Marine Areas for Responsible Artisanal Fishing (AMPR) have emerged as a new model for co-managing small-scale fisheries in Costa Rica, one that involves collaboration between fishers, government agencies and NGOs. This thesis aims to examine the context for collective action and co-management by small-scale fishers; evaluate the design, implementation, and enforcement of AMPRs; and conduct a linguistic analysis of fisheries legislation. The present work relies on the analysis of several types of qualitative data, including interviews with 23 key informants, rapid rural assessments, and legal documents. Findings demonstrate the strong influence of economic factors for sustaining collective action, as well as the importance of certain types of external organizations for community development and co-management. Additionally, significant enforcement gaps and institutional deficiencies were identified in the work of regulating agencies. Legal analysis suggests that mechanisms for government accountability are unavailable and that legal discourse reflects some of the most salient problems in management.

Partnerships between government and community-based actors and organizations are considered the hallmark of contemporary governance arrangements for the revitalization and gentrification of economically distressed, inner city areas. This dissertation uses historical, narrative analysis and ethnographic methods to examine the formation, evolution and operation of community-based governance partnerships in the production of gentrifable urban space in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, FL between 1970 and 2010. This research is based on more than four years of participant observation, 60 in-depth interviews with respondents recruited through a purposive snowball sample, review of secondary and archival sources, and descriptive, statistical and GIS analysis. This study examines how different organizations formed in the neighborhood since the 1970s have facilitated the recent gentrification of Wynwood. It reveals specifically how partnerships between neighborhood-based government agencies, nonprofit organizations and real estate developers were constructed to be exclusionary and lead to inequitable economic development outcomes for Wynwood residents. The key factors conditioning these inequalities include both the rationalities of action of the organizations involved and the historical contexts in which their leaders’ thinking and actions were shaped. The historical contexts included the ethnic politics of organizational funding in the 1970s and the “entrepreneurial” turn of community-based economic development and Miami urban politics since the 1980s. Over time neighborhood organizations adopted highly pragmatic rationalities and repertoires of action. By the 2000s when Wynwood experienced unprecedented investment and redevelopment, the pragmatism of community-based organizations led them to become junior partners in governance arrangements and neighborhood activists were unable to directly challenge the inequitable processes and outcomes of gentrification.

Esta tese de doutorado visa estudar e compreender os aspectos relativos às iniciativas de certificação socioambientais, buscando responder como elas se estruturam e como funcionam a partir de uma lógica de ação coletiva, tomando por base a cadeia de cana-de-açúcar em geral e o caso da BSI-Bonsucro em particular. Para tanto, desenvolveremos uma revisão bibliográfica acerca do tema das certificações socioambientais, visando compreender o processo e as limitações acerca destes arranjos. Em seguida, procederemos a um estudo acerca do universo de análise em que nos debruçamos, qual seja, a cadeia de cana-de-açúcar, a qual esmiuçaremos em sua origem e características e nos indicadores dos principais mercados a ela associados: o de açúcar e o de etanol combustível. A partir de então, iniciaremos o bloco analítico onde desenvolvemos um estudo de caso sobre a principal iniciativa de certificação socioambiental no âmbito do setor sucroalcooleiro: o BSI-Bonsucro. Nele, procuramos enunciar e analisar todos os critérios de sustentabilidade presentes na iniciativa e abrir caminho para a última seção, que consiste na análise propriamente dita do objeto à luz das teorias de ação coletiva, especialmente o Arcabouço de Análise e Desenvolvimento Institucional de Elinor Ostrom. / This doctoral thesis aims to study and understand the aspects related to socioenvironmental certification initiatives, seeking to answer how they are structured and how they work based on a logic of collective action, based on the sugarcane chain in general and the Case of BSI-Bonsucro in particular. To do so, we will develop a bibliographical review about the subject of socioenvironmental certifications, in order to understand the process and the limitations on these arrangements. Next, we will study the universe of analysis in which we are concerned, that is, the sugarcane chain, which we will analyze in its origin and characteristics and in the indicators of the main markets associated with it: sugar And that of fuel ethanol. From then on, we will start the analytical block where we developed a case study about the main socio-environmental certification initiative in the scope of the sugar and alcohol industry: BSI-Bonsucro. In it, we seek to enunciate and analyze all the sustainability criteria present in the initiative and make way for the last section, which consists in the analysis of the object itself in the light of collective action theories, especially the Elinor Ostrom´s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework.

