Support For Collective Action Research Articles

The collective redress action in the Italian legal system

This paper focuses on the key choices of the recent Italian legislation on collective redress actions (azioni collettive risarcitorie). The rules provided for by Article 140-bis codice del consumo (Consumer Code) can be considered only a starting point of a modern regulation in this field (see Sects. 1, 2, 4). Indeed, Art. 140-bis shows several regulatory flaws (see Sect. 3 for the lack of special rules on financial support for collective actions, Sect. 8 for issues relating to the opt-in approach, Sect. 9 for the prerequisites concerning the admissibility of the collective action, Sect. 10 for the publicity of collective actions, Sect. 11 for the contents of the judgment), although it sets out some noteworthy key issues (see Sect. 5 for standing, Sect. 6 for the opt-in approach, Sect. 12 for collective settlement). The Italian legislation on collective redress actions in the field of consumer protection certainly requires some improvements (see Sect. 7 on a de lege ferenda ‘dual system’). However, it can be considered a step forward in the right direction (see Sect. 13).

“Flowers From the Same Soil”

This article examines the effects of collective action on the development of Latino ethnic solidarity among immigrant, naturalized, and U.S.-born Latinos. The article reveals how ethnic solidarity came about from the perspective and with the help of grassroots organizers who coordinated the 2006 immigrant rights mobilizations. Through 55 interviews with grassroots organizers from immigrant and Latino rights groups, elected officials, and union and religious leaders throughout Colorado, it is shown that the immigrant rights marches strengthened a sense of ethnic solidarity among immigrant and native-born Latinos as the latter came to realize that they, too, were becoming targets of anti-immigrant rhetoric that became more pervasive in the midst of the immigration debate. The interview data show that the renewed sense of ethnic solidarity served to foment support for collective action. By building on prior work addressing the determinants of ethnic solidarity and collective action, these findings reveal the potential for organizers and political leaders to emphasize common goals among Latinos rather than ethnic, political, and class-based cleavages that are often the topic of political discourse.

The resilience and sustainability of local wetland management institutions in Illubabor and Western Wellega, Ethiopia

Local community based institutions that coordinate the management of natural resources have been linked to socioecological resilience, adaptation and sustainability within rural livelihood systems throughout the developing world. The resilience and sustainability of related local institutions, however, is influenced by their relationship with external actors and institutions, particularly in facilitating, supporting or hindering local institutional arrangements. From this standpoint, this paper examines the case of local community based institutions involved in wetland management in western Ethiopia. Drawing upon the findings of participatory fieldwork undertaken in eight wetland‐using communities of Illubabor and Western Wellega zones in Oromia Region it is argued that although local institutions do play a key role in coordinating wetland management and sustaining the benefits from wetlands, the sustainability and resilience of the institutions themselves is threatened by a range of factors. Despite their grassroots nature, their effectiveness is influenced by their reliance on local government backstopping that appears to have diminished in recent years, as well as a perceived lack of local government support for collective action over individual rights.

Is Environmentally Friendly Agriculture Less Profitable for Farmers? Evidence on Integrated Pest Management in Bangladesh

Concerns about the sustainability of conventional agriculture have prompted widespread introduction of integrated pest management (IPM), an ecologically-based approach to control of harmful insects and weeds. IPM is intended to reduce ecological and health damage from chemical pesticides by using natural parasites and predators to control pest populations. Since chemical pesticides are expensive for poor farmers, IPM offers the prospect of lower production costs and higher profitability. However, adoption of IPM may reduce profitability if it also lowers overall productivity, or induces more intensive use of other production factors. On the other hand, IPM may actually promote more productive farming by encouraging more skillful use of available resources. Data scarcity has hindered a full accounting of IPM's impact on profitability, health, and local ecosystems. Using new survey data, the authors attempt such an accounting for rice farmers in Bangladesh. They compare outcomes for farming with IPM and conventional techniques, using input-use accounting, conventional production functions, and frontier production estimation. All of their results suggest that the productivity of IPM rice farming is not significantly different from the productivity of conventional farming. Since IPM reduces pesticide costs with no countervailing loss in production, it appears to be more profitable than conventional rice farming. The interview results also suggest substantial health and ecological benefits. However, externality problems make it difficult for farmers to adopt IPM individually. Without collective adoption, neighbors' continued reliance on chemicals to kill pests will also kill helpful parasites and predators, as well as exposing IPM farmers and local ecosystems to chemical spillovers from adjoining fields. Successful IPM adoption may therefore depend on institutional support for collective action.

Collective action and post-communist enterprise: The economic logic of Russia's business associations

Drawing on a unique set of surveys, this article explores the question of whether Russia's post-communist business associations are generally antithetical to or supportive of the broad objectives of economic restructuring. Contrary to the most widely cited analysis as to the purposes of collective action in the business community, the survey evidence demonstrates that association members have embraced market-adapting forms of behaviour at greater rates than non-members. The responses of both firms and associations, moreover, suggest that the associations themselves are, at least in part, directly responsible. These findings point to the conclusion that in contemporary Russia the net returns to collective action in support of market development are high relative to those for purposes that are less supportive.

