Collective Action

Collective action and delegitimization processes: the Hontza night centre case for drug-dependents in Bilbao.

by Eduardo Apodaka

Collective action and delegitimization processes: the Hontza night centre case for drug-dependents in Bilbao.
more Collective action and delegitimization processes: the Hontza night centre case for drug-dependents in Bilbao.


Key words: processes of legitimization and delegitimization, communication, collective action, social movements.



We present a case study developed within a research line about processes of (de)legitimization where the collective action gets involved. Following Bourdieu, legitimacy would be a capital of recognition that makes people involved in a relationship of dominance perceive authority in the dominant pole of it, this is, whatever makes someone feel that another person or collective has a legitimate power over some aspect of their life. From this point of view it is possible to apply communication models to the processes of loss and profit of capital, since it is a capital basically symbolic that links in some aspects and psychologically the dominated and the dominants. Such processes have their most dynamic space in collective action. Social movements, interest groups, standard political parties, corporations, etc., develop their activity in spaces of strategic communication where it is needed to attain a position, an intervention status, an audience in front of which acquire authority and on which support their demands and projects. In this case study this communication model is applied to the case of opposition movements to the night centre for drug-dependents, Hontza in Bilbao

The New Spartakists. The thought of Rosa Luxemburg to understand the Global Movement

by Iñigo Errejón Galván

2005 - Con Pablo Iglesias en Barker, C. And Tyldesley (eds.) “Alternative Futures and Popular Protest. Conference Papers Supplementary Volume”. Manchester Metropolitan University
press.

En Bolivie, une victoire difficile

by Iñigo Errejón Galván

Publicado en la revista francesa "Multitudes" en su número 35, 2008 pp. 85-95

"De l’effondrement du pouvoir néolibéral au combat pour l’hégémonie indigène et populaire"

Après... more "De l’effondrement du pouvoir néolibéral au combat pour l’hégémonie indigène et populaire"

Après deux années et demi de gouvernement du Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS), nous ne pouvons que constater une certaine léthargie des mouvements sociaux. L’explication ne réside peut-être pas tant dans la cooptation des organisations paysannes et urbaines par le gouvernement que dans la dynamique propre des mouvements sociaux depuis le début de la mise en place du modèle néolibéral en 1985.

A picture of the pathology of the mass: Exploring the politics and ideology of ‘classic’ crowd psychology.

by John Drury

Stott, C., & Drury, J. (in press). A picture of the pathology of the mass: Exploring the politics and ideology of ‘classic’ crowd psychology. In A. A. Romero (Ed.), Archaeology for the masses: Theoretical and methodological approaches to a neglected identity category. Oxford: BAR.

This chapter explores the origins and ideology of crowd science. It will be argued that this body of theory... more This chapter explores the origins and ideology of crowd science. It will be argued that this body of theory influenced, indeed determined, contemporary understandings of the mass. The chapter begins by outlining the patterns of crowd action during 19th century France to demonstrate that the actions of
these crowds can only be adequately understood in terms of meaningful identity-based social actions. We will illustrate how the crowd came to symbolise a fear of mass society among the new ruling elites of Europe and how classical crowd psychology was a product of these fears. We will show how classical crowd psychology pathologised, reified and de-contextualised the
crowd, offering the ruling elites a perceived opportunity to fashion and control the crowd, and therefore the mass. The chapter will conclude by exploring how these processes fundamentally misrepresented collective psychology. In its place we now see the classic models supplanted by a new form of identity-based
crowd psychology that re-introduces the meaning to crowd action, (re)places it in its proper social context, and in so doing is transforming theoretical understanding of the self.

Linking personal and social histories with collective identity narratives

by Nicola Curtin

Curtin, N., & Stewart, A. J. (2011). Linking personal and social histories with collective identity narratives.  In S.Wiley, G. Philogène, & T. A. Revenson (Eds.), Social categories in everyday experience (pp. 83-102). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

What makes the political personal? Openness, personal political salience, and activism

by Nicola Curtin

Co-authored with Stewart, A.J. and Duncan, L. E.