Alors que le community organizing constitue aujourd’hui l'une des formes d'action collective les plus légitimes aux États-Unis, encourageant la participation de classes populaires urbaines que tout exclut du champ politique, les conditions de possibilité de cette participation improbable restent peu étudiées. À partir d'une enquête ethnographique et sociohistorique menée à Chicago, berceau historique de ce répertoire d’action, cette thèse se penche sur le groupe de professionnel·le·s, les community organizers, qui font exister une participation et une représentation politiques profanes. Pourtant, contrairement aux arguments classiques de la sociologie politique, ces professionnel·le·s refusent de parler au nom du groupe mobilisé, la community, se mettant activement en retrait derrière des porte-parole populaires qu’ils et elles sélectionnent et forment. Que dit l’étude de ce rôle des liens entre institutionnalisation, professionnalisation et politisation/dépolitisation ? Pour saisir les ressorts de cette dissociation originale entre professionnel·le et porte-parole et ses effets sur la division du travail politique, on montre comment ce rôle de « faiseur de représentants » émerge, se consolide et se légitime à partir des années 1970, à la frontière entre, d’une part, la tradition d'intervention sociale héritée des initiatives réformatrices des premières décennies du XXe siècle, et d’autre part les pratiques contestataires héritées des mouvements sociaux des années 1960 et 1970. La thèse expose ensuite comment ce rôle hybride, où revendication d’expertise professionnelle et travail de mobilisation et de politisation sont indissociables, se manifeste dans des pratiques quotidiennes de mise en représentation populaire. Celles-ci s’inscrivent dans un espace d’intermédiation largement déterminé par des relations d’interdépendance avec d'autres espaces et champs concurrents (champs politique et philanthropique, « espace des mouvements sociaux ») qui échappent aux porte-parole profanes. Enfin, en déplaçant la focale vers les trajectoires des community organizers, de leurs dispositions à l'engagement aux modalités de maintien dans le rôle ou de reconversion dans d’autres espaces professionnels en passant par l'incorporation en acte de ce sens pratique militant pragmatique, on voit néanmoins que devenir community organizer peut confirmer ou enclencher des dynamiques de politisation individuelle. / Community organizing is one of the most legitimate forms of collective action in the United States today, fostering the participation of urban working classes that are structurally excluded from the political field. And yet, the conditions of possibility of such socially unlikely participation have received little scholarly attention. Based on an ethnographic and sociohistorical inquiry conducted in Chicago, the historic birthplace of that repertoire of collective action, my goal in this dissertation is to address this gap by focusing on the group of professionals, called community organizers, who make popular and lay political participation and representation possible. The central paradox here is that, contrary to what the literature in political sociology usually argues, these professionals refuse to speak on behalf of the mobilized community, actively stepping back behind the spokespeople they select and train. What does the study of this role say about the links between processes of institutionalization, professionalization and politicization/depoliticization? In order to make sense of the original dissociation between the professional’s role and that of the spokesperson and understand how it affects the division of political work, the dissertation shows how the role of “leader-maker” has emerged, taken shape and been legitimized from the 1970s onwards, at the junction of, on the one hand, the reform-minded community organization tradition dating back to the early 20th century, and on the other, the legacy of the contentious politics of the 1960s and 1970s. I then shift the focus to what this hybrid role, where claims of professional expertise and mobilization and politicization cannot be disentangled, actually looks like in terms of daily practices developing popular representation. These practices occur within a space of political intermediation broadly shaped by networks of interdependencies with other competing sectors (the political and philanthropic fields, the “space of social movement”) which are beyond the lay spokespeople’s reach. By looking at organizers’ individual trajectories, however – from their social dispositions towards commitment to the actual incorporation of this pragmatic practical sense and the ways individuals can stay in the field or exit the role towards other career opportunities – the research shows that becoming an organizer can confirm or initiate dynamics of individual politicization.