Using Theory to Understand Public Support for Collective Actions that Impact the Environment: Alleviating Water Supply Problems in a Nonarid Biome*

Objectives. There is increasing public debate over how to meet future water supply needs in historically water‐abundant areas such as the American southeast. Citizens, policymakers, and others are struggling to find ways to meet these needs and to design political strategies for implementing them. This article examines water supply problems facing many communities in the southeast and how social theory can be used to better understand public support for collective actions designed to alleviate them. It presents a framework synthesizing recent work of Dunlap and Jones on the conceptual foundations of environmental concern research with Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action in order to understand public support for building a dam to meet local water supply needs.Methods. The linkages postulated by the model were empirically tested using mail‐survey data obtained from a random sample of 433 adult residents of Cumberland County, Tennessee.Results. Results demonstrate that public support for building the dam is weak.Conclusion. Knowledge of public beliefs, norms, and attitudes about its construction and potential impact, however, can provide policymakers, natural resource professionals, and local stakeholder groups with a solid understanding of why residents support, oppose, or are unsure about building a dam to alleviate water supply problems in this county.

Collective Action and Post-Communist Enterprise: The Economic Logic of Russia's Business Associations

Drawing on a unique set of surveys, this article explores the question of whether Russia’s post-communist business associations are generally antithetical to or supportive of the broad objectives of economic restructuring. Contrary to the most widely cited analysis as to the purposes of collective action in the business community, the survey evidence demonstrates that association members have embraced market-adapting behaviors at greater rates than non-members. The responses of both firms and associations, moreover, suggest that the associations themselves may, at least in part, be directly responsible. These findings point to the conclusion that in contemporary Russia the net returns to collective action in support of market development are high relative to those for purposes that are less benign.

Collective Action and Post-Communist Enterprise: The Economic Logic of Russia's Business Associations

Drawing on a unique set of surveys, this article explores the question of whether Russia's post-communist business associations are generally antithetical to or supportive of the broad objectives of economic restructuring. Contrary to the most widely cited analysis as to the purposes of collective action in the business community, the survey evidence demonstrates that association members have embraced market-adapting behaviors at greater rates than non-members. The responses of both firms and associations, moreover, suggest that the associations themselves are, at least in part, directly responsible. These findings point to the conclusion that in contemporary Russia the net returns to collective action in support of market development are high relative to those for purposes that are less benign.

What Benefits the Group Can Also Benefit the Individual: Group-Enhancing and Individual-Enhancing Motives for Collective Action

Most collective action research focuses on how concerns for the welfare of one's group can motivate support for collective action. By contrast, little research has examined how motivations for enhancing oneself as an individual may also predict support for collective action, and how these motivations relate to feelings of identification with one's group. This research tests whether motivations for individual enhancement can predict support for collective action, beyond what can be predicted by motivations for group enhancement. With an undergraduate sample, Study 1 shows that individual enhancement significantly predicts interest and involvement in collective action beyond what can be predicted by concerns for group enhancement. Study 2 replicates these findings in a community sample of women, while also demonstrating that the motivation for individual enhancement mediates the relationship between group identification and collective action. Implications of these findings for future research on collective action are discussed.

A SIGNALING MODEL OF COMPETITIVE POLITICAL PRESSURES

This paper models competitive political pressures as a signaling phenomenon. People participate in collective action in support of or against the status quo, or they abstain. Their actions and abstentions inform the decision of a policymaker who may overturn the status quo in favor of a policy alternative. By providing an informational microfoundation for the widely used reduced‐form “pressure production functions” and “political influence functions,” the analysis allows me to reexamine the role of the free rider problem in creating a bias towards vocal special interests.The signaling hypothesis finds empirical support with a study of pro‐ and anti‐Gulf War demonstrations that took place in San Francisco and Kansas City (Missouri) in early 1991.

Women's Participation in Central American Revolutions

Evidence from Nicaragua and El Salvador indicates that substantial numbers of women from humble backgrounds have participated in those nations' guerrilla armies, and not simply in support roles but as combat soldiers as well. This article analyzes the dynamics of societal change by which nonelite women are mobilized for participation in guerrilla insurgencies. The rapid social, economic, and demographic changes that accompany dependent modes of development erode the stability of rural social structures and contribute to male spouse abandonment of the family. Impoverished female heads of households have become involved in grass roots organizations whose programs address their immediate economic distress and mobilize them for collective action in support of economic and political reforms. When the regime represses this political activism, it seldom discriminates between males and females in the application of repression. Faced with the threat of violence, women have joined insurgent organizations that promise, if nothing else, security from state repression.

Does Waged Domestic Labor Have a Future?

Loosely linked by their subject?the institution of domestic service?these four volumes are very different in substance and approach. Chronologically, they span a period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present; geographically, they examine the institution in Latin America, the United States, and Africa; concep tually, they draw on Freudian and object-relations theory, Marxist theory, cultural anthropology, and social history. Nevertheless, all four books share some common concerns. Among these are attention to patterns of continuity and change in forms of inequality by race, gender, and class; an effort to focus as much as possible on real people and their everyday lives by incorporating personal documents (letters, diaries, and oral history) and institutional records; emphasis on variation and difference (sometimes to the point of indeterminacy) rather than on typical cases; reflection on the complexity of employer-servant social relations; and, finally, the possibility of servants' organizing, their resistance to oppression, and collective action in support of their interests. House and street sums up the setting of Sandra Lauderdale Graham's case study of dirty, unhealthy Rio de Janeiro's socially mixed, hierarchically organized civil society from about 1850 to 1910. The contrast here is between the security and privacy of the middleor upper-class house and its household, and the teeming streets of slaves and the poor. Graham considers only women servants (an increasingly large majority during this period), an occupational category that included both slaves and free workers, until the completion of emancipation in 1889; live-in chambermaids, wet nurses, and cooks; and live-out water carriers, laundresses, and seamstresses. Servants were the largest single female occupation al group, accounting for well over half the women workers throughout the period.