Perceptions of Self and Collective Efficacy in Community Organization Theory and Practice

The concepts of learned helplessness and locus of control have been shown to be reliable predictors of both individual and group behaviors across a wide variety of social situations. Little effort, however, has been directed at understanding the variables associated with these constructs which influence the decision of a disempowered group to take social action when faced with adversity or challenge. This paper analyzes the concepts of perceived self and collective efficacy and discusses how these variables in individual and group behavior impact organizing. The concepts of perceived and collective efficacy are drawn from social learning theory and, within the paper, are hypothesized as the linch pin between various conflict theories. It is argued that once disenfranchised persons are recruited into social action organizations, a certain amount of resocialization must occur that transforms perceived helplessness or personal inefficacy into learned hopefulness with its associated motivation to take action. The role of group leadership in promoting collective efficacy is discussed.     

Toward a Social Theory of Resilience: Social Systems,Cultural Systems,and Collective Action in Transitioning Forest‐Based Communities

Impacts from post‐Fordist and poststaples economic transition in the Canadian natural resource sector have resulted in dramatic challenges to the livelihoods of many rural residents and the viability of many rural communities. This study seeks to understand community response to economic transition through a lens of social ecological resilience. This article puts forward Archer's theory of cultural morphogenesis as an analogous model of social ecological change that focuses attention on cultural systems, cultural elaboration, and collective action within an adaptive cycle of resilience. With case material from focused ethnographies of two forest‐dependent communities, we identify distinctive interactions between culture and agency over time that condition community response to change, and we make an analytical distinction between the social system and cultural system. These insights point to catalysts for collective action and adaptation within a resilient cultural realm that extend beyond institutional factors such as economic dependency or political opportunity. By integrating culture, we also deepen the social theory contribution to social‐ecological resilience.     

Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Understanding the Social Environment

SUMMARY

This paper presents a conceptual framework for selecting and organizing concepts of the social environment. It expands upon the traditional Human Behavior and the Social Environment perspectives used in social work curricula in the United States by identifying how a macro-systemconsisting of the intersection of four societal forces (social justice, social problems, social policy, and the political economy) works to influence a micro-systemof community, organizational, and group dynamics. In this framework, the impact of the macrosystem is mediated by collective responses of partnerships, alliances, and networks convened to address these forces. The framework is useful for understanding the complexity and uncertainty of the social environment in modern society with specific reference to: (1) how macro-system forces work to shape a constellation of community and organizational concerns, (2) how collective responses that seek solutions can be understood as instruments for achieving meaningful social change, and (3) how micro-systems concepts of structure (stages of development, systems of exchange, and diversity) and process (power and leadership, conflict and change, and integrating mechanisms) can inform practice.     

Social Capital and Participation in Community Improvement Activities by Elderly Residents in Small Towns and Rural Communities*

Abstract This study critically reviews theoretical concepts and measurements of social capital and tests hypotheses that elaborate how four dimensions of social capital (informal social ties, formal social ties, trust, and norms of collective action) and sense of community are related to participation in community improvement activities for elderly residents in small towns and rural communities. Mail surveys of 2,802 elders in 99 small towns and rural communities in Iowa reveal that many elders are actively involved in their community. Social capital and sense of community are very important in predicting elderly participation in community improvement activities, but they relate differently to elderly community involvement. Formal ties and sense of community have much stronger relationships with community involvement than informal ties and norms of collective action. Generalized trust is not significantly related to elderly community involvement.     

Genocide as Contentious Politics

Despite a recent turn towards the study of political violence within the field of contentious politics, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. This is puzzling, as the field of collective action and social movements was originally developed in reaction to fascism (Nazism in particular), while research on collective action and research on genocide has long shown parallel findings and shared insights. This paper reviews the history of this scholarly convergence and divergence, and suggests that recent findings of research on genocide can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements and collective action. It then details three theories of the micro‐mechanisms that mobilize individuals for contention – framing, diffusion, and networks – and specifies how they refine existing explanations of civilian participation in genocide. In the conclusion, I suggest that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one form of collective action among others, analyzable within the existing framework of collective action and social movement theory.     

Sustainable Social Work: An Environmental Justice Framework for Social Work Education

Environmental degradation is not experienced by all populations equally; hazardous and toxic waste sites, resource contamination (e.g., exposure to pesticides), air pollution, and numerous other forms of environmental degradation disproportionately affect low income and minority communities. The communities most affected by environmental injustices are often the same communities where social workers are entrenched in service provision at the individual, family, and community level. In this article, we use a global social work paradigm to describe practical ways in which environmental justice content can be infused in the training and education of social workers across contexts in order to prepare professionals with the skills to respond to ever-increasing global environmental degradation. We discuss ways for social work educators to integrate and frame environmental concerns and their consequences for vulnerable populations using existing social work models and perspectives to improve the social work profession's ability to respond to environmental injustices. There are significant social work implications; social workers need to adapt and respond to contexts that shape our practice, including environmental concerns that impact the vulnerable and oppressed populations that we serve.     

