Theory of Collective Action Research Papers (original) (raw)

Abstract. The paper provides a taxonomy of group speech acts whose main division is that between collective speech acts (singing Happy Birthday, agreeing to meet) and group proxy speech acts in which a group, such as a corporation,... more

Abstract. The paper provides a taxonomy of group speech acts whose main division is that between collective speech acts (singing Happy Birthday, agreeing to meet) and group proxy speech acts in which a group, such as a corporation, employs a proxy, such as a spokesperson, to convey its official position. The paper provides an analysis of group proxy speech acts using tools developed more generally for analyzing institutional agency, particularly the concepts of shared intention, proxy agent, status role, status function, convention and constitutive rule.

The book introduces Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into the mainstream of contemporary action-theoretical debates. Piotr Makowski shows that Kotarbiński–Alfred Tarski’s teacher and one of the most important philosophers of the... more

The book introduces Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into the mainstream of contemporary action-theoretical debates. Piotr Makowski shows that Kotarbiński–Alfred Tarski’s teacher and one of the most important philosophers of the renowned Lvov-Warsaw school—proposed a groundbreaking, original, and (in at least a few respects) still fresh perspective in action theorizing. The book examines and develops Kotarbiński’s ideas in the context of the most recent discussions in the philosophy of action. The main idea behind Kotarbiński’s action theory—and thus, behind this book—is the significance of the philosophical investigations of the general conditions of effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of intentional actions. Makowski presents and reinterprets Kotarbiński’s views on these dimensions of our activities and sheds new light on the most important areas of action theory.

Dewey’s social ontology could be characterized as a habit ontology, an ontology of habit qua second nature that offers us an account of intentionality, social statuses, institutions, and norms in terms of habituations. Such an account... more

Dewey’s social ontology could be characterized as a habit ontology, an ontology of habit qua second nature that offers us an account of intentionality, social statuses, institutions, and norms in terms of habituations. Such an account offers us a promising alternative to contemporary intentionalist and deontic approaches to social ontology such as Searle’s. Furthermore, it could be the basis of a social ontology better suited to explain both the maintenance and the transformation of social reality.
In the first part I will characterize Dewey’s model as a social ontology based on the notion of habit, and present it as an alternative to intentionalist approaches to social reality. In the second part I will argue that habit ontology offers us an account of social norms that is based on a peculiar understanding of the notion of ‘status’, and represents an alternative to deontic accounts. In the third part I will claim that Dewey’s notion of “public” offers us a dynamic understanding of social institutions and a ‘reactive’ notion of collective intentionality as an achievement rather than as a presupposition of social practices. In the final section I will summarize some advantages of the Deweyan over the Searlean social ontology concerning our understanding of acceptance, maintenance and transformation of statuses, and of the role played by the ‘background’.

Reflecting on the recent book by Marina L. Butovskaya and Victoria V. Rostovtseva, the author discusses altruism and selfishness as preconditions for cooperation of humans in society for collective actions, as a result of which its... more

Reflecting on the recent book by Marina L. Butovskaya and Victoria V. Rostovtseva, the author discusses altruism and selfishness as preconditions for cooperation of humans in society for collective actions, as a result of which its sociocultural transformations take place. It is argued that the problem of sources of cooperative behavior is by no means the one of strict choice between altruism and selfishness. Cooperation in society is based on a combination of altruism and selfishness in human behavior, with reciprocity of relationships as a connecting link between them. Butovskaya and Rostovtseva’s approach to the problem of the sources of cooperation as the background of social evolution is compared with the theories for which this problem is crucially important, too but solved differently – the collective action theory and collective acceptance theory of institutions.

Thèse de doctorat en sciences de gestion soutenue le 8 spetembre 2014 à l'Université de Montpellier

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the sustainability of the use and re-use of traditional groundwater extraction systems called qanats. Qanats are subterranean tunnels that tap the groundwater and lead the water based on... more

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the sustainability of the use and re-use of traditional groundwater extraction systems called qanats. Qanats are subterranean tunnels that tap the groundwater and lead the water based on gravity to a human settlement and agricultural lands. Qanats played a tremendously important role in the spread of irrigated agriculture and the establishment of sophisticated settlements in dry areas. In modern times, social, technological and economical transformation processes have greatly influenced the traditional use of qanats. The study uses action development research and a livelihood approach to help in the evaluation of the sustainability of use and renovation these ancient irrigation systems in Syria.

