JointActionEff · The Effectiveness of Joint Collective Action in Promoting Social Change
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-06-01 → 2024-08-30
- EU contribution
- €269,998
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The Effectiveness of Joint Collective Action in Promoting Social Change
The last century has been characterized by the growth of grassroots social movements and large-scale collective action aimed at advancing equality, some of which has involved historically advantaged and disadvantaged groups acting together. This phenomenon is manifested in collaboration between White and Black Americans, and Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. Such joint actions are thought to have a potent impact on catalyzing social change and galvanizing support for social movements. While joint action can serve a symbol and an engine of unity, emphasizing shared goals over intergroup differences, this kind of collaboration is not without its challenges. Bringing together unequal groups, particularly in contexts fraught with conflict and polarization, gives rise to complex dynamics that can, at times, result in unintended consequences. Our understanding of the influence that advantaged group allies exert on collective action remains limited. It's unclear whether their involvement enhances the effectiveness of social movements in achieving social change, compared to efforts undertaken solely by disadvantaged groups. This project therefore aims to understand the impact of joint action on the public, specifically on its capability to shift support for policy change and mobilize for collective action. Investigating these questions is essential as it sheds light on the circumstances in which joint action can lead to positive or adverse outcomes, ultimately helping us unlock its full potential for addressing inequality and creating meaningful impact. The aim is not just to understand these movements in a theoretical sense, but to use that understanding to guide and optimize joint activism. By identifying the most effective ways to engage both advantaged and disadvantaged groups, society can create more robust and impactful social movements that drive towards fairness and equality. Such understanding can lead to strategies that overcome intergroup barriers and forge new paths of cooperation and empathy. In addition, in societies facing deep-rooted conflicts and polarizations, understanding the mechanisms by which joint action can shift public sentiment towards policy change is vital. Such insights equip activists and leaders with the knowledge and tools to create movements that resonate with broader audiences.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The last century has been characterized by the growth of grassroots social movements and large-scale collective action aimed at advancing equality, some of which has involved historically advantaged and disadvantaged groups acting together. Such alliances, e.g., those between White and Black Americans and Israelis and Palestinians, are unique because they involve members of groups that vary in power. Nonetheless members from each group have joined forces to promote social change toward equality. While there are reasons to believe that such ally-ship may be especially influential in creating actual change and motivating others to support social change, there is little research aimed at understanding whether joint action is more effective than action taken by the disadvantaged alone, and if so why. These questions are pivotal because it helps to answer the broader question of whether joint action, as a rare situation of inherently unequal group members cooperating despite the larger scale conflict between them , is actually worth the effort. While past work has focused on understanding the psychological antecedents of joint action, this proposal shifts the focus to understanding whether and how joint action is effective, that is, whether it affects social change towards intergroup equality. To these ends, a cutting-edge research programme is proposed consisting of 8 studies combining different methodologies (archival research; lab experiments, intervention) and focusing on three intergroup contexts: Whites-Blacks in the U.S.; men and women; and Jews and Palestinians in Israel. The proposed project will enhance knowledge about the psychological processes through which collective action can generate social change and succeed in shaping attitudes and motivating multitudes to challenge the status quo.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM · JerusalemCoordinatorIsrael
- BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY · STANFORDUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union