Space For Collective Action Research Articles

Nature-issues: Ecosystem restoration as a reorganiser of social–material relations

Ecosystem restoration initiatives present natures as intervention-requiring problems. However, not all stakeholders may be able to recognise and relate to the issues that motivate restoration. Instead, they may put forward alternative understandings of natures as problematic issues in need of management and collective action. Therefore, ecosystem restoration can turn generative into new forms of publics that are brought together – and drawn apart – by distinctive configurations of nature-issues. This paper analyses such a reorganisation by focusing on three restoration projects carried out in Finland. The projects sought to engage farmers in restoring agricultural streams while proposing the practice of stream restoration as an extensive ecosystem revitalisation. In the studied cases, farmers could become attentive to the potential of stream habitats to develop into viable and rich ecosystems, while their neighbours only showed interest in improving the drainage functions of streams. The restoration initiatives generated connectedness between farmers, streams habitats and the restoration projects, but also disconnectedness between natures and publics. The possibilities of the studied projects to carry out their restoration plans rested mostly on the specification of the restoration plans as a means to manage ontological differences. The findings indicate that instead of promoting ecosystem restoration as a tightly coupled practice, it can be useful to generate space for collective action that unfolds in terms of partially different natures and nature-issues.

Understanding resilience in sustainable development: Rallying call or siren song?

AbstractThis article asks how the concept of resilience has been used in development studies. Set amidst the rise of resilience in sustainable development, it offers insights for scholars and policymakers, alike. Sampling 419 journal articles from 2017 to 2022, it uses Kuhnian paradigms to analyse development knowledge production on resilience. This produces three key findings. First is the absence of a coherent resilience paradigm (with shared definitions, problems and methods) in development studies. Second is its use, instead, by incumbent development paradigms in piecemeal fashion to extend and/or repackage pre‐existing arguments. Third are ensuing possibilities for resilience as both a rallying call and siren song in sustainable development. Ultimately, resilience‐based research and policy discourses open vital space for collective action across interdisciplinary and international divides. However, a lack of critical awareness of its non‐uniform use can produce more harm than help. If the language of resilience is to advance collective prospects for development cooperation and climate action, then it will help to know precisely what we each are talking about.

The Role of Online Media in Mobilizing Large-Scale Collective Action

This study investigates the role of online media in mobilizing large-scale collective action. Adopting the theoretical framework of collective action space, we formulated the organizing process of collective action into a model with two dimensions—hierarchy and closure—and analyzed how they influence mobilization. The model was tested against Twitter data collected during the 2020 Hong Kong protest, including a total of 54,365 tweets posted by 14,706 distinct users between 1 May and 31 May 2020. Social networks analysis metrics— k-coreness and brokerage of individual users in their following networks—were employed to quantify the organizing process of the protest and estimate their effects on message virality. The results showed that messages generated by users who occupied peripheral positions (i.e., lower k-coreness) and by those connecting others within closed communities (i.e., lower brokerage) were more likely to diffuse than those generated by central users or those who bridged different communities. That is, online media facilitate mobilization in a decentralized yet fragmented fashion. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the current findings and suggests the directions for future research on collective action on online media.

Tecnología aplicada a un modelo agroecológico para fomentar la cultura de la sustentabilidad en el TECMM, campus Puerto Vallarta

This is a project that aims to be a collective academic space for learning and research to strengthen processes of social activation linked to the management of the territory, the use of natural resources, the use of renewable energy and automation. It is to make the school a space for collective action in search of sustainability. The objective is to take advantage of the land, not yet built, of the José Mario Molina Pasquel y Henríquez Technological Institute, Campus Puerto Vallarta (TecMM, campus PV,) for organic planting, by integrating technological practices of sustainable management, promoting an experience of productive learning and community participation. The project has two approaches: educational and social. This investigation comprises, so far, two stages. The first stage was the manufacture of an automated hydroponic greenhouse for the ecology department of the Puerto Vallarta City Council. The second stage, currently under development, consists of implementing technology and automated mechanisms for farmland, proposes the total immersion of engineering for the interaction of man with nature. Relentlessly seeking, and accepting as our greatest challenge, the maximum use of resources, without neglecting the correct operation.

