Social Alliances Research Articles

How Do NPOs Get Funding? A Business Model Perspective Based on the Conversion of Symbolic Capital

Despite intensive research dedicated to both social alliances and business models, a research gap persists with regard to why and how nonprofit organizations (NPOs) choose (or not) to partner with for-profit organizations (FPOs) to obtain funding. By adopting an NPO-centered analysis, this article presents a new framework, based on Bourdieu’s forms of capital. With an explicit consideration of symbolic capital—and the risks of damaging it if the NPO turns to FPOs for funding—the authors explore specific issues related to NPO business models. The empirical test of the framework relies on an original database of 150 nongovernmental organizations with international scope. It reveals four distinct business models (public, civic, opportunistic, and diversified) and demonstrates that a high stock of symbolic capital gives organizations the power to choose and eventually diversify their funding sources, including partnering with select FPOs.

El movimiento obrero organizado ante la ofensiva de la oligarquía financiera

En diciembre de 2015 retornó al gobierno la fuerza social acaudillada por la oligarquía financiera dando continuidad al período contrarrevolucionario iniciado a mediados de la década de 1970 que acompaña el desarrollo del capitalismo predominantemente en profundidad y genera una creciente masa de población sobrante para las necesidades del capital. Ese retorno, en un momento descendente de la lucha de la clase obrera, fue posible por la fractura del movimiento sindical y de la alianza social popular. Los resultados de la política económica del nuevo gobierno fueron una fuerte caída de la actividad productiva, aumento de la desocupación, fuerte inflación con deterioro del salario real e importante crecimiento de la pobreza. Pronto comenzaron las protestas, tanto de la capa más acomodada de la clase obrera como de la más pobre, que en general, y a diferencia de las décadas anteriores, no sólo se movilizaron conjuntamente sino establecieron relaciones orgánicas, a pesar de las numerosas fracciones político-sindicales en que estaban divididas. La resistencia se manifestó en seis huelgas generales y numerosas protestas callejeras entre las que se destaca la de diciembre de 2017, que desbordó el sistema institucional. Las demandas sindicales planteadas apuntaron a reivindicaciones económicas inmediatas (paritarias libres, contra despidos) y contra la política económica del gobierno en general, especialmente contra la implementación de las reformas laboral, jubilatoria y tributaria y el acuerdo con el FMI.

One British Thing: A Manuscript Recipe Book, ca. 1690–1730

AbstractA single eighteenth-century British manuscript recipe book, bound in parchment decorated with gold tooling, can tell us an enormous amount about Britain's gastronomic and imperial ambitions. That is because this book, now known by its call number, V.a.680, and held by the Folger Shakespeare Library, contains recipes like “Indian Pickle,” which included ginger, garlic, cauliflower, mustard, turmeric, and long pepper. How did this distinctly South Asian recipe find its way into a London recipe book? In this essay, we explore how British households engaged with and circulated new ideas about food during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We analyze two remarkable recipes, one for mutton kebabs and another for sago pudding, both brought to Britain through emerging imperial projects. Although one recipe originated in the eastern Mediterranean and the other in Southeast Asia, both were changed and altered to suit British metropolitan tastes. We then examine the book itself as a material object created and altered over time, offering evidence of the ways that seventeenth- and eighteenth-century manuscripts were amended, torn apart, repaired, organized, and ultimately professionalized over multiple generations. As physical testaments to the social alliances and networks of knowledge of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britons, manuscript recipe books were tools of empire, used to appropriate, translate, and transmit the global foodways that permeated Britain's earliest colonial schemes.

The Submissive Relationship of Public Health to Government, Politics, and Economics: How Global Health Diplomacy and Engaged Followership Compromise Humanitarian Relief.

This paper describes efforts by public health practitioners to address a health crisis caused by economic development policies that are unrestrained by either environmental, public health, or human rights mandates. Economic development projects funded by international funding institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank that reduce poverty when measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the transborder region between Suriname and French Guiana harm minority populations where commercial activities destroy, alter, and remove the resources upon which local communities depend. In this study, the structural causes of a community health crisis affecting Indigenous people in the transborder region between Suriname and French Guiana was addressed by seeking gatekeepers in government who have access to policy-making processes. We found that deeply rooted economic development policies structured social, economic, and political alliances and made them resistant to feedback and reform. We concluded that work must be focused beyond the simple exchange of public health information. Public health practitioners must become politically active to create new policy commitments and new patterns of governance that advance development as well as improve health outcomes. Failure to do so may result in public health practitioners becoming ‘engaged followers’ that are complicit in the inhumanity that springs from their acquiescence to the authority of government officials when their policies are the cause of preventable death, disease, and disability.

