Interlocal Agreements and Multilateral Institutions: Mitigating Coordination Problems of Self-Organized Collective Action

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 563-572
Author(s):  
Christopher V. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Coordination Problems ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Multilateral Institutions ◽  
Interlocal Agreements

Cooperation, Coordination, and Collective Action

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Cronk ◽  
Beth L. Leech
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Coordination Problems ◽  
Evolutionary Biologist ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Two Bodies

This book investigates a wide range of ideas, theories, and existing empirical research relevant to the study of the complex and diverse phenomenon of human cooperation. Issues relating to cooperation are examined from the perspective of evolutionary theory, political science, and related social sciences. The book draws upon two bodies of work: Mancur Olson's The Logic of Collective Action (1965) and George C. Williams's Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966). Olson, an economist, and Williams, an evolutionary biologist, both argued that a focus on groups would not provide a complete understanding of collective action and other social behaviors. This introductory chapter discusses some important definitions relating to cooperation, with particular emphasis on collective action and collective action dilemmas, along with coordination and coordination problems. It also provides an overview of the chapters that follow.

scholarly journals Pandemic makers: Emergent networks of collective entrepreneurship in response to crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Browder ◽  
Angela Forgues ◽  
Stella Seyb ◽  
Howard Aldrich
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Learned Resourcefulness ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Collective Entrepreneurship ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Entrepreneurial Action ◽  
Emergent Networks

In response to COVID-19 and the shortage of personal protective equipment, the maker community activated local networks in a display of collective action. We conducted a multiple case study of emergent networks to understand how makers self-organized for collective entrepreneurial action while facing resource constraints and legitimacy deficits. Although the maker community has endeavored to break free from institutional constraints, they nonetheless formed relationships with institutions in need. They deployed learned resourcefulness and learned legitimation strategies with varying degrees of effectiveness. Our findings contribute to the literature on resourcefulness, legitimation, and collective action in entrepreneurship processes.

Meeting at Penn Station

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Cronk ◽  
Beth L. Leech
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Real World ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Coordination Games ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Coordination Problems ◽  
Battle Of The Sexes ◽  
Penn Station ◽  
Thomas Schelling

This chapter discusses coordination problems in relation to cooperation. Coordination problems are essentially problems of information: although people would benefit from coordinating their activities, they lack common knowledge about how to do so. Even worse, they may actually have common knowledge about how to solve the problem but not know it. Thomas Schelling recognized one way to overcome this problem: focus on prominent, salient focal points that others are also likely to focus on. The chapter first examines the so-called “Theory of Mind” or “mentalizing” before explaining how collective action dilemmas can become coordination problems. It also explores trust and conflict in coordination games such as Stag Hunt Games and the Battle of the Sexes Game, concluding with anti-coordination games and how coordination operates in the real world.

Nonviolent Communal Strategies in Insurgencies Case Study on Afghanistan

2019 ◽  
pp. 203-226
Author(s):  
Christoph Zürcher
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
External Actors

In insurgencies, rural communities are the most vulnerable segment of society. Rural communities in Afghanistan are traditionally highly self-organized and capable of collective action. It is therefore reasonable to assume that communities will make collective efforts to minimize the risks of getting harmed. Using qualitative and survey data, this chapter investigates this proposition and shows that three strategies are often used and believed by respondents to be effective: negotiating with armed groups, neutrality, and self-defense. It describes these strategies and highlights the conditions under which they may be more or less effective. It then discusses how external actors can inadvertently reduce the space for such civil actions and make communities less safe, and what can be done to avoid this.

scholarly journals The role of geographical indication in supporting food safety: a not taken for granted nexus

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello De Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Geographical Indications ◽  
Geographical Indication ◽  
Coordination Problems ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Main Factors

The paper focuses on the role of geographical indication in supporting strategies of food safety. Starting from the distinction between generic and specific quality, the article analyses the main factors influencing food safety in cases of geographical indication products, by stressing the importance of traceability systems and biodiversity in securing generic and specific quality. In the second part, the paper investigates the coordination problems behind a designation of origin and conditions to foster an effective collective action, a prerequisite to grant food safety through geographical indications.

scholarly journals Who Needs the Experts? The Politics and Practices of Alternative Humanitarianism and Its Relationship to NGOs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armine Ishkanian ◽  
Isabel Shutes
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Migration Crisis

AbstractDrawing on fieldwork in Greece, we examine the politics and practices of autonomous volunteering in the context of the migration crisis. This involves individuals engaging in activities to support migrants through non-registered, self-organized and self-governed groups that work independent from and in some cases, even in opposition to NGOs. We consider autonomous volunteering as a form of collective action and argue that it constitutes an alternative humanitarianism. While recent literature has sought to identify the rise of emergent practices of alternative humanitarianism in Europe, research has often overlooked how autonomous volunteers distinguish themselves from, relate to and collaborate with NGOs and conversely, how NGOs view and engage with them. We found that despite their critiques of NGOs and their determination to work independently, there were instances of cooperation between autonomous volunteers and NGOs. These interactions did not become substantive alliances, as the work of NGOs and autonomous volunteers continued to be disconnected from each other.

scholarly journals Self-organized biotectonics of termite nests

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (5) ◽  
pp. e2006985118
Author(s):  
Alexander Heyde ◽  
Lijie Guo ◽  
Christian Jost ◽  
Guy Theraulaz ◽  
L. Mahadevan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Minimal Model ◽  
Nest Architecture ◽  
Governing Equations ◽  
Spatiotemporal Evolution ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Building Behavior ◽  
Collective Building ◽  
Hydrodynamic Fields ◽  
Termite Nest

The termite nest is one of the architectural wonders of the living world, built by the collective action of workers in a colony. Each nest has several characteristic structural motifs that allow for efficient ventilation, cooling, and traversal. We use tomography to quantify the nest architecture of the African termite Apicotermes lamani, consisting of regularly spaced floors connected by scattered linear and helicoidal ramps. To understand how these elaborate structures are built and arranged, we formulate a minimal model for the spatiotemporal evolution of three hydrodynamic fields—mud, termites, and pheromones—linking environmental physics to collective building behavior using simple local rules based on experimental observations. We find that floors and ramps emerge as solutions of the governing equations, with statistics consistent with observations of A. lamani nests. Our study demonstrates how a local self-reinforcing biotectonic scheme is capable of generating an architecture that is simultaneously adaptable and functional, and likely to be relevant for a range of other animal-built structures.

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