ISCTE-IUL 2019 International Conference: Social Solidarity Economy and the Commons - Contributions to the Deepening of Democracy

The international conference i?½Social Solidarity Economy and the Commons - Contributions to the Deepening of Democracyi?½ was held on November 6th-8th 2019 at the Instituto Universiti?½rio de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon (Portugal). Its aim was to promote dialogue and exchanges of knowledge and experience among academics, practitioners and civil society activists about new governance models of the commons and the necessity to find alternative or complementary socio-economic development paradigms based on new spaces for collective action to re-establish social ties and build new life and work opportunities. This short report, included in the JEOD i?½Conference letteri?½ section, retraces and briefly illustrates the main findings emerged during the conference.

Carving out space for collective action: a study on how girls respond to everyday stressors within leisure participation

ABSTRACT Purpose: Stress and achievement pressure constitute factors affecting young people’s mental health, especially among girls. Leisure participation holds the potential to be a collective space where young people can respond to stressors together. This study explores how girls collectively construct responses to daily stressors within the context of leisure participation. Methods: Nine focus groups were conducted with 16 girls aged 14–21 who were active members in two sport organizations in northern Sweden. Data was collected by using participatory observations and photo-elicited focus group discussions. Results: Our findings from the inductive thematic analysis were interpreted by combining the stress process model with social practice theory, resulting in three subthemes or responses: sharing sites of responsibility, resisting norms related to (gendered) youth and focused distraction. The subthemes were abstracted into the central theme of trustful belonging as a resource for collective responses, representing what pre-conditions need to be in place to make the responses possible. Conclusion: Leisure participation is an important relational space for young people to respond to stressors by making use of everyday routines, and the agency these social practices hold. However, the effort needed to respond to these stressors brought additional pressure in terms of responsibilities, and achievements.

Tenth Anniversary Edition of Partecipazione e Conflitto.

PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO [Participation and Conflict] was created in 2008, the first journal in Italy to specialize in work analyzing political and social participation. The journal was to be open to interdisciplinary work, internationally oriented, and founded on rigorous criteria for review. 10 years later in 2018, we believe we have respected that aim. In Italy, PaCo is a touchstone for work on contentious politics, political participation and grassroots mobilization in Europe, and is steadily becoming more and more international. In the introduction to our first issue we described the journal as “an ambitious project born of the need to create an autonomous arena for debate dedicated to the study of the dynamics of transformation of contemporary political systems, with a specific focus on the analysis of participation and the political and social conflicts that characterize this. A journal not only about participation, but about political and social studies that place aspects of participation at their core, in all their intrinsic ambivalences, in their constitutive link to the dynamics of conflict”. We invited research and studies that focused on the transformations of politics and its principal actors: parties, interest groups, trade unions, social movements, associations, sub-cultural and counter-cultural communities, citizens’ committees and other forms of more or less formally organized actors “from below”. We sought work that investigated the processes of democratization and new forms of democratic participation in a participatory vein, but also on the ways in which spaces for collective action were being squeezed, and dynamics of identity closure; on spaces opening up or closing down, on new forms of governance at local, national or supranational level, without forgetting those forms of participation and conflict that challenge, in more or less radical ways, the political, social, economic and cultural foundations of contemporary societies.

The social networks of cyberfeminism in Spain: identity and action repertoires

This article explores the daily activity of the cyberfeminist communities in Spain from the study of social media as spaces for identity formation and repertoires of political action. Starting from the analytical framework of social movements, cyberfeminism and its relationship with technologies, the article tries to understand the use of digital spaces for collective action. From the foundations of virtual ethnography, four reference communities on Facebook are analyzed (according to institutionality and existence of offline base) to assess how discourses against gender violence are articulated, as well as the participation and groupings that coexist in these platforms. As a result, six different effects are identified in the communication of these digital groups, concluding that their deliberative dimension regarding gender violence is scarce and insufficient in the era of Web 2.0.

Making supply networks more sustainable ‘together’: the role of meta-organisations

ABSTRACTWe investigate the role of multi-stakeholder meta-organisations (MO) in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Through an exploratory case study on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), we contribute to extant SSCM literature by highlighting how sustainability principles emerge in a collective space (roundtable) and then are diffused along and across palm oil supply network, involving direct actors in the palm oil supply network, such as producers and traders, but also manufacturing companies from several industries and sectors. The presence of an MO in the supply chain may change the environment for its members, creating a space for collective action and cooperation. However, some bias in the MO’s governance and decision-making mechanism may limit the positive contribution to SSCM.

