Collective Action and Political Transformations

Collective Action and Political Transformations PDF

Author: Mota Aurea Mota

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2019-04-03

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1474442994

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This book acknowledges the severe problems with effective and significant collective action, but arrives at a more optimistic diagnosis of our time by rethinking the political from the angle of the experiences with progressive and conservative collective action in different parts of the globe: Brazil, South Africa and Europe. By doing so, it contributes a critical perspective to the debate about the possible impact of parts of the Global South for positive social and political developments worldwide.

Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action

Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action PDF

Author: Mark Traugott

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780822315469

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The modern era has generated a bewildering profusion of popular protest including widespread social movements and sporadic revolutionary upheaval. Despite the seemingly chaotic character of such collective action, social scientists have increasingly noted the remarkable regularities exhibited by even the most tumultuous social change. In this volume, sociologists, political scientists, and historians come together to assess the complementary concepts of repertoires and cycles as tools for illuminating the consistent patterns that emerge from the apparent chaos. The significance of repertoires--recurrent forms or tactics of social protest-- is explored in an essay on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain by the originator of the concept, Charles Tilly. Sidney Tarrow, whose work has most directly linked the concept of repertoires with that of cycles--the recurrent peaks and troughs in the historical incidence of collective action--contributes an essay that focuses on twentieth-century Italy. Other essays investigate the rhythms and logic of social change in contexts as diverse as sixteenth- through nineteenth-century Japan, nineteeth-century Europe, and twentieth-century America. Through inquiries into the consequences of violent repression for social mobilization, the struggle to control the linguistic terms of social conflict, the unacknowledged antecedents of contemporary movements, and the importance of "movement families," this volume demonstrates the usefulness of these two concepts and defines the relationship between them. Collected from past issues of Social Science History, with a new introduction and two new essays, Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action will reward an interdisciplinary audience of readers with the extraordinary vitality that emerges from this rich blend of historical perspectives. Contributors. Charles Brockett, Craig Calhoun, Doug McAdam, Marc Steinberg, Sidney Tarrow, Charles Tilly, Mark Traugott, James White

A Unified Theory of Collective Action and Social Change

A Unified Theory of Collective Action and Social Change PDF

Author: Luis Medina

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2009-12-18

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780472024452

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The notion that groups form and act in ways that respond to objective, external costs and benefits has long been the key to accounting for social change processes driven by collective action. Yet this same notion seems to fall apart when we try to explain how collectivities emerge out of the choices of individuals. This book overcomes that dilemma by offering an analysis of collective action that, while rooted in individual decision making, also brings out the way in which objective costs and benefits can impede or foster social coordination. The resulting approach enables us to address the causes and consequences of collective action with the help of the tools of modern economic theory. To illustrate this, the book applies the tools it develops to the study of specific collective action problems such as clientelism, focusing on its connections with economic development and political redistribution; and wage bargaining, showing its economic determinants and its relevance for the political economy of the welfare state. "Medina's study is a great step forward in the analytics of collective action. He shows the inadequacies of currently standard models and shows that straightforward revisions reconcile rational-choice and structural viewpoints. It will influence all future work." -Kenneth Arrow, Stanford University "Olson, Schelling, and now Medina. A Unified Theory deepens our understanding of collective action and contributes to the foundations of our field. A major work." -Robert H. Bates, Harvard University "Medina thinks that the main problem of social action is not whether or not to cooperate but how to do it. To this end he has produced an imaginative approach to analyzing strategic coordination problems that produces plausible predictions in a range of circumstances." -John Ferejohn, Stanford University Luis Fernando Medina is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Political Turbulence

Political Turbulence PDF

Author: Helen Margetts

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0691177929

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How social media is giving rise to a chaotic new form of politics As people spend increasing proportions of their daily lives using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, they are being invited to support myriad political causes by sharing, liking, endorsing, or downloading. Chain reactions caused by these tiny acts of participation form a growing part of collective action today, from neighborhood campaigns to global political movements. Political Turbulence reveals that, in fact, most attempts at collective action online do not succeed, but some give rise to huge mobilizations—even revolutions. Drawing on large-scale data generated from the Internet and real-world events, this book shows how mobilizations that succeed are unpredictable, unstable, and often unsustainable. To better understand this unruly new force in the political world, the authors use experiments that test how social media influence citizens deciding whether or not to participate. They show how different personality types react to social influences and identify which types of people are willing to participate at an early stage in a mobilization when there are few supporters or signals of viability. The authors argue that pluralism is the model of democracy that is emerging in the social media age—not the ordered, organized vision of early pluralists, but a chaotic, turbulent form of politics. This book demonstrates how data science and experimentation with social data can provide a methodological toolkit for understanding, shaping, and perhaps even predicting the outcomes of this democratic turbulence.

Collective Action for Social Change

Collective Action for Social Change PDF

Author: A. Schutz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2011-04-11

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 0230118534

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Community organizers build solidarity and collective power in fractured communities. They help ordinary people turn their private pain into public action, releasing hidden capacities for leadership and strategy. In Collective Action for Social Change , Aaron Schutz and Marie G. Sandy draw on their extensive experience participating in community organizing activities and teaching courses on the subject to empower novices to think like an organizers.

Modern Dilemmas

Modern Dilemmas PDF

Author: Dylan Kissane

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-03-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 3838267419

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Collective action problems are ubiquitous in situations involving human interactions and therefore lie at the heart of economy and political science. In one of the most salient statements on this topic, Elinor Ostrom, co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, even claims that "the theory of collective action is the central subject of political science". The collection of essays presented in this timely volume targets the problem of collective action from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Its multidisciplinary approach makes it a valuable reading for students and scholars working in a number of different areas of study, such as political science, economy, political philosophy, public policies, comparative politics, and international relations.

Regarding Tilly

Regarding Tilly PDF

Author: María J. Funes

Publisher: UPA

Published: 2016-10-17

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0761867856

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Studying Charles Tilly (1929–2008), American sociologist, historian and political scientist, is essential for understanding political change and social conflict. His research focuses on how grassroots populations, through different forms of collective action, influence historical events by trying to improve the conditions of people's lives. This book is not only an homage to Tilly, but is also aimed at understanding and applying his thought. In each chapter, the authors, experts on Tilly's work, examine his concepts, theories, and methodological contributions, providing a richer understanding of them. In addition, this book is very contemporary. From the beginning of this century, mainly from 2011, important popular mobilizations, such as the Arab Spring and 15-M or “los indignados” (the indignant movement in Spain), gradually spread to other countries (the US, Yemen, Israel, etc.) in successive “Occupy” movements. The political mobilization of the grassroots movements are undergoing a resurgence, a process that Tilly would have wanted to study. This book can be a good guide for analyzing and understanding these movements.

Power in Movement

Power in Movement PDF

Author: Sidney Tarrow

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1998-05-13

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780521629478

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Unlike political or economic institutions, social movements have an elusive power, but one that is no less real. From the French and American revolutions through the democratic and workers' movements of the nineteenth century to the totalitarian movements of today, movements exercise a fleeting but powerful influence on politics and society. This study surveys the history of the social movement, puts forward a theory of collective action to explain its surges and declines, and offers an interpretation of the power of movement that emphasises its effects on personal lives, policy reforms and political culture. While covering cultural, organisational and personal sources of movements' power, the book emphasises the rise and fall of social movements as part of political struggle and as the outcome of changes in political opportunity structure.