In this essay, we first consider Foucault’s biopolitics a hypothesis rather than a theory, meaning it is in the first place a heuristic tool, inviting us to inquire into historical changes and into today’s features of governmentality as... more

In this essay, we first consider Foucault’s biopolitics a hypothesis rather than a theory, meaning it is in the first place a heuristic tool, inviting us to inquire into historical changes and into today’s features of governmentality as well as of biomedicine or other techno-scientific apparatuses involving life in a way or another, whether human or not. But we believe its relevance goes far beyond a demand for empirically grounded descriptions: it is intrinsically an act of politicisation within the biopowers, and an act of theoretical re-problematisation of politics as well, that both need an ethnographic approach attuned to the actual forms taken by power relationships. Taking Latour’s and Foucault’s respective approaches and shifting from the power-knowledge apparatuses theory (The Will to Know) to a new theory of action and of discourse (Politics of nature, Reassembling the social), we sketch the outlines of what politics can mean at the time when government is not only exerted on individuals or populations anymore, suggesting it entails some cosmopolitics encompassing other-than-human living entities.

Este artículo estudia las interpelaciones entre ética, teoría de la decisión racional y teoría de la acción.

El propósito de este texto es explorar la conjetura de Tom Ford según la cual la manera accidentalista de concebir las acciones intencionales es errada. Para este se pretende especificar cuáles propuestas en el ámbito de la filosofía de... more

El propósito de este texto es explorar la conjetura de Tom Ford según la cual la manera accidentalista de concebir las acciones intencionales es errada. Para este se pretende especificar cuáles propuestas en el ámbito de la filosofía de la acción se inscriben en estos modos de concebir la acción y extender el esquema expuesto por Ford de manera que se incluyan las acciones institucionales y las colectivas. Para esto me ocuparé de las tres distinciones: entre acciones intencionales y no intencionales, entre institucionales y no institucionales y entre individuales y colectivas. En cada uno de estos niveles expondré las diversas concepciones que pueden encontrarse y haré una valoración de cada una de ellas.

This article argues for the analytical potentials of the concept of spontaneity in our effort to understand critically the socio-spatial dynamics of Athens, but especially the contemporary collective protest actions in the city. Such... more

This article argues for the analytical potentials of the concept of spontaneity in our effort to understand critically the socio-spatial dynamics of Athens, but especially the contemporary collective protest actions in the city. Such critical understanding emerges as a significant task given the current urgency to grasp the capitalist crisis and the collective reactions to it. However, taking into account the re-configuration of extreme-Right violence in the streets of Athens, the article attempts to revisit the Marxist dichotomy between spontaneity and non-spontaneity. Via an anthropological critique of this distinction, the paper suggests an additional point of focus beyond spontaneity.

Philosophical accounts of joint action are often prefaced by the observation that there are two different senses in which several agents can intentionally perform an action Φ, such as go for a walk or capture the prey. They might... more

Philosophical accounts of joint action are often prefaced by the observation that there are two different senses in which several agents can intentionally perform an action Φ, such as go for a walk or capture the prey. They might intentionally Φ together, as a collective, or they might intentionally Φ in parallel, where Φ is distributively assigned to the agents, considered as a set of individuals. The accounts are supposed to capture what characterises activities in which several agents intentionally Φ collectively rather than distributively, in which they go for a walk *together* or capture the prey *together*. This dualism between joint and parallel action also crops up outside philosophy. For instance, it has been brought into a debate about whether or not group hunting among chimpanzees is a form of joint cooperative hunting. I do not take sides in this debate, but offer an account of a form of joint action that falls short of what most philosophers take to be required for genuine joint action, but which is not merely parallel activity. This shows that the dualism between the genuinely joint and the merely parallel is false. I offer my account as an explication of an influential definition of "cooperative behaviour" given by the primatologists Christophe and Hedwig Boesch.