Modelling free social spaces and the diffusion of social mobilization

Free social spaces have long been emphasized in the social movement literature. Under names such as safe spaces, social havens, and counterpublics, they have been characterized as protective shelters against prevailing hegemonic ideologies and as hubs for the diffusion of ideas and ideologies. However, the vast literature on these spaces has predominantly focused on internal dynamics and processes, thus neglecting how they relate to the diffusion of collective mobilization. Inspired by formal modeling in collective action research, we develop a network model to investigate how the structural properties of free social spaces impact the diffusion of collective mobilization. Our results show that the assumption of clustering is enough for structural effects to emerge, and that clustering furthermore interacts synergistically with political deviance. This indicates that it is not only internal dynamics that play a role in the relevance of free social spaces for collective action. Our approach also illustrates how formal modeling can deepen our understanding of diffusion processes in collective mobilizations through analysis of emergent structural effects.

Re-positioning female heterosexuality within postfeminist and neoliberal culture

Contemporary western societies are characterised by a new sexual permissiveness, within which sexualised culture has become normalised and mainstreamed. Situated in this new social landscape, and drawing on postfeminist and neoliberal discourses and dominant constructions of heterosexuality, this article critically examines the impact of these constructions on women’s sexual health in its broadest sense, encompassing physical, mental and social well-being. I argue that dominant discourses of heterosexuality are viewed through a postfeminist and neoliberal lens that both obscures the sexist nature of contemporary culture and transforms, repackages and feeds this sexism back to women as their own choice and as a representation of empowerment; and as such, contemporary constructions of women’s sexuality and bodies are deeply problematic, and pose serious risks to women’s sexual health. To address these issues, not only do we need to develop critical media literacy skills, but we also must open up spaces for collective action and push against the existing sexist culture to allow for alternative discourses and understandings to emerge.

Transformation of collective action space: A study on the relationship between organizational attributes and ICT use

Abstract The aim of this article is to investigate the potential influence of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the organizational structures of entities in contemporary collective action space. In order to do so, the article adopts the collective action space model offered by Bimber, Flanagin and Stohl to analyse the relationship between communicational activities and the organizational characteristics of four different organizations that were actively involved in the Gezi Movement (2013) in Turkey. Specifically, using data collected through in-depth interviews and participant observations, the article focuses on the engagement structures and interaction forms of these four organizations. The findings from this study suggest not only that ICTs allow organizations to become more structurally complex and dynamic but also that the manner in which ICTs are used for interactions and governance plays a critical role in the transformation of the structure of organizations in collective action space.

Frictions as opportunity: mobilizing for Arab-Bedouin ethnic rights in Israel

The question of how to advance justice for indigenous or marginalized ethnic groups leads to the heart of a polarized debate. We find a widely diffused ‘right to culture’ stance on one hand and a critical, constructivist one on the other. By taking up Tsing's metaphor of ‘zones of friction’, (2005) this article follows the way in which voices and imaginations about Bedouin culture and rights are produced in the conflict over a piece of land in the Negev desert, which is contested between the Israeli authorities and Bedouin representatives. As an imagined inhabitant of the area, ordinary citizens such as Mustafa are fashioned by activists and political tourists in highly culturalist or romanticized ways – images that are distant from the shifting self-representations of Mustafa himself. This case shows how the current emphasis on the ‘right to culture’ creates both new sites of contestation and new spaces for collective action.

Fragmentation of the collective action space: the animal rights movement in Poland

In Poland, legacies of the communist past interact with contemporary domestic opportunity structures, conditioning and shaping the forms of action of the country's animal rights movement. The resulting ‘NGO-isation’ of civil society impedes effective collective action, with animal rights activists' engagement channelled towards ‘animal charity’ and service provision rather than more political strategies or disruptive forms of protest. Faced with an unfavourable political opportunity structure, the Polish animal rights movement has, moreover, opted for judicial activism and education instead of politics to achieve its ends. To understand the organisational fragmentation of the ‘collective action space’, the article suggests, the notion of ‘opportunity structures’ must be broadened to capture how the interplay between different types of opportunity structures affects action.