Social Movement Strategy,Tactics, and Collective Identity1

Tactical choices and their execution are closely related to the construction of collective identities in social movements. Studying collective identity has helped scholars understand why people participate in collective action, but the array of tactics that constitute action has not been fully explored. An emerging interest in culture and strategy that situates social movement actors in a field of contention with opponents, allies, and bystanding publics raises questions about the tactics that are used and the construction of collective identity, which is formed in interaction with others. Strategies and tactics reflect collective identities but also provide opportunities for reaffirming or challenging them. Innovative methods can create tension as activists work to resolve what they do with who they feel they are. Conflict studies, nonviolent action studies, and sociological research using concepts such as framing, discourse, protest events, and tactical repertoires offer tools with which to bridge tactics and collective identity.     

Social Capital and Communities of Place1

Abstract This paper develops a framework for examining the questions: Does social capital make a difference for well being in communities of place? How might rural sociologists utilize social capital to further well being in communities? The author reviews social capital literature, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Opting for a marriage between embeddedness and conflict theory, he introduces entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) as an alternative to social capital. ESI adds to social capital the notions of equality, inclusion, and agency. Research results are presented which support the embeddedness approach: community-level action (the community field) is not simply an aggregation of individual or organizational actions within the community; social capital and ESI contribute jointly and independently to community action. Examining economic development as a form of collective action, the author concludes?the following: a) ESI contributes to economic development, and b) inclusiveness (internal solidarity) is more closely related to community self-development while industrial recruitment is better predicted by strong external ties.     

Environmental Controversies,Interactional Resources,and Rural Communities: Siting Versus Exposure Disputes1

Abstract Differences in the types of social conflict occuring in facility siting disputes and toxic contamination cases are compared. An ecological-symbolic perspective and the concept of strong and weak ties are used to interpret the nature of social conflict in two rural Pennsylvania communities and in cases in the literature. Overall, community solidarity appears likely to be enhanced in siting disputes and undermined in exposure situations. To explain this, two conflict paths are developed that move from the presence or absence of the hazard agent to individual perceptions, the generation of collective threat beliefs and the formation of strong ties, the emergence of alternative leadership and its relationship to official authorities, and finally the formation of weak ties. In each case, the type of community conflict results from the nature of the perceived environmental threat and the social process that threat sets in motion. Practical implications for rural community development are discussed.     

Culture Within Sites,Culture as Resources,and Culture as Wider Contexts: A Typology of How Culture Works in Social Movement Theory

Sociologists of social movements agree that culture matters for studying collective action, and have proposed a variety of theoretical concepts to understand culture and mobilization, including framing, free spaces, and collective identity. Despite this, what we mean when we say “culture matters” remains unclear. In this paper, I draw on 30 years of social movement theory and research to construct a typology of three ways that culture is seen as shaping social movement activity: (i) culture renders particular sites fruitful for social movements to mobilize out of; (ii) culture serves as a resource that assists in movement action; and (iii) culture provides wider contexts that shape movement activity. This typology represents the analytic building blocks of theories about culture and social movements, and is presented towards the end of clarifying and sharpening our theoretical concepts. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research that draw on, refine, and extend these three building blocks.     

Individual Stress,Collective Trauma,and Social Capital in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill*

This article examines persistent social impacts of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) by focusing on the relationship between social capital and chronic individual stress and collective trauma, using Hobfoll’s (1988) conservation of resources model of stress as an organizing framework. Data are based on in‐depth personal interviews conducted 14 years after the disaster. Analyses focus on the ways in which stress‐related behaviors associated with loss and threat of loss of various forms of resources have affected social capital in the renewable resource community of Cordova, Alaska. Findings reveal lower levels of trust, disruptions in associations, weakened social connections and networks, altered social discourses, diminished feelings of good will, and violations of norms of reciprocity. Behaviors associated with long‐term stress related to the EVOS and to the associated protracted litigation are indicative of diminished social capital. This research highlights the critical importance of social capital as a collective resource and illustrates the ways in which decreased social capital can exacerbate individual stress and collective trauma.     

How can stigma contribute to our understanding of the formation and mobilization of collective identities in health social movements?

Scholars across several theoretical traditions have become increasingly interested in understanding the underlying factors and mechanisms that contribute to the formation and mobilization of collective identities in health social movements (HSMs). In this essay, I make the case that stigma can serve as a useful theoretical and conceptual framework in understanding the processes through which collective identities emerge and mobilize around health‐related issues. I begin by introducing the concepts of HSMs, collective identity and stigma and reviewing how scholars have defined these concepts. Next, I establish theoretical, conceptual, and empirical links among stigma, collective identity, and HSMs. I conclude by further specifying how and why stigma can serve as a unifying framework for medical sociologists, social psychologists, and social movement researchers to advance scholarship on HSMs.     

