The Mathematics of Collective Action
Author: James S. Coleman
Publisher: Aldine
Published: 1973
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13:
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The Mathematics of Collective Action
Author: James Coleman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-07-12
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13: 1351479717
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPhilosophers, social scientists, and laymen have used two perspectives in analyzing social action. One sees man's action as the result of causal forces, and the other sees action as purposive and goal directed. Mathematical treatment of social action has shown this same dichotomy. Some models of behavior describe a causal process, in which there is no place for intention or purpose. Most stochastic models of behavior, whether individual or group, are like this. Another body of work, however, employs purpose, anticipation of some future state, and action designed to maximize the proximity to some goal. Classical microeconomic theory, statistical decision theory, and game theory exemplify this direction.This book examines these two directions of work, and makes original contributions to the second. An introductory chapter outlines these two bodies of work, and casts them in a common frame, to display their similarities and differences. Chapter 2 reviews at length recent work in stochastic processes that makes up the first body of work, which sees social action as the resultant of causal forces. The remaining chapters develop a mathematical framework for the study of systems of social action using a purposive theoretical base. These chapters are designed particularly to contribute to the study of collective decisions, a form of social action that has proved particularly challenging to theoretical analysis. First published in 1973, this became a significant work both in problem solving and in the future career of the author. It is of continuing importance to researchers and students interested in statistical analysis.
The Mathematics of Collective Action
Author: Deepak Lal
Publisher:
Published: 1973
Total Pages: 191
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWorking Together
Author: Amy Poteete
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2010-04-12
Total Pages: 371
ISBN-13: 1400835151
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAdvances in the social sciences have emerged through a variety of research methods: field-based research, laboratory and field experiments, and agent-based models. However, which research method or approach is best suited to a particular inquiry is frequently debated and discussed. Working Together examines how different methods have promoted various theoretical developments related to collective action and the commons, and demonstrates the importance of cross-fertilization involving multimethod research across traditional boundaries. The authors look at why cross-fertilization is difficult to achieve, and they show ways to overcome these challenges through collaboration. The authors provide numerous examples of collaborative, multimethod research related to collective action and the commons. They examine the pros and cons of case studies, meta-analyses, large-N field research, experiments and modeling, and empirically grounded agent-based models, and they consider how these methods contribute to research on collective action for the management of natural resources. Using their findings, the authors outline a revised theory of collective action that includes three elements: individual decision making, microsituational conditions, and features of the broader social-ecological context. Acknowledging the academic incentives that influence and constrain how research is conducted, Working Together reworks the theory of collective action and offers practical solutions for researchers and students across a spectrum of disciplines.
Collective Action Theory and Empirical Evidence
Author: Ronald A. Francisco
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2010-03-10
Total Pages: 123
ISBN-13: 1441914765
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book comprises empirical tests of the theoretical implications of collective action theory specifically with regard to mobilization. It is based on the author’s European Protest and Coercion Data, which won the Comparative Politics Section of American Political Science Association award for the best data set in 2007. The data is supplemented by historical investigations as well as other research. The volume is divided into six chapters. The introduction covers the theory of collective action in its many manifestations as well as the process of drawing out theoretical implications. The second chapter goes to the core of the mobilization issues, especially with regard to the role of leadership, which is inextricably linked to mobilization. The third chapter applies the concept of adaptation to the development of more productive tactics that promote mobilization in support of a public good and minimize the possibility of repression. In chapter four, five spatial hypotheses based on rationality and formal theories are developed and the role of time in protests is addressed. The fifth chapter focuses on the fundamental problems of terror with evidence from the Basque region of Spain and France from Ireland against the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The final chapter surveys the empirical evidence and summarizes the support of collective action theory. Testing collective action theory implications with empirical evidence will appeal to political scientists, sociologists, economists and researchers concerned with mobilization.
Collective Actions
Author: Stefan Wrbka
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012-04-30
Total Pages: 457
ISBN-13: 1107379849
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume of essays draws together research on different types of collective actions: group actions, representative actions, test case procedures, derivative actions and class actions. The main focus is on how these actions can enhance access to justice and on how to balance the interests of private actors in protecting their rights with the interests of society as a whole. Rather than focusing on collective actions only as a procedural device per se, the contributors to this book also examine how these mechanisms relate to their broader social context. Bringing together a broad range of scholarship from the areas of competition, consumer, environmental, company and securities law, the book includes contributions from Asian, European and North American scholars and therefore expands the scope of the traditional European and/or American debate.
A Unified Theory of Collective Action and Social Change
Author: Luis Fernando Medina Sierra
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2007-05-31
Total Pages: 303
ISBN-13: 0472069950
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn intriguing examination of one of the most important unresolved problems in social choice theory: how do we best understand people's decision to pay the cost of a public good?
A Unified Theory of Collective Action and Social Change
Author: Luis Medina
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2009-12-18
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 9780472024452
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe 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.
The Cooperator's Dilemma
Author: Mark Irving Lichbach
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 1996
Total Pages: 342
ISBN-13: 9780472105724
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA comprehensive and current presentation of the collective-action approach
Online Collective Action
Author: Nitin Agarwal
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2014-08-01
Total Pages: 243
ISBN-13: 3709113407
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis work addresses the gap in the current collective action literature exposed by the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) landscape by bringing together qualitative and quantitative studies from computational and social sciences. The book offers a rigorous and systematic investigation of both methodological and theoretical underpinnings and, thus, collectively promotes a symbiotic and synergistic advancement of the multiple interconnected disciplines in studying online collective actions. More specifically, the book is intended to illuminate several fundamental and powerful yet theoretically undeveloped and largely unexplored aspects of collective action in the participatory media (e.g., social media). Through in-depth exploration of relevant concepts, theories, methodologies, applications, and case studies, the reader will gain an advanced understanding of collective action with the advent of the new generation of ICTs enabled by social media and the Internet. The developed theories will be valuable and comprehensive references for those interested in examining the role of ICTs not only in collective action but also in decision and policy making, understanding the dynamics of interaction, collaboration, cooperation, communication, as well as information flow and propagation, and social network research for years to come. Further, the book also serves as an extensive repository of data sets and tools that can be used by researchers leading to a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the dynamics of the crowd in online collective actions.