The article is a theoretical introduction to the problem of social movements. Its objective is to draw attention to the fact that the various theories of social movements should not be treated as rival but complementary theories, since... more

The article is a theoretical introduction to the problem of social movements. Its objective is to draw attention to the fact that the various theories of social movements should not be treated as rival but complementary theories, since each brings into relief a different set of problems pertaining to the same broadly defined subject matter. The following issues are discussed: beginnings of sociological reflection on social movements, theories of collective action, mobilization of resources, social constructionism and theories of new social movements. The last part of the article brings an overview of the areas of interest of particular theories of social movements.

Проаналізовано ключові питання теорії колективних дій, зокрема методологічний базис – наявність відповідних стимулів. Визначено вплив позитивного та негативного стимулів, наведено приклади таких стимулів у освіті. Доведено зв’язок між... more

Dalla raccolta di articoli contenuta in questo numero emerge un concetto di cooperazione sfaccettato e molteplice, attraversato da ambivalenze ed antinomie. Attraverso una breve ricostruzione in chiave storico-politica si evidenziano i... more

Dalla raccolta di articoli contenuta in questo numero emerge un concetto di cooperazione sfaccettato e molteplice, attraversato da ambivalenze ed antinomie. Attraverso una breve ricostruzione in chiave storico-politica si evidenziano i significati dell'idea di cooperazione utili a ricostruirne la crescente importanza assunta nel dibattito contemporaneo. Si anticipano anche le problematiche più rilevanti che possono portare a una teoria politica della cooperazione.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the analysis of human groups as distributed cognitive systems, and to examine the related question of whether socially distributed cognition (SDC) amounts to group level cognition. In my... more

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the analysis of human groups as distributed cognitive systems, and to examine the related question of whether socially distributed cognition (SDC) amounts to group level cognition. In my discussion, I first break down the complex notion of SDC into a ‘joint’, a ‘distributive’, and a ‘shared’ aspect. Then, I highlight organization-dependence, novelty, and autonomy as central features associated with the ‘emergent’ qualities of SDC. Finally, I survey five theoretical ‘stances’ that have been invoked to identify the presence of cognitive organization at the group level, and thus bridge the suggested inferential gap between SDC and group cognition: (i) the intentional stance, (ii) the information processing stance, (iii) the computational stance, (iv) the ecological stance, and (v) the dynamical stance.

Background: Given several bottlenecks in Brazil in distribution logistics, mainly in transport and warehouse activities, some new forms of collective action have appeared. The Condominiums of Rural Warehouses was conceived of to overcome... more

Background: Given several bottlenecks in Brazil in distribution logistics, mainly in transport and warehouse activities, some new forms of collective action have appeared. The Condominiums of Rural Warehouses was conceived of to overcome these bottlenecks and provide better income and competitiveness to small producers in agribusiness. This article aims to analyse aspects of collective action with the focus of Rural Condominiums in the context of Brazilian agribusiness. Methods: We
conducted exploratory, descriptive and qualitative research under the Theory of Logic of Collective Action lens for this purpose. Besides conducting a literature review, we conducted a semi-structured
interview with the managers of the Rural Warehouse Condominiums. We analysed the data through a Categorial Content Analysis. Results: The main results show an approximation of the rural model of the Condominiums of Rural Warehouses with the Theory of Logic of Collective Action, mainly for small producers. Conclusions: We highlight the feasibility of the warehouse structure collectively, as it strengthens and provides greater efficiency to rural business and producers, inserts and integrates the industry into a competitive market environment, provides economic and social benefits, leads to cost reduction, and increased profit. The economic, social and logistical determinants show the product’s commercialisation, logistical gains, and the producers’ association regarding the development and growth of rural collective action. This paper can be helpful for practitioners and researchers interested in this field.

