A Cooperative Approach to the Logic of Collective Action: Voluntary Organizations and the Prisoners' Dilemma

A reexamination of certain tenets of Olson's logic of collective action suggests that it fails to explain some types of behavior found in voluntary organizations, especially mutual assistance groups. Specifically, Olson fails to account for non-coercive and non-individualistic factors and gives insufficient attention to the social context of voluntary organization life. A fresh applications of the prisoners' dilemma and the introduction of the concept of community expand our understanding of behaviors heretofore unexplained. Implications are discussed for the design and management of voluntary organizations under certain conditions.

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A Cooperative Approach to the Logic of Collective Action: Voluntary Organizations and the Prisoners’ Dilemma

Journal of Voluntary Action Research ◽

10.1177/089976408801700302 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 17 (3-4) ◽

pp. 5-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard C. Rich

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Collective Action ◽

Voluntary Organization ◽

Voluntary Organizations ◽

Mutual Assistance ◽

Cooperative Approach ◽

Insufficient Attention ◽

The Social ◽

Prisoners Dilemma

A reexamination of certain tenets of Olson's logic of collective action suggests that it fails to explain some types of behavior found in voluntary organizations, especially mutual assistance groups. Specifically, Olson fails to account for non-coercive and non-individualistic factors and gives insufficient attention to the social context of voluntary organization life. A fresh applications of the prisoners’ dilemma and the introduction of the concept of community expand our understanding of behaviors heretofore unexplained. Implications are discussed for the design and management of voluntary organizations under certain conditions.

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Flyktningengasjement i sosiale medier. Et mediepraksisperspektiv på flyktningsituasjonen i 2015

Fra kollektiv til konnektiv handling? ◽

10.23865/noasp.45.ch7 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 189-210

Author(s):

Ivar Eimhjellen

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Collective Action ◽

Quantitative Study ◽

Social Space ◽

Voluntary Organizations ◽

The Social ◽

Social Media Engagement ◽

Media Channels ◽

Geographical Scope

This chapter is based on a quantitative study of Norwegians’ social media engagement for helping refugees in Norway in 2015, and how this was related to other acts and forms of help. I argue for and utilize a social and practice oriented media-perspective in which I conceptualize social media as practice and connected to other forms of practice in the social space. I find that social media, Facebook in particular, was part of disseminating attention and engagement for helping refugees rapidly all over Norway. As such, Facebook manifested itself as an infrastructure for the mobilization and organizing of volunteer contributions during the refugee situation. However, the scope of social media-assisted volunteer contributions was relatively small compared to the contributions through established voluntary organizations. Likewise, the established media-channels were also more important than social media for the spread of information on how to contribute. Based on this study, I claim that social media as an infrastructure for the mobilization and organizing of volunteer contributions serves a supplemental, albeit important function compared to established infrastructures. Social media supplement the established media and voluntary organizations by increasing the speed and geographical scope of mobilizing and organizing collective action.

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