Adaptive Strategies during Times of Conflict and Transformation: Copiapó Valley under the Spanish Conquest in the Sixteenth Century

AbstractThis article explores the changes and adaptation of warfare strategies in indigenous societies during the Spanish conquest, through a case study of Copiapó valley in northern Chile. Using ethnohistorical and archaeological data, it explores the experiences and actions of collective agents who transformed their warfare practices and social alliances in order to fight for their autonomy and survival. The Copiapó people transformed from a society characterized by low-scale intermittent warfare to one that employed an intensive mode of conflict and developed broader inter-ethnic alliances. Their relative success in this last stage eventually proved to be an effective bargaining tool to negotiate better conditions for their incorporation into the new colonial system.

Lessons from 5 years of GISERA economic research

Scientifically robust analysis of trade-offs for onshore gas activity can inform the design of strategies for socially acceptable and efficient use of energy resources. Here, we present lessons from a portfolio of research spanning three States and different industry stages conducted as part of the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA). Considering the effects of onshore gas development on regional economies, an important lesson is to look at net changes, considering decreases as well as increases in economic activity. In Queensland, where competing claims about employment effects were raised in public debates, measuring reduced agricultural employment in addition to increases to the number of jobs in other sectors were crucial to providing a balanced analysis. Another lesson is to take a broad view of economic dimensions beyond employment and income. Our research shifted the public debate when we demonstrated that the construction phase in Queensland improved youth retention, gender balance and skill levels. Another lesson is that economic effects of gas development (positive or negative) can occur before stakeholders expect them. In New South Wales, we observed that the exploration phase had a significant positive effect on income (but not employment). A further lesson is that effects differ between domestic and export markets. Research from South Australia has demonstrated that the potential regional benefits of gas development substantially depend on meeting the energy needs of other local industries such as manufacturing. These lessons can inform public debate and policy settings and help balance different priorities such as energy needs, regional development and environmental sustainability.

Thinking of the Сhilean Right, 1925—1932

This article explores the rise of Chile’s “Old Right” between 1925 and 1931, especially the economic-entrepreneurial Right and the political Right clustered around the traditional Conservative and Liberal parties. Our hypothesis holds that more than one Right arose during these years, sharing some basic traits but with different derivations: one associated with military President Ibáñez, with strong programmatic influence but no party expression; and another linked to business and traditional politics. These crystallized into the “old” Right: parties and business associations sharing a bellicose political style, ample social alliances, and well-defined programmatic aims (quite distant from the pragmatic flexibility often ascribed to them). In formulating this platform, the influence of the economic Right proved decisive, stamping its imprint for the remainder of the 20th сentury.

Territoriality and the organization of technology during the Last Glacial Maximum in southwestern Europe.

Climate changes that occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) had significant consequences in human eco-dynamics across Europe. Among the most striking impacts are the demographic contraction of modern humans into southern refugia and the potential formation of a population bottleneck. In Iberia and southern France transformations also included the occurrence of significant technological changes, mostly marked by the emergence of a diverse set of bifacially-shaped stone projectiles. The rapid dissemination of bifacial technologies and the geographical circumscription of specific projectile morphologies within these regions have been regarded as evidence for: (1) the existence of a system of long-distance exchange and social alliance networks; (2) the organization of human groups into cultural facies with well-defined stylistic territorial boundaries. However, the degree and modes in which cultural transmission have occurred within these territories, and how it may have influenced other domains of the adaptive systems, remains largely unknown. Using southern Iberia as a case-study, this paper presents the first quantitative approach to the organization of lithic technology and its relationship to hunter-gatherers’ territorial organization during the LGM. Similarities and dissimilarities in the presence of morphological and metric data describing lithic technologies are used as a proxy to explore modes and degrees of cultural transmission. Statistical results show that similarities in technological options are dependent on the chronology and geographical distance between sites and corroborate previous arguments for the organization of LGM settlement in Southern Iberia into discrete eco-cultural facies.