Cette thèse analyse le surgissement des Tacana, un groupe indien qui s’est formé il y a quelque vingt ans dans le nord de l’Amazonie bolivienne, au moment même où se mettaient en place un ensemble de réformes étatiques visant à construire un modèle de citoyenneté dans le respect de la diversité ethnique. L’apparition des Tacana est un évènement moderne et contemporain ; ses acteurs sont des descendants des gens qui arrivèrent dans cette région à la fin du XIXème siècle, venant de différents départements du pays, et qui fournirent la main-d’œuvre d’un système d’extraction forestière qui exploita d’abord le caoutchouc, et ensuite d’autres ressources de la forêt amazonienne. L’étude a ainsi pour toile de fond les interactions entre les travailleurs forestiers et les industriels qui contrôlent l’économie régionale. Ce phénomène de conversion ethnique est vu sous trois angles. On analyse la façon ! dont les travailleurs se sont approprié l’ethnonyme « Tacana » et l’ont utilisé pour se faire entendre et pouvoir profiter des réformes étatiques. On montre comment ils ont cherché à affirmer et à justifier leur existence en tant groupe spécifique au travers des recensements organisés par les organismes de l’État et par les instances internationales qui travaillent à la défense des droits indigènes. Enfin, la particularité de ce phénomène apparaît dans les actions collectives qu’ils ont entreprises dans le but de devenir propriétaires d’une aire territoriale indigène collective, ce qui était la raison fondamentale de leur choix de « devenir Indiens ». Par-delà le cas des Tacana, il est démontré que les politiques étatiques qui cherchent à gérer les différences ethniques ne sont pas le résultat de demandes sociales mais que, tout au contraire, ces demandes sont la conséquence de l’application de ce type de politiques. / This thesis studies the rise of the Tacana, an indigenous group formed in Bolivian Amazonia two decades ago, when different State reforms aimed at constructing a citizenship model based on respect for ethnic diversity. The emergence of the Tacana is a contemporary phenomenon involving part of the descendants of those groups who arrived in the region during the late 19th Century coming from different parts of the country. These people formed the labor force for a forest extraction system which initially exploited rubber but later extended its activities to other forest resources. Against this background, the situation has been analyzed in this study interms of the interactions between the forest laborers and the business management that controls the local economy. The thesis explores how, in this ethnic conversion process, forest laborers have used the “Tacana” identity to achieve visibility as well as benefit from the ethnic State reforms. The study shows how these laborers sought to justify their differential existence formally through census registrations made by State institutions which were backed up by international institutions involved in the defense of Indigenous Rights. The particularity of this process is also examined from the point of view of collective action undertaken by the new ethnic group to become the legal owners of a collective indigenous land –the primary factor that explains why they chose to become ethnic subjects. Our investigation shows that State policies that seek to manage ethnic differences are not triggered by social demands; rather, this sort of demand is a direct consequence of policy application.