Se sostiene que la clave para comprender la originalidad y peculiaridad de la teoría de la experiencia deweyana, en términos de teoría de la acción, es su concepto de acción transaccional. Concepto tan complejo como ineludible para una... more

Se sostiene que la clave para comprender la originalidad y peculiaridad de la teoría de la experiencia deweyana, en términos de teoría de la acción, es su concepto de acción transaccional. Concepto tan complejo como ineludible para una correcta lectura de su concepción filosófica en general.
De nuestra interpretación al respecto se deriva el hecho de que la vida humana en sí misma tanto a nivel individual como colectivo, consiste en transacciones en las cuales los seres humanos participan juntos con cosas no humanas de su entorno. En otras palabras, los seres humanos y las cosas no humanas, somos participantes permanentes de estas complejas relaciones. La vida depende tanto en sus aspectos físicos, fisiológicos como intangibles de estas transacciones en las que nosotros y las cosas somos parte.
Así, ubicándonos en una problemática de suma actualidad Dewey, nos invita a reflexionar no solo en el carácter agente y paciente del sujeto en los procesos interactivos, sino que nos desafía a precisar lo que ahora podríamos llamar el carácter agencial del mundo material mismo, una perspectiva que queda poco acentuada cuando la palabra utilizada es interacción.
Finalizamos explorando algunos aportes recientes de Karen Barad y Judith Simon respecto del carácter transaccional , por ejemplo del conocimiento científico, ellos representan una línea de aproximación a los aportes de Dewey : en efecto, en un contexto transaccional el conocimiento siempre implica responsabilidad, involucra cuestiones éticas de factura estrictamente humana.

This chapter analyzes diacronically the main characteristics of social movement studies in Spain as compared to other Western countries. Unlike the first research on popular mobilization, carried out by historians who focused on the... more

This chapter analyzes diacronically the main characteristics of social movement studies in Spain as compared to other Western countries. Unlike the first research on popular mobilization, carried out by historians who focused on the labour movement, more recent work, basically undertaken by sociologists and political scientists, has contributed to integrating the analysis of Spanish contention into the broader European scenario. The peculiarities that once characterized the research agenda of Spanish scholars is therefore no longer present and the field has become more internationalized and indistinguishable from mainstream literature.

This paper explores the ways in which a theorization of heritage as a commons complicates the relation of heritage and identity. The paper analyzes how cultural heritage management and theorizations connect with the “old” vernacular... more

This paper explores the ways in which a theorization of heritage as a commons complicates the relation of heritage and identity. The paper analyzes how cultural heritage management and theorizations connect with the “old” vernacular commons in rural Europe, communist ideologies, Hardin’s and Ostrom’s theories, and finally with Hardt and Negri’s ideas. Can heritage managers and scholars work as mediators between the global flows of value and local communities, promoting redistributive policies and identity building capacities in the face of overarching commodification processes? How can the notion of a “shared” heritage be mobilized by local communities to implement politics of redistribution and rethinking of ownership against an alienated “world heritage” that frames itself as a globally “shared” common heritage of humanity? What are the consequences of treating heritage as a commons for identity politics?

The popularity of the Internet and online activism provides a revolutionary channel for Chinese people to express themselves and participate in politics. However, the existing research provides differing perspectives. This article... more

The popularity of the Internet and online activism provides a revolutionary channel for Chinese people to express themselves and participate in politics. However, the existing research provides differing perspectives. This article attempts to integrate the demand-supply model with relevant studies from both China and abroad, as well as offer a systematic analysis of the demand, supply, and mobilization of online collective action to further understand the phenomenon and develop collective action theories based on Western countries. The impact of this new form of political participation on social development in China is discussed and questions are raised concerning future research.

Economic reforms face a collective action problem: they trigger the reaction of groups that expect significant losses, while the government must forge a support coalition among those who anticipate gains. This problem may exhibit a... more

Economic reforms face a collective action problem: they trigger the reaction of groups that expect significant losses, while the government must forge a support coalition among those who anticipate gains. This problem may exhibit a distinct pattern in a clientelist system, when the affected groups are client groups attached to political party networks. The case of the Mitsotakis government in Greece (1990–93) illustrates that collective reaction to reforms that hurt client groups affects primarily the internal structure of the clientelist parties, their alliance with client groups and, thereby, their relative capacity for political mobilisation. This pattern makes certain types of economic reform, such as privatisation and structural reforms, particularly risky for governments in a clientelist system.

In Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi presents a comprehensive overview of Michel Foucault’s writings on the revolutionary wave that swept across Iran, culminating in February 1979... more

In Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi presents a comprehensive overview of Michel Foucault’s writings on
the revolutionary wave that swept across Iran, culminating in February 1979
with the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy.

This paper shows that recent arguments from group problem solving and task performance to emergent group level cognition that rest on the social parity and related principles are invalid or question begging. The paper shows that standard... more

This paper shows that recent arguments from group problem solving and task performance to emergent group level cognition that rest on the social parity and related principles are invalid or question begging. The paper shows that standard attributions of problem solving or task performance to groups require only multiple agents of the outcome, not a group agent over and above its members, whether or not any individual member of the group could have accomplished the task independently.

Taking forward a new agenda for online political deliberation – the study of everyday political talk in non-political, online ‘third spaces’ – this article examines the dynamics of political talk across three general interest UKbased... more

Taking forward a new agenda for online political deliberation – the study of everyday political talk in non-political, online ‘third spaces’ – this article examines the dynamics of political talk across three general interest UKbased online forums. The quantitative analysis found that discussions about austerity were just as likely to emerge from non-political discussions as they were ones that began as ‘political’, demonstrating the links people made between everyday experiences and public policy. Our qualitative analysis represents the first real attempt to analyse political actions within third spaces, with some striking outcomes. Over half of all political discussions led to at least one political action (with significant variation between forums). The findings demonstrate that whilst such third spaces remain concerned with the preoccupations of everyday life, they can and do perform a role of mobilising agent towards political participation.

Collective action—the involvement of a group of people carrying out common and voluntary actions to pursue shared interests—has a high potential to contribute to agency and wellbeing freedom. It is a current and recurrent phenomenon in... more

Collective action—the involvement of a group of people carrying out common and voluntary actions to pursue shared interests—has a high potential to contribute to agency and wellbeing freedom. It is a current and recurrent phenomenon in society, but it is still poorly explained by the Capability Approach (CA). This paper’s main aim is to look more closely at how the CA can be used to better frame, understand and evaluate the impacts of collective action. Based on a discussion of the literature on collective capabilities and agency we suggest extending the perspective of the original approach, mainly through a more explicit distinction between three layers: individual processes, collective action, and social institutions. We argue that such an extension is useful in order to evaluate how collective action can alter wellbeing and agency freedoms. By way of example, we look at community currency (CC) initiatives—trading schemes that are designed and implemented as a supplement to the legal tender money—and employ the three-layered CA to describe and evaluate the effects of acting collectively in such a setting. We also point out what distinguishes such an assessment from other approaches that we have found in the literature on CC. We conclude that a more systematic analysis of collective action through the CA may enable the latter to provide for useful assessments of collective action.

My aim in this paper is to reconstruct a model of social ontology in Dewey’s work, to make it explicit in the light of contemporary theories, and to present it as a promising alternative to Searle’s approach to social reality. In the... more

My aim in this paper is to reconstruct a model of social ontology in Dewey’s work, to make it explicit in the light of contemporary theories, and to present it as a promising alternative to Searle’s approach to social reality. In the first part I will characterize Dewey’s model as a social ontology based on the notion of habit, and present it as an alternative to intentionalist approaches. In the second part I will argue that habit ontology offers us an account of social norms that is based on a peculiar understanding of the notion of ‘status’, and represents an alternative to deontic accounts. In the third part I will claim that the Dewey’s notion of “public” offers us a dynamic understanding of social institutions and a ‘reactive’ notion of collective intentionality as an achievement rather than as a presupposition of social practices. In the final section I will summarize some advantages of the Deweyan over the Searlean social ontology concerning our understanding of acceptance, maintenance and transformation of statuses, and of the role played by the ‘background’.

This paper outlines a collective action approach to study nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We contend that while political scientists and sociologists have extensively written about NGOs, they have not systematically examined... more

This paper outlines a collective action approach to study nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We contend that while political scientists and sociologists have extensively written about NGOs, they have not systematically examined fundamental collective action issues such ...

draft version of the essay which will be published in a collection of essays on Akeel Bilgrami (India, 2016)