scholarly journals On the preconditions for large-scale collective action

AMBIO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 1282-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sverker C. Jagers ◽  
Niklas Harring ◽  
Åsa Löfgren ◽  
Martin Sjöstedt ◽  
Francisco Alpizar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Collective Action Problems

Abstract The phenomenon of collective action and the origin of collective action problems have been extensively and systematically studied in the social sciences. Yet, while we have substantial knowledge about the factors promoting collective action at the local level, we know far less about how these insights travel to large-scale collective action problems. Such problems, however, are at the heart of humanity’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, large-scale natural resource depletion, biodiversity loss, nuclear proliferation, antibiotic resistance due to overconsumption of antibiotics, and pollution. In this paper, we suggest an analytical framework that captures the theoretical understanding of preconditions for large-scale collective action. This analytical framework aims at supporting future empirical analyses of how to cope with and overcome larger-scale collective action problems. More specifically, we (i) define and describe the main characteristics of a large-scale collective action problem and (ii) explain why voluntary and, in particular, spontaneous large-scale collective action among individual actors becomes more improbable as the collective action problem becomes larger, thus demanding interventions by an external authority (a third party) for such action to be generated. Based on this, we (iii) outline an analytical framework that illustrates the connection between third-party interventions and large-scale collective action. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research.

Protecting Vulnerable Languages

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Alan Patten
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Extensive Range ◽  
The Right

This chapter explores an important but understudied argument in favor of protections for vulnerable languages. The argument observes that speakers of such languages can face a collective action problem. The question is what interventions by the state to correct such a problem would be consistent with, or even required by, a broadly liberal and egalitarian conception of justice. The chapter identifies two principles that are relevant to answering this question: the unanimity principle, which places strict limits on interventions, and the principle of correction, which licenses a more extensive range of interventions on behalf of vulnerable languages. The principles are in tension with one another but derive from a common source in liberal egalitarian thought. Overall, the right approach is to forge a compromise between the two principles, thus allowing for some interventions on behalf of vulnerable languages to protect against collective action problems.

scholarly journals Return to the Isle of Ted: Simulating the Collective Action Problem of Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-555
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Sage Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Common Pool Resource ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Commons

ABSTRACTThis article modifies the classic “Isle of Ted” simulation to teach students about the collective action problems associated with climate change. Modifications include the introduction of a common-pool resource (i.e., fish) and increased pirate attacks to model rising climate threats and unequal distribution of risk. A return to the Isle of Ted enables a deeper engagement with specific collective action problems of climate change, including the tragedy of the commons and issues of global inequality. This article provides a road map for the incorporation of this modified simulation into active-learning classrooms.

Sustainable community movement organisations

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Forno ◽  
Paolo R Graziano
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sustainable Community ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Community Movement

In the current economic crisis, social movements are simultaneously facing two types of challenges: first, they are confronting institutions which are less able (or willing) to mediate new demands for social justice and equity emerging from various sectors of society, and second, given the highly individualised structure of contemporary society, they are also experiencing difficulties in building bonds of solidarity and cooperation among people, bonds which are a fundamental resource for collective action. It is in this context that protests waves, which may be very relevant, are in fact often short-lived, and it is in this context that we detect the rise and consolidation of new mutualistic and cooperative experiences within which (similarly to the past) new ties and frames for collective action are created. This article discusses and analyses social movement organisations which focus on both the intensification of economic problems and the difficulties of rebuilding social bonds and solidarity within society, emphasising solidarity and the use of ‘alternative’ forms of consumption as means to re-embed the economic system within social relations, starting from the local level. While discussing what is new and/or what has been renewed in new Sustainable Community Movement Organisations, the article will develop an analytical framework which will combine social movements and political consumerism theories by focusing on two basic dimensions: consumer culture and identity and organisational resources and repertoire of action.

scholarly journals An open code pledge for the neuroscience community

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cooper Smout ◽  
Dawn Liu Holford ◽  
Kelly Garner ◽  
ruddy manuel illanes beyuma ◽  
Paula Andrea Martinez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Research Community ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Community Project ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Neuroscience Community

Sharing of research code would greatly benefit neuroscience, but this practice is hampered by a collective action problem. Since the development of the internet, conditional pledge platforms (e.g., Kickstarter) have increasingly been used to solve globally-dispersed collective action problems (Hallam, 2016). However, this strategy has yet to be implemented within academia. In this brief paper, we introduce a general purpose conditional pledge platform for the research community: Project Free Our Knowledge. We highlight a new conditional pledge campaign that was initiated at Brainhack 2021 and aims to motivate a critical mass of neuroscientists to share their research code. Crucially, this commitment activates only when a user-defined threshold of support is reached. We conclude by sharing our vision for how the research community could use collective action campaigns to create a sustained, evidence-based movement for social change in academia.

scholarly journals Dynamics of collective action to conserve a large common-pool resource

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Andersson ◽  
Sigrid Bratsberg ◽  
Andrew K. Ringsmuth ◽  
Astrid S. de Wijn
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Sociopolitical Environment ◽  
Bounded Confidence ◽  
High Connectivity ◽  
Favourable Environment

AbstractA pressing challenge for coming decades is sustainable and just management of large-scale common-pool resources including the atmosphere, biodiversity and public services. This poses a difficult collective action problem because such resources may not show signs that usage restraint is needed until tragedy is almost inevitable. To solve this problem, a sufficient level of cooperation with a pro-conservation behavioural norm must be achieved, within the prevailing sociopolitical environment, in time for the action taken to be effective. Here we investigate the transient dynamics of behavioural change in an agent-based model on structured networks that are also exposed to a global external influence. We find that polarisation emerges naturally, even without bounded confidence, but that for rationally motivated agents, it is temporary. The speed of convergence to a final consensus is controlled by the rate at which the polarised clusters are dissolved. This depends strongly on the combination of external influences and the network topology. Both high connectivity and a favourable environment are needed to rapidly obtain final consensus.