People who attach personal meaning to social and political events or are high in Personal Political Salience (PPS) are... more People who attach personal meaning to social and political events or are high in Personal Political Salience (PPS) are more likely to engage in political activism (Duncan & Stewart, 2007). Although research suggests that PPS is consequential for activism, we know little about its origins or, more generally, about indirect effects of personality on activism. In this study we examined the possibility that the personality trait of Openness to Experience may be one source of PPS and an indirect predictor of activism. In addition, we proposed that Openness would also be directly related to political activism in young adults but not in middle-aged and older adults. Analyses confirmed these predictions in cross-sectional and over-time data from six samples. We argue that Openness may predispose some individuals both to find personal meaning in distant political events and to engage in social activism in their youth.

Social Conflict and Protest

by Jacquelien van Stekelenburg

Co-authored with Bert Klandermans.
van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, and Bert Klandermans. 2012. "Social Conflict and Protest." in Social Psychology of Social Problems, edited by Agnieszka Golec de Zavala and Aleksandra Cichocka: Palgrave Macmillan.

Social Conflict and Protest

by Jacquelien van Stekelenburg

Co-authored with Bert Klandermans.
van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, and Bert Klandermans. 2012. "Social Conflict and Protest." in Social Psychology of Social Problems, edited by Agnieszka Golec de Zavala and Aleksandra Cichocka: Palgrave Macmillan.

The Occupy Movement: Product of this time

by Jacquelien van Stekelenburg

Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien (2012). The Occupy Movement: Product of this time. Development, 55, 2.

Individuals in Movements

by Jacquelien van Stekelenburg

Van Stekelenburg, J., & Klandermans, B. (2010). Individuals in movements: A social psychology of contention. In B. Klandermans & C. M. Roggeband (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (pp. 157-204). New York: Springer.

Reprint of Individuals in Movements. A social psychology of contention (2007)

Nederlanders & De Occupybeweging

by Jacquelien van Stekelenburg

Co-authored with Irene de Goede and Christine Carabain. NCDO publicatie Opiniepeiling 3 uitgave 2012

Farmers' producer companies in India: a new concept for collective action?

by Anika Trebbin

Co-authored with Markus Hassler.
Published in 'Environment and Planning A' 44(2), pp 411-427. 2012.

Producer companies can help smallholder farmers participate in emerging high-value markets, such as the export market... more Producer companies can help smallholder farmers participate in emerging high-value markets, such as the export market and the unfolding modern retail sector in India. As elsewhere in the developing world, in India, small farmers' livelihoods are being threatened due to the liberalization and privatization of Indian agriculture and the increasing interest of private capital in the agribusiness sector. The withdrawal of the state from productive and economic functions, and changes in the organization of marketing channels, present new challenges for small-scale farmers. In this environment of greater instability and competition, organization and collective action can help to enhance farmers' competitiveness and increase their advantage in emerging market opportunities.We build on the ideas of value-chain governance and collective-action literature and introduce the functions and organizational structure of producer companies in India within this context. On the basis of a case study of a specific producer company in Maharashtra, which produces and markets mango and cashew nuts, we discuss the potential benefits for rural communities and the reempowering effect of this form of farmer organization.

‘Renaming Kaffir Plain: collective activism for black identity in La Réunion’ In Médéa (ed) Les Kaf à La Réunion: La problématique des descendants d’esclaves. St Denis: Zarlor 2009.15 p (in French)

by Heloise Finch-Boyer

Identity work: Sustaining transnational collective action at General Motors Europe

by Marco Hauptmeier

Co-author: Ian Greer

Industrial Relations (Berkeley). Forthcoming, 2012

What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This paper presents a... more What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This paper presents a case study of General Motors Europe, where labor leaders have mobilized the workforce and bargained with management at the transnational level repeatedly over more than a decade as a response to management whipsawing and threats of plant closures. In contrast to structuralist interest-based theories of union behavior, we identify a process of 'identity work' that was necessary to sustain transnational worker cooperation.

