources can be directed toward those issues where the prognosis is unfavorable. Much of the article concentrates on spatial considerations, institutional engineering and aggregator technologies. For regional collective action concerns, spatial considerations are particularly important since propinquity and relative location of countries influence how actions of other countries affect social well‐being. Simple institutional designs – cost sharing, thresholds and refunds – can effectively overcome impediments to collective action by making contributors view their net benefits from the viewpoint of the collective. Throughout the article, contrasts are drawn between global and regional collective action. Myriad examples and policy recommendations are offered.Policy Implications Global collective action can differ fundamentally from regional collective action. These differences must inform policy making in addressing collective action impediments. Spatial considerations can play an important role in the underlying incentives motivating regional collective action. Scarce policy‐making resources should be directed at those collective action problems that face the greatest impediments and/or the fewest facilitators – e.g. global warming. The manner in which individual contributions add to the overall amount of the collective action is an essential consideration when designing policies. Simple institutional designs – cost sharing and refunds – can effectively overcome impediments to collective action by aligning countries’ incentives.

Institutional Collective Action, Social Capital and Regional Development Partnership

Fragmented or polycentric systems that create intergovernmental competition have generally been linked to efficiency in the provision of many urban services. This has not been the case for economic development policy. Consolidation and regional approaches are often advocated because development efforts entail both positive and negative externalities and competition is characterized as zero-sum. It is argued that a decentralized system of governments can simultaneously produce the benefits of competition and cooperation in economic development through institutional collective action (ICA) that creates a regional partnership to coordinate local development efforts. Empirical analyses investigate how four dimensions of social capital function as a critical resource to solve regional collective action problems. It is found that both the level of government fragmentation and institutional/relational social capital as evidenced by interlocal service revenues, influence the formation of regional partnerships. Simulations can be used to calculate predicted values for the probability of partnership formation based on the number of local governments in the metro area and interlocal service revenues.

The United States, Japan, and the power to block: the APEC and AMF cases

This paper argues that the evolution of APEC and the rejection of Japan's 1997 AMF proposal reflect a failure of Japanese and US leadership. Not only have the two countries failed to exercise either individual or shared regional leadership. Instead, both have used their considerable structural power negatively to block the other's proposals for regional collective action, rather than positively to exercise leadership. After developing the concepts of leadership and blocking power, the paper provides case studies of the APEC and AMF. It concludes that if a post-hegemonic US no longer has the willingness and/or the ability to undertake collective action single-handedly, and if in a post-Cold War world neither the US nor Japan has sufficient incentives to bridge their differences and sacrifice some interests to achieve a unified stance, then continued stalemate and under-supply of regional collective goods can be expected.

The Ecology of Collective Action and Regional Representation in the European Union

The authors examine the emergence of regional information offices representing (subnational) regions of Europe near the administrative headquarters of the European Union in Brussels. Regional offices are viewed as instances of a new form of organization, and as indicating collective action on the basis of regional boundaries. They develop a theoretical model of regional collective action from which they derive a number of hypotheses relating characteristics of a region to the likelihood of regional collective action, as manifested by the opening of an office in Brussels. Logistic regression analyses of the presence or absence of representation for 183 regions yield results largely consistent with the theoretical model. Significant effects on the likelihood of representation are found for the following variables (directions) : absolute size of the region (positive), size relative to the embedding country (negative), percentage of the labour force in industry (positive), share of Structural Funds per capita (negative), labour force diversity (negative), strength of subnational identification (positive), and regional autonomy (positive). The empirical results are interpreted in the context of the theoretical model of regional collective action, and within the broad European historical context