Nonparametric probability bounds for Nash equilibrium actions in a simultaneous discrete game

We study a simultaneous, complete-information game played by p = 1 P agents. Each p has an ordinal decision variable Yp ∈ Ap = {0 1 Mp }, where Mp can be unbounded, Ap is p’s action space, and each element in Ap is an ac- tion, that is, a potential value for Yp . The collective action space is the Cartesian product A = P Ap . A profile of actions y ∈ A is a Nash equilibrium (NE) pro- p=1 file if y is played with positive probability in some existing NE. Assuming that we observe NE behavior in the data, we characterize bounds for the probability that a prespecified y in A is a NE profile. Comparing the resulting upper bound with Pr[Y = y] (where Y is the observed outcome of the game), we also obtain a lower bound for the probability that the underlying equilibrium selection mechanism ME chooses a NE where y is played given that such a NE exists. Our bounds are nonparametric, and they rely on shape restrictions on payoff functions and on the assumption that the researcher has ex ante knowledge about the direction of strategic interaction (e.g., that for q = p, higher values of Yq reduce p’s payoffs). Our results allow us to investigate whether certain action profiles in A are scarcely observed as outcomes in the data because they are rarely NE profiles or because ME rarely selects such NE. Our empirical illustration is a multiple entry game played by Home Depot and Lowe’s. Keywords. Ordered response game, nonparametric identification, bounds, entry models. JEL classification. C14, C35, C71.

Political space in Vietnam: a view from the ‘rice-roots'

Single-party, authoritarian states such as Vietnam are frequently characterised as having ‘closed’ political opportunity structures and ‘un-free’ socio-political systems. The validity of this observation depends, however, on the viewer's frame of reference. Seen from the perspective of active citizens, Vietnamese political structures offer increasingly greater space for collective action than a state-centred institutional analysis would predict. Episodes of contentious politics surrounding land disputes and public parks during 2007 provide evidence of the changing dynamics of participation in politics. Actors involved in these and similar campaigns are broadly optimistic about the future prospects for an opening of political space within the existing system. These findings are contrasted with international reports of violations of political rights and with the Vietnamese government's own efforts at legal reform. Although signals remain mixed, to some extent Vietnam might be becoming a ‘rice-roots democracy’ in practice, while remaining a single-party state. The voices and experiences of civil society actors will continue to shape opportunities and risks in the expansion of political space.

Blogging the Writers Strike: Identity, Interaction and Engagement for Collective Action

This study examines the role of weblogs as sites for negotiating collective identity, arguing that strategic deployment of blogs may encourage greater identification with collective actions by a wider variety of individuals. This case study of the Writers Guild of America blog United Hollywood, shows that its structure and publication policies were successful in mobilising a variety of stakeholders to identify as a collective. Qualitative analysis of form and content suggests that the communality provided by the blog allowed the WGA to leverage benefits of traditional institutional collective action space and to augment these with benefits provided by hybrid forms of online organisation.

Reach Out and Touch Somebody: The Ecology of New Media and New Social Movements in Jordan

After the attacks on Gaza in December 2008, a group of bloggers and journalists got together to plan a food and clothing donation drive to help alleviate the suffering. Despite using new media tools extensively for our activism and social lives, none of us could have imagined what happened next. How did a small group of bloggers and journalists release the generosity of Jordanians, turning a 48-hour campaign to collect food and clothing into a large-scale operation that lasted for the duration of the Gaza offensive? This paper examines this example, and maps the new media ecology that enabled the campaign. A new media ecology is developing in Jordan, one that’s offering an ever-growing number of people an opportunity to express their opinions, and creating greater space for collective action and social change. On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a series of attacks on the Gaza Strip. The next day, the staff of 7iber.com met to discuss how we could respond. We had already been working with a number of new media tools and experimenting with ways to engage the growing number of digitized readers, and were looking for a project that could serve as a trial run. Unfortunately, it came in the form of death and destruction.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Gender and Employment: A Global Lens on Feminist Analyses and Theorizing of Labor Markets

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Gender and Employment: A Global Lens on Feminist Analyses and Theorizing of Labor Markets

‘You’re In Oil Country’: Moral Tales of Citizen Action against Petroleum Development in Alberta, Canada

The Canadian province of Alberta has experienced phenomenal growth in its oil and gas industry. As the petroleum–industrial complex expands it has sparked a number of community-based conflicts over noxious facilities that are seen by some to be the cause of a number of health problems. The research reported here used two case studies to examine siting conflicts involving natural gas extraction facilities in rural Alberta. We found that the stories shared by citizens involved in these conflicts functioned as ‘moral tales’. These moral tales were political in the way they challenged implicit and institutionalized rationales for redistributing benefits and burdens of oil and gas development. They also created a space for collective action by articulating spatial transgressions and by constructing a type of moral citizenship.