Alliance building and eventful protests: comparing Spanish and Portuguese trajectories under the Great Recession

ABSTRACT Social movement research has shed light on the relationship between processes of alliance building and multiple factors related to political opportunities, framing, identities, networks and resource mobilization. However, less is known about the impact of eventful protests on coalition building dynamics. Drawing on a paired comparison between the Portuguese and Spanish cycles of protest under the Great Recession, we aim at accounting for social movement alliances over time. While these countries present parallel protest dynamics until 2011, after that point two eventful protests lead each country into different trajectories. While the cycle in Portugal was marked by intermittent large protest events dominated by institutional actors, in Spain the peak of mobilization was consistently high between 2011 and 2013. When comparing these cases two factors stand out: the mobilization capacity and the autonomy of new emerging actors vis-à-vis institutional ones. Eventful protests were a key factor in articulating these elements. In Spain, the strength and autonomy of 15M assemblies and anti-austerity actors facilitated the formation of strategic alliances with trade unions. In Portugal, transversal initiatives and sustained alliances did not follow after the Geração à Rasca events. These emerged only later in the cycle, however were nonetheless hampered by overlapping membership and a lack of autonomy from institutional actors. Two original protest event analysis datasets are used to illustrate these arguments.

Fake profiles, trolls, and digital paranoia: digital media practices in breaking the Indignados movement

ABSTRACT While social movement studies have long focused on the formation and dynamics of social movement coalitions and “boundary spanning’, much less attention has been paid to why and how social movement alliances break down and dissolve. Expanding theoretical reflections on the ‘dark side of digital politics’, the current paper bridges critical Internet research and research on movement coalitions and explores how subversive digital media practices deepened existing conflicts within the Indignados movement. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of activists’ texts, I outline the specific digital practices that fuelled the unmaking of the movement: trolling discussions, creating fake profiles in order to infiltrate closed groups, hijacking social media accounts, and manipulating voting systems. On a more general level, the paper analyses also how conflicts between activists have been affected by the possibility to capture and ‘save’ internal discussions and to disseminate snippets of them with the help of screenshots. The use of screenshots as instruments of proof, persuasion and manipulation has become a crucial and often underestimated subversive digital practice in contemporary activism. At the same time, I find that activists have developed strategies to cope with digital subversion and to fix broken connections in the name of new political projects, such as Podemos. Thus, the paper argues first, that technology is political and can be used to dissolve alliances and construct boundaries, and second, that the very notion of the ‘political’ should be enriched to go beyond the friend-enemy distinction and take into account forgiveness and compromise.

Progressive Politics in a Changing World: Challenging the Fallacies of Blue Labour

AbstractIn Britain and across Europe, the social alliances that sustained progressive politics for a century are disintegrating. The financial crisis of 2007–8 showed that Labour and its ‘third way’ European followers had got the economics of modern capitalism wrong. With the mainstream left compromised, it has been the nationalist right that has benefitted, re‐defining politics around issues of nation, culture and identity. What is surprising is the number of influential voices across the centre and left of politics who have accepted much of this far‐right analysis and adopted its language and terminology. These trends, especially post‐Brexit, have crystallised in the UK around the label of ‘Blue Labour’. This article examines the fallacies and flaws of the Blue Labour tendency in four key areas—class, economy, family and race—and suggests alternative ways forward, which seek to forge rather than disrupt alliances between the working class and new social movements.

Wicked webs: business partner networks and silence

This study suggests that researches should look beyond the more often visible positive effects of alliances and social networks, to investigate how wicked webs can develop an efficient corrupted system. Bridging social network and alliances’ areas of research, this theoretical review proposes three pillars to understand and prevent corruption: focus in the internal networks of the firm which decide for corruption, the partners networks and how they are connected to the firm, and the mechanism through which social network prevent people from talking about ethical issues, let alone blow the whistle, creating a snowball effect where corruption is acceptable.

Keeping up alliances: multifaceted values of pottery in eighth- to seventeenth-century eastern Botswana as reconstructed by optical petrography

ABSTRACTMany sites with Zhizo, Leopard's Kopje and Khami pottery have been identified around the southern and eastern margins of Sowa Pan, eastern Botswana. This paper presents results of the analysis of sherds from the three largest such sites — Kaitshàa, Thabadimasego, Tora Nju — plus clay from 39 geological deposits. Sherd fabrics identified by optical petrography reveal that pots were made of clays from several lithological terrains. This suggests associations with other sites. We demonstrate a north-south axis of pottery vessel movements — and thus of people — beginning about AD 900–1000 and extending from sites in the Chobe-Zambezi waterveld along Sowa Pan to Kaitshàa and onward to the Kalahari margins at Bosutswe; a later east-west axis connected Tora Nju with Bosutswe and the Khami regional centre at Domboshaba. Identical sherd fabrics, plus specific vessel design parallels, firmly establish the existence of alliances between these sites. This entailed a network of affiliations between potters whereby each preserved their own socially relevant precepts of potting, including potter-ancestor dynamics, while adapting alterations in new contexts of potting praxis. Sherds should thus be seen in terms of alliances rather than as an indicator merely of commodity-exchange. Our study demonstrates, on the basis of vessel fabric rather than of decorative data, that such interactions routinely took place in Botswana from Zhizo times onward. This paper therefore adds independent insights into studies of social alliance maintenance and pottery style syncretism in pre-colonial southern Africa.

