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Regenerative and Sustainable Futures for Latin America and the Caribbeanexplores how to build sustainable futures for Latin America and the Caribbean, presents recommendations for policy and decision-makers to shape sustainable futures, and reflects on the value of collective action for a region that deserves a better tomorrow.

Using empirical data from 87 watershed communities in semiarid India, our study has shown that collective action in watershed management can be captured through a set of variables that indicate the capacity of communities to design and enforce certain common institutional arrangements and their ability to mobilize local financial and labor resources for watershed investments. The level of collective action in terms of internal institutional capacity was affected negatively by the size of the groups (number of households and area of the village), while distance from markets and high rainfall seemed to increase it. On the other hand, collective action in terms of internal mobilization capacity decreased with rainfall, size of group, number of seasonal migrants, and distance from the seat of the local administration but increased with area of the village, flow of information within the village, and the share of land under village commons. The mobilization capacity also seems to have increased with equitable distribution of benefits and preference for employment of the rural poor and female workers. However, the results clearly show that in most watershed communities the level of collective action is very limited, indicating that only few communities have achieved higher levels of active participation of resource users in watershed programs. ; PR ; IFPRI2; CAPRi ; EPTD

Civil society, or citizen's groups, have taken centre stage in international policy debates and global problem solving. They hold out the promise of a global community and global governance. This volume, by leading scholars and participants, shows how to understand the changes that are occurring, particularly in relation to the international institutions involved. It includes case studies from all the major social movements of the 1990s

The subsidiarity control mechanisms of the Lisbon Treaty have received much attention with their promise to redress the position of national and regional parliaments, which were seen as losers in the integration process. Two years later, beyond formal rules and good intentions, the question remains as to whether these novelties actually succeeded. Given the greater scrutiny capacity of national parliaments, the variety of member states' adaptations is assessed, such as using binding mandates, the role of second chambers but also diverse concepts of the subsidiarity principle. The record shows that while there is significant activism among legislative actors, actual change has been very limited so far. Additionally, two structural challenges are addressed: Firstly, given high thresholds to step into the EU policy cycle, national legislatures face a collective action problem when forging majorities. Secondly, incentives of individual MPs to engage in matters of subsidiarity remain limited. Adapted from the source document.

This paper provides novel additional evidence on the characteristics of Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), investigating their role within the European energy sector. It analyses and presents results of a survey administered in six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Estonia, and Spain. CAIs are studied in light of four key dimensions, those being their creation dynamics, the way they are organized, financed, and the activities they undertake. The results presented are also interpreted to reflect on their role as drivers of social innovation (SI) within energy transition in Europe. The analysis shows that the contribution of CAIs to the energy transition has a much wider scope than the development of energy projects and provision of energy services. CAIs are intrinsically socially innovative models of implementation as characterised by a strong level of citizen involvement and participation. Moreover, they have a potential multi-level role in the energy transition, from the technological and social perspectives. Indeed, alongside traditional energy activities, our results show that CAIs are evolving and expanding towards socially innovative activities, raising awareness on environmental issues, promoting citizens' mobilization, and fostering social inclusion. ; This research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837722, project COMETS (COllective action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation).

AbstractThe de‐collectivization of Vietnamese agriculture was a crucial step in the country's transition to a market economy. The assignment of land‐use rights had to be decentralized and local cadres ostensibly had the power to capture this process. We assess the realized land allocation against explicit counter‐factuals. Depending on the region, we find that 95–99 percent of maximum aggregate consumption was realized by a land allocation that generated lower inequality overall, with the poorest absolutely better off. We attribute this outcome to initial conditions at the time of reform and actions by the centre to curtail the power of local elites.

Few days after the tragic events of September 11, Osama bin Laden invited President George W. Bush to convert to Islam. This article explores this fantasmatic "conversion offer" in order to demonstrate the hidden workings of collective hatred and its ambivalent mechanisms. Based on previous work (Yanay, 1989, 1995, 1996), this article claims that collective hatred signifies a failure to mediate between similarity and difference, closeness and separation, isolation and connectedness, at the same time that national and religious groups aspire to be included and be recognized as part of humanity.