abstract: My research is motivated by a rule of thumb that no matter how well a system is designed, some actors fail to fulfill the behavior which is needed to sustain the system. Examples of misbehavior are shirking, rule infraction, and free riding. With a focus on social-ecological systems, this thesis explored the effectiveness of social feedback mechanisms driven by the two available individual options: the exit option is defined as any response to escape from an objectionable state of affairs; and the voice option as any attempt to stay put and improve the state. Using a stylized dynamic model, the first study investigates how the coexistence of participatory and groundwater market institutions affects government-managed irrigation systems. My findings suggest that patterns of bureaucratic reactions to exit (using private tubewells) and voice (putting pressure on irrigation bureaus) are critical to shaping system dynamics. I also found that the silence option – neither exit nor voice – can impede a further improvement in public infrastructure, but in some cases, can improve public infrastructure dramatically. Using a qualitative comparative analysis of 30 self-governing fishing groups in South Korea, the second study examines how resource mobility, group size, and Ostrom’s Design Principles for rule enforcement can co-determine the effectiveness of the voice option in self-controlling rule infractions. Results suggest that the informal mechanism for conflict resolution is a necessary condition for successful self-governance of local fisheries and that even if rules for monitoring and graduated sanctions are not in use, groups can be successful when they harvest only stationary resources. Using an agent-based model of public good provision, the third study explores under what socioeconomic conditions the exit option – neither producing nor consuming collective benefits – can work effectively to enhance levels of cooperation. The model results suggest that the exit option contributes to the spread of cooperators in mid- and large-size groups at the moderate level of exit payoff, given that group interaction occurs to increase the number of cooperators. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2020

abstract: Invasive plants harm the ecological properties of natural systems, human health, and local economies. However, the negative impacts of invasive species are not always immediately visible and may be disregarded by local communities if social benefits of control efforts are not clear. In this dissertation, I use a mixed-methods approach to investigate the drivers of invasive plant distribution, potential financially feasible management techniques to control invasion, and community forest user perceptions of those techniques. In this work, I aim to incorporate the diverse perspectives of local people and increase the long-term success of invasive species control activities in socio economically vulnerable populations. Integrating a spatially and temporally diverse data set, I explore the social and ecological drivers of invasive plant abundance across 21 buffer zone community forests in the Western Chitwan Valley of Nepal. I evaluate to what extent forest user and collective manager activities, the legacies of historic activities, and ecological properties influence present-day invasive plant abundance. I built upon this study to identify areas with critically high levels of invasion then initiated a three-year, community-based management intervention to evaluate traditional and adaptive land management approaches to control invasive plants. I found that both approaches reduced invasive plant abundance relative to the surrounding, untreated forest. I then interviewed focus groups to investigate their perceived efficacy of the various treatment types and found that almost all forest users and managers preferred the adaptive approach over the traditional management approach. Notably, forest users cited the importance of the availability of forest resources and lack of harmful plants in the plots that had undergone this method. Understanding how forest users relate to and experience invasive plants has been relatively understudied but can influence forest user engagement in different management approaches. For this reason, I performed in-depth ethnoecological interviews to explore how forest users perceive, how they utilize, and to what extent they value invasive plants. This mixed-methods approach contributes to a more holistic understanding of the role that local people play in invasive plant management and restoration activities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental and Resource Management 2020

<div> <p>Work stoppages have had a recent upsurge in the American educational sector. Since 2018, teachers across the country have participated in record-breaking labor strikes using innovative communication technologies to skirt more traditional, offline organizing spaces in order to keep their organizing communication private and/or secret. This dissertation presents two studies that address the organizing communication done behind virtual closed doors as well as the public-facing strike communication intentionally meant for relevant stakeholders. In addition to this distinction between intended audiences, I also consider how differing legal contexts may influence the communication possibilities for teachers participating in a strike. Specifically, right-to-work (RTW) laws serve as a legal backdrop in both studies to examine how state-level policy helps or hinders workers organizing in the public sector by comparing one strike in a RTW state to another strike in a