Individual performance in a coopetitive R&D alliance: motivation, opportunity and ability

This study examines individual knowledge sharing in a coopetitive R&D alliance. R&D is increasingly carried out in an R&D alliance setting, where individuals share highly specialized tacit knowledge crossing firm boundaries. A particular challenging setting is the coopetitive R&D alliance, where partner firms partially compete and individuals may leak competitive knowledge. This setting has been studied on the level of the partner firm. We want to deepen insights by examining the individual level. Drawing on the motivation‐opportunity‐ability framework, we study the influence of individuals’ job experience (ability) on their performance in the alliance. We also examine effects of two‐ and three‐way interactions between job experience, a central position in the social alliance network (opportunity) and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We find a positive association of job experience with individual performance, a positive interaction between job experience and extrinsic motivation and a positive three‐way interaction between job experience, central network position and intrinsic motivation, and discuss the impact of these findings.

Social alliances improve rank and fitness in convention-based societies

Social hierarchies are widespread in human and animal societies, and an individual's position in its hierarchy affects both its access to resources and its fitness. Hierarchies are traditionally thought of in terms of variation in individual ability to win fights, but many are structured around arbitrary conventions like nepotistic inheritance rather than such traits as physical strength or weapon size. These convention-based societies are perplexing because position in the hierarchy appears to be gained irrespective of individual physical ability, yet social status strongly affects access to resources and fitness. It remains unclear why individuals abide by seemingly arbitrary conventions regarding social status when they stand to benefit by ignoring these conventions and competing for top positions or access to resources. Using data from wild spotted hyenas collected over 27 y and five generations, we show that individuals who repeatedly form coalitions with their top allies are likely to improve their position in the hierarchy, suggesting that social alliances facilitate revolutionary social change. Using lifetime reproductive success as a fitness measure, we go on to demonstrate that these status changes can have major fitness consequences. Finally, we show that the consequences of these changes may become even more dramatic over multiple generations, as small differences in social rank become amplified over time. This work represents a first step in reconciling the advantages of high status with the appearance of "arbitrary" conventions that structure inequality in animal and human societies.

US policy toward the political movement in the Arab countries Egypt a model

The whole world and the Arab world, especially an important part of this international system, is undergoing a radical transformation at all levels. This mosaic of political, economic, social and military relations and alliances, whether based on the special interests of the major Powers or on the basis of mutual interests, The major transformations to social, economic, political and military conflict and these transformations still bear more surprises, at all levels, nothing remains constant, all changed, relations changed and alliances changed and loyalties fell and the principles of the M changed and the spectacular imperial economies collapsed and the will of the masses was no longer fixed.

Quid pro quo

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the effects of explicit partner brand mentions (as opposed to a mere partnership mention) in communications by brand allies on consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay for an innovation, as mediated by the perceived relational embeddedness of the allies and their respective perceived corporate credibility. In Study 1, the authors investigate the effects of (reciprocal) explicit brand mentions by both allies (as opposed to by a single ally) and further test whether explicit brand mentions moderate spillover effects from the ally. In Study 2, the authors investigate the effect of reciprocity of explicit brand mentions and whether this is moderated by a company’s experience.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct two online experiments. Study 1 (N = 216) is a four-level between-subjects experiment (single communication by Partner A with explicit brand mention, single communication by Partner B with explicit brand mention, explicit brand mentions by both allies and mere partnership mention by both allies) where participants judge a social alliance related to a new tablet. Study 2 (N = 376) builds upon these findings in a 4 (explicit brand mentions by both allies; mere partnership mention by both allies; explicit brand mention by Partner A, mere partnership mention by Partner B; explicit brand mention by partner B, mere partnership mention by Partner A) × 2 (Partner A experience: established vs startup) between-subjects experimental design for a co-created battery.FindingsSpillover effects from one ally to the other are stronger with explicit brand mentions than with a mere partnership mention. There is no added value of two allies communicating over one, provided that both partners explicitly mention their partner brand. However, when allies do communicate separately, it is crucial that an explicit brand mention is reciprocated. This effect is explained by an increase in the perceived relational embeddedness of the partners, which in turn positively influences their corporate credibility. This effect does not differ depending on a company’s experience.Originality/valueThis research is one of the first to study effects of how a brand alliance is communicated and extends previous studies on the effects of communication about brand and co-creation alliances by demonstrating that communications moderate spillover effects, that brand mention reciprocity is crucial, and by introducing the concept of perceived relational embeddedness.