In Andalusia, as in other parts of Spain, it has been built a political and union space of leftist organisations which opposed the strategy of the Communist Party, especially after the Moncloa Pacts. This article examines the ideas, strategies and evolution of radical trade unionism in Andalusía from 1976 to 2012, using the different theoretical approaches on collective action. In particular it provides a map of those alternative unions influenced by activists, organisations and ideas of the radical left. Firstly, it describes the main anarcho-syndicalist unions. Secondly, it analyses the wide range of Marxist and/or ethno-nationalist trade unions. The history of such organisations is a succession of lost battles, splits, mergers, coordination efforts, struggles and small victories. Andalusian radical unionism has not achieved to develop agglutinating agents, shared identities and organisational structures capable of challenging the hegemony of the two majority unions. Nevertheless, it has reached a meaningful social influence and projection in certain territories and moments. Finally, the article suggests the main eight factors which explain the maintenance of the Andalusian radical trade unionism. In doing so it uses a synthetic approach on social movements which includes political, organisational and cultural factors. ; En Andalucía, al igual que en otros puntos de España, se ha configurado un espacio político y sindical de organizaciones de izquierda que se opusieron a la estrategia del PCE, especialmente a partir de los Pactos de la Moncloa. Este artículo analiza los planteamientos, estrategias y evolución del sindicalismo radical en Andalucía desde 1976 hasta 2012 a partir de las diferentes teorías de la acción colectiva. En particular se ofrece un mapeo de aquellos sindicatos radicales influidos por militantes, organizaciones e ideas de izquierda radical, utilizando una perspectiva diacrónica. En primer lugar se describen los principales sindicatos de carácter anarcosindicalista. Posteriormente se examina el amplio espectro de sindicatos de influencia marxista y/o nacionalista andaluz. El sindicalismo radical andaluz no ha logrado desarrollar elementos aglutinantes, identidades compartidas y fórmulas organizativas capaces de disputar la hegemonía de los sindicatos mayoritarios, aunque sí han logrado tener una influencia social significativa en determinados enclaves y momentos. Por último, el artículo identifica los ocho principales factores que explican la implantación del sindicalismo radical andaluz. Para ello, se utiliza una perspectiva sintética sobre los movimientos sociales, que contempla factores políticos, organizativos y culturales.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume explores interdependencies between knowledge, action, and space from different interdisciplinary perspectives. Some of the contributors discuss knowledge as a social construct based on collective action, while others look at knowledge as an individual capacity for action. The chapters contain theoretical frameworks as well as experimental outcomes. Readers will gain insight into key questions such as: How does knowledge function as a prerequisite for action? Why are knowledge gaps growing and not diminishing in a knowledge society? How much knowledge is necessary for action? How do various types of knowledge influence the steps from cognition to action? How do different representations of knowledge shape action? What impact have spatial conditions for the formation of knowledge? What is the relationship between social and geographical space? The contributors consider rationality in social and economic theories as well as in everyday life. Attention is also given to action theoretic approaches and rationality from the viewpoints of psychology, post-structuralism, and human geography, making this an attractive book for students, researchers and academics of various backgrounds

There is abundant behavioural evidence that inertia biais is very powerful: we tend to stick to the default option, even when it would be easy and cost nothing to choose a different option available to us. Legislators know this. For example, some countries make organ donation a default option and those who do not want to be donors have to opt out. Others choose to make organ donation an opt-in choice. The result is a massive difference in the proportion of organ donors in the population. We know that if we want something to happen, it is better to set it as a default. Yet, when it comes to collective redress, the Commission recommends an opt-out model. This is good evidence that those who do not want class actions to happen in Europe have so far won the lobbying game. In this paper, I argue that this is the wrong way to go and Europe should embrace an opt-out model for class actions.

