Monday, February 24, 2014

Collier and Handlin 2009





chapter 1,
·         Changes in economic models in the 1990s came along with important changes in the urban popular interest regime (4)
o   Labor unions used to be number one
o   Now new community based groups, NGOs, etc. are most likely actors
·         Shift from UP hub to A Net involves three main points on contrast
o   Base units different (unions versus associations) (5)
o   Role of parties different, as parties play a less central role
o   Structure/internal order: hierarchy under UPhub, Anet is less well define, less hierarchical
·         (18) many interests of the popular sectors have material basis, ie people need food shelter water, so popular sector interests could hardly be seen as “postmaterialist”
·         (21) their survery defines popular sectors as those who have not completed high school
Chatper 2
·         Analytics themes acorss chapters (37)
o   Individual problem solving repertoires (37-38)
o   Representational distortion (38) how does popular sector representation compare with middle class rep
o   Associational strategies
o   Scaling
o   State-association ties

Chapter 3, Logics of Collective Action, State Linkages, and Aggregate Traits: The UP-Hub versus the A-Net

  • Comparing the UP-Hub (union-party hub) to A-Net (association net) to understand how they work in terms of problem solving and interest mediation for the popular sectors (61-63)
    • comparing scope, scaling, access, and autonomy
  • IMPORTANT: Comparison between individual collective action (people forming groups) and organizational collective action (groups forming larger groups) is the main difference here
  •  two comparisons
    • the patterns of collective action, individual (creating groups) and organizational (groups cooperating)
      • UP-Hub is more likely to be able to do "organizational collective action", but bad at individual
      • A-Net is more likely to be able to do "individual collective action", but bad at organizational
      • the state reinforces these differences, but in a way that depends on the time period we are talking about (ISI government versus neoliberal government)
    • nature of the relationship between popular organizations and the state
      • close, extensive relations in UP-Hub
      • slightly more arms length, but increasingly more institutionalized linkages as time passes
  •  Logics of collective action
    • Resources
      • unions need lots of resources, since the strike is their main form of action (66-7)
        • membership becomes formalized in order to gather resources
        • means there are high barriers to form a union, but once one exists its easier to have organizational collective action (68)
      • popular associations are usually resource poor, have trouble holding on to members since the cost of exit is low, but also don't need to coerce members usually (not sure I believe this...when they need members, they need them!)
        • easier to form associations, but harder to have collective action because it's expensive (68)
    • same relationship holds true in having a convergence of interests
      • unions are hard to create consensus, but easier to have organizational collective action because issues are similar
      • associations can gather people to work on a project, but its not easy to get cross-organizational action
    • the effect of demands (types) on collective action is ambiguous


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