state without RTW laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>The internal organizing communication was done in private Facebook groups for both teachers groups. I used the two spectra from the Collective Action Space theoretical framework (Flanagin et al., 2006) to plot the internal organizing communication according to the posts and comments in each Facebook group. The RTW teachers’ internal organizing communication is near the personal and institutional ends of the mode of interaction and mode of engagement spectra, respectively. This placement indicates that the RTW teachers valued and utilized deliberative engagement in their channels of communication while also exhibiting communication patterns more indicative of top-down, hierarchical power structures. The unionized teachers’ internal organizing communication is closer to the impersonal and entrepreneurial ends of the mode of interaction and mode of engagement spectra, respectively. This combination of placements on the two spectra indicate that the unionized teachers valued equitable channels of communication while devaluing conversation and back-and-forth deliberation.</p> <p> </p> <p>The external organizing communication was observed and analyzed on Twitter. Building largely on network agenda-building theory (Guo & McCombs, 2011a, 2011b; Guo, 2012), I employed semantic saturation as a class of semantic network analyses to compare and contrast the public communication about each strike from each legal context. These techniques involve capturing the language structure used by various group to discuss the strike and analyzing and comparing how much of one group’s messaging ends up in another group’s messaging (Wiemer & Scacco, 2018; Wiemer et al., 2021). In general, the teachers in the RTW legal context were more effective at getting their messaging into the local press’s reporting about the strike. The teachers in both contexts also appeared to be communicating toward different audiences when specifically talking about one of their strike demands and that difference was also reflected in the local press’s reporting on each strike.</p> <p> </p> <p>Overall, this dissertation extends collective action and media effects theories by analyzing two strike events in two very different legal contexts that both used the same communication technology to organize their respective strikes. The findings presented here have important implications for organizing communication, interest group politics, and the role of local news media in labor actions.</p></div>

Dans de nombreuses montagnes tropicales, les populations sont aujourd’hui fortement exposées aux risques liés à l’eau (pollution et pénurie), notamment depuis le développement récent de l’agriculture intensive. À travers l’étude de quatre communautés rurales des páramos colombiens et vénézuéliens – écosystèmes d’altitude spécifiques des Andes septentrionales –ce travail questionne le lien entre l’efficacité de l’action collective et la réduction des vulnérabilités liées à l’eau. L’approche repose sur une analyse de la construction sociale des risques et de la capacité d’adaptation des communautés rurales. La méthodologie s’appuie sur 191 entretiens semi-directifs ainsi qu’une observation directe et participante auprès des agriculteurs et des différents acteurs du monde agricole et de la gestion de l’environnement. Enfin, le traitement des données est fondé sur une analyse de contenu, ainsi qu’une analyse plus fine du discours à travers l’outil IRaMuTeQ. Ce travail montre, d’une part, que la pollution de l’eau est souvent négligée par les agriculteurs, car elle se dérobe constamment aux représentations profanes ; elle est aussi déniée, du fait des enjeux économiques impliqués. A contrario, la pénurie est, elle, une construction sociale fortement ancrée, fruit de normes liées à une représentation commune de l’eau comme ressource économique. C’est pourquoi les agriculteurs sont plus tentés de réduire leur vulnérabilité à la pénurie d’eau d’irrigation que celle liée à la pollution de la ressource. Ce travail démontre, d’autre part, que l’adaptation au risque de pénurie est un puissant moteur de l’action collective, notamment lorsqu’elle est régie par un ensemble de règles, complexes, négociées et modifiables. Toutefois, les difficultés de gestion des risques sanitaires et environnementaux prouvent que la réduction des risques de pollution est loin d’être un objectif commun. Et bien que les communautés rurales s’organisent pour protéger les points de captage de l’eau en altitude, la vulnérabilité est systématiquement déplacée vers l’aval des bassins versants. La reconquête de la qualité de l'eau du páramo est donc un défi pour une grande diversité d’acteurs (institutions étatiques, associations environnementales, gestionnaires de l’eau, agriculteurs…). Néanmoins, les pouvoirs publics colombiens et vénézuéliens ont encore trop peu d’impacts sur la gestion des pollutions d’origine agricole. / The population in many tropical mountains is currently highly exposed to water-related risks (pollution and scarcity), which are increasing notably with the development of intensive agriculture. Through the study of four rural communities in the Colombian and Venezuelan páramos - specific altitude ecosystems of the northern Andes - this work questions the relationship between the effectiveness of collective action and the decrease of vulnerabilities related to water. The approach is based on an analysis of the social construction of the risks and adaptability of rural communities. The methodology rests on 191 semi-structured interviews as well as direct and participant observation with farmers and