There is abundant behavioural evidence that inertia biais is very powerful: we tend to stick to the default option, even when it would be easy and cost nothing to choose a different option available to us. Legislators know this. For example, some countries make organ donation a default option and those who do not want to be donors have to opt out. Others choose to make organ donation an opt-in choice. The result is a massive difference in the proportion of organ donors in the population. We know that if we want something to happen, it is better to set it as a default. Yet, when it comes to collective redress, the Commission recommends an opt-out model. This is good evidence that those who do not want class actions to happen in Europe have so far won the lobbying game. In this paper, I argue that this is the wrong way to go and Europe should embrace an opt-out model for class actions.

The problem of rules and the private language argument are among the most renowned and disputable themes of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Presumably today's best known interpretation of the themes was presented in Saul Kripke's famous and often commented book Wittgenstein on Rules and the Private Language, published in 1982. The interpretation, nicknamed "Kripkenstein", became the target of numerous attacks of authors convinced that it did justice neither to Wittgenstein nor to the real way our language worked.This article begins with the examination of Wittgenstein's problem of identification of action which may be counted as justified by the rule, that is, the problem of criteria of correctness. This is Kripke's starting point in his binding the problem of rules with the private language argument. He believes that Wittgenstein did not question the mere possibility of such a language but the possibility of any language at all. Further, we survey the rejected solutions to the problem of criteria: the mentalistic and the dispositional. This leads us toKripke's sceptical solution: there are no reasons of actions which occur before these actions. There are certain trained ways of doing things which "tell" us what to do in typical situations but they are not criteria of correctness. Such criteria may only be public and therefore social.In conclusion it's argued that Kripkenstein's view is really Wittgenstein's view: contrary to the popular opinion Kripke did not put forward a new solution, he just gave us a different way of presenting it.

Abstract
We experimentally explore the role of institutions imposing collective sanctions in sustaining cooperation. In our experiment, players only observe noisy signals about individual contributions in finitely repeated public goods game with imperfect monitoring, while total output is perfectly observed as it is often the case in collective action problems in society. We consider sanctioning mechanism that allows agents to commit to collective punishment in case the level of cooperation among members of society falls short of a target. We find that cooperation is higher with collective punishment compared to both no punishment or punishment targeting individuals. Importantly, our results indicate that it is the combination of making a commitment to be punished and the collective nature of punishment which induces cooperation. Our findings show that punishing a group collectively for misbehavior of some of its members induces cooperation when individuals participate in setting up the sanctioning institution. The study contributes to the literature on institutional legitimacy and how to ensure good government performance when dealing with collective action problems, and, by considering commitment, improves enforcement methods criticized for their detrimental effects on some societal groups.

Effective solutions for integrating agricultural development and conservation of biodiversity at the landscape scale remain to be identified. We present a case study in an intensively farmed French cereal plain, where the reintroduction of grasslands has been proposed first for conservation purposes in order to protect the Little Bustard, a highly threatened bird species. Monitoring the effects of grassland "experimental" implementation revealed other beneficial effects on virtually all components of the trophic web in these agroecosystems, particularly at the landscape level. Indeed, in intensive cereal systems, perennial habitats such as grasslands are radically different from annual crops in terms of level and frequency of disturbance (plowing, planting, spraying etc.). In these highly fragmented and disturbed habitats, the presence, abundance and distribution of grasslands therefore have a critical role in ecological and environmental regulatory processes. We provide evidence that grasslands, particularly alfalfa, are the support of many ecosystem services, such as pollination, biological control, in addition to forage production. To maximize their provision, it is critical to rationalize the inclusion of grasslands in the cropping system (in time, space and according to management practices). However, currently, grasslands are severely depleted by farmers who privilege cereal crops for economic reasons (including CAP subsidies). We therefore raise the issue of whether crop allocation at the landscape scale can be changed without public funding, in order to increase the proportion of grasslands. In other words, how to overcome the reluctance of cereal farmers to produce forage crop? A solution explored here is to identify the interdependencies between farmers related to the ecosystem services grasslands provide at the landscape scale. The recognition of grassland emergent functions when considered at the landscape scale gives them a status of common good: a good that should be collectively managed to maximize ecosystem services. This consideration leads to involve new stakeholders such as citizens, scientists, government bodies or NGOs in the collective management of grasslands and opens an innovative way to reconcile agriculture and conservation at the landscape scale.