Reactions to the crisis: appropriation movements in Greece and Germany

by Hartwig Pautz

Together with Margarita Kominou I presented this paper at the Greek Politics Specialist Group Conference in December 2011 at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

‘Thieves’ Thieves’ and ‘Superheroes’ – masked or playfully disguised activists taking from shops and luxury... more ‘Thieves’ Thieves’ and ‘Superheroes’ – masked or playfully disguised activists taking from shops and luxury restaurants and giving to the poor and to the impoverished middle classes are the topic of this paper. We want to look at such organized collective appropriation of goods in Greece and Germany, as it has occurred before and during the current economic, financial and social crisis, in a comparative perspective. In both countries, the appropriators have distributed the goods amongst people who they identified, in the case of Germany, as deprived, poor and vulnerable persons, or, in the case of Greece, or as members of the struggling middle classes. In Greece, the appropriators have also kept the goods for themselves. While the actions in Greece and Germany differ considerably in form and, in particular, in their intensity, both forms of direct action have occurred within a similar context: across much of the developing and developed world, the past twenty years have witnessed a number of new forms of resistance to what is perceived as the increasingly exploitative circumstances in societies perceived as more and more ‘unjust’. While participation in organized labour and in electoral politics as the ‘traditional’ form of channelling and settling social conflict has become less popular – as sinking electoral turnout, shrinking party membership and protests against ‘establishment politics’ – direct collective action in various guises has become more important to those wanting to achieve certain political outcomes. The specific context in which such political activism takes place can be encapsulated by the term ‘state transformation’ and includes changes – and their effects – in economic, welfare and labour market regulations which have occurred in both countries as well as in the majority of EU member states since the 1980s.
These effects of state transformation consist, inter alia, of rising inequality and the crumbling of hard-won welfare state services. It is therefore not astonishing that significant parts of the public have in both countries considered appropriation activism as legitimate; in particular because those identified as ‘really’ responsible for the crisis are seen as getting off lightly or, indeed, winning from the crisis. Such endorsement of illegal action indicates the loss of trust in the state and in the workings of the market, and an increasingly cynical attitude toward the law. This paper therefore addresses the question of ‘responses’ to the crisis by looking at how political activism has – or has not – been stimulated in Greece and in Germany.

Vulnerability and the basis of business ethics: from fiduciary duties to professionalism

by Eric Brown

forthcoming in Journal of Business Ethics

This paper examines the role of vulnerability in the basis of business ethics by criticizing its role in giving a... more This paper examines the role of vulnerability in the basis of business ethics by criticizing its role in giving a morally substantial character to fiduciary duties to shareholders. The target is Alexei Marcoux's (2003) argument for morally substantial fiduciary duties vis-à-vis the multifiduciary stakeholder theory. Rather than proceed to support the stakeholder paradigm, a conception of vulnerability is combined with Joseph Heath's (2004) "market failure" view of the ethical obligations of managers as falling out of their roles as professionals involved in the institution of the market. The
result is the core of a theoretically defensible and managerially motivating and deployable ethic.

Call for Papers: Theory, Action and Impact of Social Protest: An Interdisciplinary Conference

by Eugene Nulman

University of Kent - Canterbury, UK
October 13-14th, 2012

Abstracts due by JUNE 15, 2012 University of Kent - Canterbury, UK
October 13-14th, 2012

Abstracts due by JUNE 15, 2012

Intersubjectivity and Evaluations of Justice

by Gustavo Pereira

The capability approach assigns a central role to the contexts within which social interactions take place, which make... more The capability approach assigns a central role to the contexts within which social interactions take place, which make individual liberty achievable. However, an auxiliary concept is necessary to explain the contexts of collective action more accurately. In this paper I shall present Taylor’s concept of irreducibly social goods as a supplement to the capability approach. I shall also introduce the concept of hermeneutics as a strategy suitable for evaluating which capabilities are to be considered valid, as an alternative to aggregative methodologies. This conceptual development at the core of the capability approach demands to be framed by a normative criterion that enable us to distinguish between emancipatory and conservative contexts of social action; for that purpose I make use of the subject idealization that Honneth and Anderson present.

Collective Action, Clientelism and Connectivity

by Mahvish Shami

The Social Media Basis of Youth Protest Behavior: The Case of Chile

by Sebastián Valenzuela

Co-authored with Arturo Arriagada and Andrés Scherman; published in the 'Journal of Communication,' vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 299-314 (2012)

Protest activity has become a central means for political change in Chile. We examine the association between social... more Protest activity has become a central means for political change in Chile. We examine the association between social media use and youth protest, as well as mediating and moderating mechanisms of this relationship, using survey data collected in Chile in 2010. We found that Facebook use was associated significantly with protest activity, even after taking into account political grievances, material and psychological resources, values, and news media use. The link between overall Facebook use and protest activity was explained by using the social network for news and socializing rather than when it was used for
self-expression. Postmaterialist values and political ideologies were not found to moderate the association between Facebook use and protest.