International Real Estate Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-523
Author(s):  
Fukuju Yamazaki ◽  
◽  
Taisuke Sadayuki: ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Significant Cost ◽  
Price Function ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Comparative Examination

Condominium reconstruction involves a difficult collective decision-making process among owners, which prevents older condominiums from being redeveloped efficiently. This paper aims to examine whether this type of collective action cost exists for Japanese condominiums. First, we discuss in the literature review and an empirical analysis that the number of units in a condominium complex is an appropriate proxy for the collective action problem. Then, by using the rent in the price function to control for housing characteristics, we show that the number of units has a negative impact on condominium price. Furthermore, the price function for condominiums is compared with that for single-owner rental apartments that are free from the collective action problem. The estimation results show that the number of units only negatively affects the price of condominiums and that the depreciation rate for the condominium price is greater than that for single-owner apartments. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that a significant cost is associated with collective action problems in condominium reconstruction. Lastly, we conduct a comparative examination of condominiums in Japan and the United States, and the result suggests that revising the current Japanese condominium law could induce more efficient redevelopment of old condominiums.

Rational choice and community power structures

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dowding ◽  
Patrick Dunleavy ◽  
Desmond King ◽  
Helen Margetts
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Community Power Structures

This chapter applies Dowding’s analysis of power to the community power debate. It demonstrates the importance of the collective action problem to our understanding of power in society, showing that both pluralists and their radical critics misinterpret power in society by ignoring collective action problems. It demonstrates the nature of luck and systematic luck in the power structure.

River Basin Organizations and the Governance of Transboundary Watercourses

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea K. Gerlak ◽  
Susanne Schmeier
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Transboundary Waters ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Water Treaties

This chapter defines transboundary waters and sheds light on the collective action problems they pose. It chronicles the rise of river basin organizations as the key regional institutions to manage and implement international water treaties and address collective action problems in transboundary waters. In examining questions of effectiveness, two important institutional design features of transboundary water governance are outlined: the role of stakeholder participation and the importance of science–policy linkages. Emerging challenges and controversies are addressed, including questions of adaptive capacity and matters of context in transboundary water governance. The chapter concludes with some suggested paths for future research, emphasizing institutional adaptation to future challenges.

The Geography of Inequality: How Land Use Regulation Produces Segregation

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 443-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
JESSICA TROUNSTINE
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Public Goods ◽  
Land Use Regulations ◽  
Collective Action Problems

Public goods in the United States are largely funded and delivered at the local level. Local public goods are valuable, but their production requires overcoming several collective action problems including coordinating supply and minimizing congestion, free-riding, and peer effects. Land use regulations, promulgated by local governments, allow communities to solve the collective action problems inherent in the provision of local public goods and maintenance of property values. A consequence of these efforts is residential segregation between cities along racial lines. I provide evidence that more stringent land use regulations are supported by whiter communities and that they preserve racial homogeneity. First, I show that cities that were whiter than their metropolitan area in 1970 are more likely to have restrictive land use patterns in 2006. Then, relying on Federal Fair Housing Act lawsuits to generate changes in land use policy, I show that restrictive land use helps to explain metropolitan area segregation patterns over time. Finally, I draw on precinct level initiative elections from several California cities to show that whiter neighborhoods are more supportive of restricting development. These results strongly suggest that even facially race-neutral land use policies have contributed to racial segregation.

Moral Enhancement as a Collective Action Problem

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 59-85
Author(s):  
Walter Glannon
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Moral Enhancement ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Collective Interest ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
The Cost

AbstractIn light of the magnitude of interpersonal harm and the risk of greater harm in the future, Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu have argued for pharmacological enhancement of moral behaviour. I discuss moral bioenhancement as a set of collective action problems. Psychotropic drugs or other forms of neuromodulation designed to enhance moral sensitivity would have to produce the same or similar effects in the brains of a majority of people. Also, a significant number of healthy subjects would have to participate in clinical trials testing the safety and efficacy of these drugs, which may expose them to unreasonable risk. Even if the drugs were safe and effective, a majority of people would have to co-operate in a moral enhancement programme for such a project to succeed. This goal would be thwarted if enough people opted out and decided not to enhance. To avoid this scenario, Persson and Savulescu argue that moral enhancement should be compulsory rather than voluntary. But the collective interest in harm reduction through compulsory enhancement would come at the cost of a loss of individual freedom. In general, there are many theoretical and practical reasons for scepticism about the concept and goal of moral enhancement.

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