Seasonal changes in social cohesion among males in a same-sex primate group.

Male-male interactions in mixed-sex groups of social mammals are typically characterized by a mix of hostility and affiliation, as a result of inherent conflicts over mating opportunities, and the costs and benefits of social alliances, co-operative behaviors, and coalitionary defense. In species of nonhuman primates that form all-male groups, it is still unclear how the tradeoffs between the benefits of forming an all-male group and the cost of male-male competition in seeking mating opportunities with females in bisexual groups influence social cohesion in different seasons. Here, we used social network analysis to quantify the impact of reproductive seasonality on social cohesion and clique size of bachelor males residing in an all-male unit (AMU) in wild black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti). These primates are strict seasonal breeders and live in a modular social system composed of a number of one-male units (OMUs) and an associated peripheral AMU. We found that the AMU social network had a significantly lower density, centralization, clustering coefficient, and smaller clique size during the mating season compared to the non-mating period. However, aggression among AMU males during both mating and non-mating periods was low. Our results suggest that network structure topology in male same-sex social units is modulated by seasonal changes. Bachelor males engage in two types of competition to gain reproductive success: first, which is analogous to contest competition, in which bachelor males act aggressively and challenge OMU leader males in an attempt to take over an OMU; and second, which is more analogous to scramble competition, in which bachelor males avoid aggressive interactions and instead engage in sneaky copulations with fertile females. Our work adds to an understanding of the maintenance of all-male groups in species that form a multilevel society.

An Examination of Tensions in a Hybrid Collaboration: A Longitudinal Study of an Empty Homes Project

We analyse the tensions in a hybrid collaboration (specifically, a social alliance comprising three social enterprises and a local council) and how these are mitigated using boundary-spanning community impact, leading to compatibility between distinctive institutional logics. Our qualitative longitudinal study undertaken during 2011–2016 involved reviewing literature and archival data, key informant interviews, workshop and focus groups. We analysed common themes within the data, relating to our two research questions concerning how and why hybrids collaborate, and how resulting tensions are mitigated. The findings suggest a viable model of service delivery termed hybridized collaboration in which the inherent tensions from different institutional logics do not prevent success. Paradoxically, multiple logics are a basis for the partnership’s existence, but the ability to achieve different and occasionally conflicting aims simultaneously (including “value for money” and local community benefit) can be difficult, resulting in tensions. We offer two novel insights. First, we highlight how social enterprise hybrids collaborate locally and in multi-organizational relationships. We found that the initial opportunity to collaborate was catalysed by the existence of shared objectives (to address housing need and unemployment). Pre-existing relationships between organizations, and the existence of synergistic capabilities also influence the choice of partners. Secondly, we identify how tensions arise (from differences in organizational size and available resources; ambitions for growth; and issues related to values and ethics), and are mitigated via several factors including the pre-existing relationships, allowing for regular “spaces of negotiation” between collaborators, the shared social mission, community social impact, the resulting public relations, and shared resources and knowledge.

Bottlenose Dolphins Retain Individual Vocal Labels in Multi-level Alliances

Cooperation between allied individuals and groupsis ubiquitous in human societies, and vocal communication is known to play a key role in facilitating such complex human behaviors [1, 2]. In fact, complex communication may be a feature of the kind of social cognition required for the formation of social alliances, facilitating both partner choice and the execution of coordinated behaviors [3]. As such, a compelling avenue for investigation is what role flexible communication systems play in the formation and maintenance of cooperative partnerships in other alliance-forming animals. Male bottlenose dolphins in some populations form complex multi-level alliances, where individuals cooperate in the pursuit and defense of an important resource: access to females [4]. These strong relationships can last for decades and are critical to each male's reproductive success [4]. Convergent vocal accommodation is used to signal social proximity to a partner or social group in many taxa [5, 6], and it has long been thought that allied male dolphins also converge onto a shared signal to broadcast alliance identity [5-8]. Here, we combine a decade of data on social interactions with dyadic relatedness estimates to show that male dolphins that form multi-level alliances in an open social network retain individual vocal labels that are distinct from those of their allies. Our results differ from earlier reports of signature whistle convergence among males that form stablealliance pairs. Instead, they suggest that individual vocal labels play a central role in the maintenance of differentiated relationships within complex nested alliances.