the different participants in the agricultural world and environmental management. Finally, the data processing is based on a content analysis, along with a more detailed study of the discourse through the IRaMuTeQ tool. This work shows, on the one hand, that water pollution is often neglected by farmers, since it constantly evades profane representations; it is also denied due to the economic stakes involved. A contrario, scarcity is a deeply established social construct, the result of standards related to a common representation of water as an economic resource. This is why farmers are prone to reduce their vulnerability to irrigation water scarcity rather than to the one related to pollution of the resource. This work shows, on the other hand, that the adaptation to the risk of scarcity is a powerful driving force of collective action, especially when it is regulated by a set of complex, negotiated and modifiable rules. However, the difficulties of managing health and environmental risks prove that reducing pollution risks is far from being a common goal. And whereas rural communities line up to protect water catchment points at high altitude, the vulnerability is systematically shifted downstream of the watersheds. Regaining the water quality of the páramo is therefore a challenge for a wide variety of participants (state institutions, environmental associations, water managers, farmers ...). Nonetheless, the Colombian and Venezuelan public authorities still have too little impact on the management of pollution of agricultural origin. It is in this context that some interesting initiatives and experiences come out locally or via other non-institutional actors. / En muchas montañas tropicales la población se encuentra actualmente expuesta a los riesgos relacionados con el agua (contaminación y escasez). Unos riesgos que se han acentuado con el reciente desarrollo de la agricultura intensiva. A través del estudio de cuatro comunidades rurales de los páramos colombianos y venezolanos – ecosistemas de altitud específicos de los Andes septentrionales – este trabajo se pregunta por la relación existente entre la eficacia de la acción colectiva y la reducción de las vulnerabilidades ligadas al agua. Este planteamiento se basa en un análisis de la construcción social de los riesgos y de la capacidad de adaptación de las comunidades rurales. La metodología se apoya en 191 entrevistas semi-estructuradas así como en la observación directa y participante junto a los agricultores y de los diferentes actores del mundo agrícola y de la gestión del medio ambiente. Finalmente, el tratamiento de los datos tiene como base un análisis de contenido, y un estudio más detallado del discurso a través de la herramienta IRaMuTeQ. Este trabajo muestra, por un lado, que la contaminación del agua es a menudo pasada por alto por los agricultores, puesto que ésta escapa a las representaciones profanas. Además, esta contaminación es igualmente negada debido a las cuestiones económicas en juego. A contrario, la escasez es una construcción social profundamente enraizada, que es el fruto de normas ligadas a una representación común del agua como recurso económico. Por lo tanto, los agricultores se muestran más inclinados a reducir su vulnerabilidad a la escasez de agua de riego que al problema de la contaminación de los recursos hidráulicos. Por otro lado, este trabajo pone de manifiesto que la adaptación al peligro de escasez es un potente móvil de la acción colectiva, especialmente cuando está regulada por un conjunto de normas complejas, negociadas y modificables. Sin embargo, las dificultades de gestión de los riesgos sanitarios y medioambientales prueban que la reducción de los peligros de contaminación está todavía lejos de ser un objetivo común. Incluso si las comunidades rurales se organizan para proteger los puntos de captación de agua en altitud, la vulnerabilidad es desplazada de forma sistemática hacia las zonas más bajas de las cuencas fluviales.

The coronavirus pandemic has thoroughly tested the Swedish crisis management system. It has affected and involved a large number of actors, across sectors and levels of government. Scholars of crisis management have long been interested in different forms of collaboration between actors. This large-scale crisis provides an opportunity to enhance our understanding of collaborative crisis management and to help us better deal with crisis in the future. This study aims to further enhance our understanding of collaboration in crisis management through the lens of a cen- tral actor in the Swedish crisis management system: the county administrative boards (länsstyrelserna). This study focuses on regional crisis management, where the county administrative boards play a central role, and aims to describe the con- text in which the actors operate and identify potential collaboration risks. This is being done through the application of the Institutional Collective Action Frame- work (ICA), which has been developed to identify and address collective action problems that may occur due to fragmented responsibility. Through a qualitative interview study this thesis has highlighted the complex nature of a large-scale crisis and the collaboration risks that follows. The main finding of this study is that the risk of coordination problems increases when a large-scale crisis involves a larger number of actors. Risks of incoordination are manifested in parallel communication channels and parallel networks, that if not identified and managed risks to short- circuit the ordinary collaborative structures in place. Some of the findings in the study may also be of interest for further studies.