Die Organisation kollektiver Aktionen durch Beeinflussung der individuellen Teilnahmeentscheidung

Computer simulations allow a more optimal organization of collective action. For this purpose, the present study followed an actor-centered approach, in which the actor’s decision to participate in collective action is modeled on the basis of an expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior. The variables used in the model of the individual’s decision to participate in a collective action are attitude, return, subjective social norm, and perceived behavior control with regard to participation. With these four variables, various social scientific theories are integrated (Elaboration Likelihood Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, Rational Choice Theory). These theories allow a conceptualization of interactions among individuals, and the effect of the active people, who seek to recruit others to participate in a collective action, can be studied. Simulations of a population of 10,000 individuals reveal the influence of the following factors on the effectiveness of collective action campaigns: different forms of recruitment by activators, the amount of contributions to the collective good of the participants, the size of the collective good, and the resources available to activators (training in persuasion methods, possibility to reward participants). Finally, simulation results are summarized in the form of recommendations for implementation when organizing collective action.     

Class Formation and Class Identity: Birth,Death, and Possibilities for Renewal

While social class served as a powerful organizing identity for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, many doubt its contemporary relevance. This article examines the formation and development of theories of class identity over the past century. From a debate largely among Marxists in the early 20th century about the conditions under which the working class will mobilize to defend its interests – moving from a “class in itself” to a “class for itself” – the question of the relationship between individuals' class position, social interests, and political mobilization attracted greater attention among social scientists following World War II. However, postwar socioeconomic transformations led some to argue for the “death of class” as a central organizing principle for modern social and political life. While others countered that class identities remained relevant, the sharp decline in class‐based organization in the late 20th century led scholars to develop more nuanced understandings of the relationship between individuals' class position and collective identities. Although current scholarship shows that there is no natural translation of class identities into collective action, the reality of growing socioeconomic inequality, along with the resurgence of social and political mobilizations to contest that growth, suggests that class identities retain the capacity to unite.     

Breaking the Silence of Child Sexual Abuse in the Caribbean: A Community-Based Action Research Intervention Model

In Trinidad and Tobago, little data exists on child sexual abuse, although there are many anecdotal reports of high prevalence. The Breaking the Silence Gender and Community Empowerment Model is a multidisciplinary intervention to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in Trinidad and Tobago. It is an innovative, gender-sensitive intervention that uses a community based action research methodology anchored in a national framework. Preliminary evaluation of the Breaking the Silence model shows increased knowledge of child sexual abuse, increased willingness to discuss child sexual abuse, and an impact that goes beyond the target communities. This model can be replicated in communities to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse and adapted to address other sensitive social issues in the Caribbean.     

Changing Our Understanding of Child Welfare: Replacing the Residual Paradigm

Public policies and programs for children are shaped by collective understandings of what is possible and practical and are given expression through collective action. In the United States this collective action has primarily manifested itself through the development of the public child welfare system. Since its inception the child welfare system has been guided by a residual paradigm. This residual paradigm has been the principle organizing framework for knowledge development and practice in child welfare. It has defined the domain of the field, delineated the scope of professional inquiry, and proven to be a cul de sac that prevents finding solutions to the pernicious problems of widespread child poverty and child maltreatment.     

Does “fighting back” make a difference? The case of the Canadian auto workers union

Union revitalization requires mutually reinforcing efforts in organizing, political action, and collective bargaining. We examine the experience of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). In addition to membership growth, three bargaining outcomes are analyzed: (1) wage gains; (2) the ability to resist a trend towards longer duration collective agreements; and, (3) success in negotiating same-sex spousal recognition. In each of these areas the CAW has articulated a policy and then made gains in both absolute and relative terms. The CAW’s renewal strategy links these bargaining goals with social activism and membership growth through mergers and new organizing.     

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOUR AND THE FAILURE OF THE ARBITRATION PLATFORM, 1886–1887: Ideology, Hegemony, and Contextually Generated Opportunities for Frame Success

This article examines the reasons why the Knights of Labour, a labor movement that enjoyed enormous popularity and success during the penultimate decade of the 19th century, were unable to construct a resonant cultural frame in support of their platform of arbitration. The theoretical framework employed in this article is constructed by importing two concepts from political process models of social movement action into culturalist accounts, historical environment (or context), and opportunity. This framework allows me to look at how historical environments offer transient openings for the effective construction of counterhegemonic or subversive collective action frames. I argue that opportunity for framing has to do with the intersection between the signification requisites of framing practices, and the systemic features of cultural environments. I find that the nature of this opportunity in the years between 1885 and 1887 helps explain why movement practice within the Knights of Labour diverged so significantly from the practices advocated by its leadership.     

Social Strain, Structural Breakdown, Political Opportunity, and Collective Action

Sociology traditionally identified social strain and structural breakdown as causes of collective action. Such explanations were widely interpreted as endorsing social order and viewing its breakdown and the resulting collective action in a negative light. In the 1970s, advocates of the resource mobilization perspective criticized strain and breakdown explanations and this negative connotation of collective action. Rather than strain or breakdown, these theorists explained collective action in terms of solidarity, interests, and resources. Despite these criticisms, strain and breakdown explanations persisted at the margins of mainstream social movement theory. Moreover, the resource mobilization approach invoked 'opportunity' to explain collective action. There is a strong resemblance between 'strain and breakdown' and 'opportunity'. Both explain collective action in terms of external, facilitating conditions, but opportunity explanations connote a more favorable evaluation of the resulting collective action. Such resemblances suggest the viability of a synthesis between older and newer explanations of collective action.