Exploring Conditions of Cooperation and Sacrifice in Political and Social Settings

探索政治和社会环境中合作和牺牲的条件

• 批准号: 0517735
• 负责人: Margaret Levi
• 金额: $ 17.83万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2007-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0517735&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploring; Conditions; Cooperation; Sacrifice; Political

Left-wing long shore union members give up time and money to fight on behalf of social justice causes from which they can expect no personal material return. What beliefs and preferences guide those choices, and how are they formed? The dependent variables in this investigation are the choices organizational members make in regard to the kinds of goals to which they will contribute their money and time and the actions in which they are willing to engage. They have selected four sets of paired comparisons of union locals whose members appear similar in sociodemographic characteristics and interests before joining but, the researchers posit: (1) develop different preferences (2) as a consequence of an organizational culture that produces contingent consent with leadership and its goals. "The Lenin Problem" is how to transform narrowly materialist or, what are labeled "economistic" preference orderings into a ranking that includes commitments to social justice and the betterment of others-including strangers. The transformation from economism to class consciousness is relatively rare in the United States and only somewhat more likely (although decreasingly so) in other advanced industrial democracies. But when this transformation takes place, it offers insight into how individuals change their preference rankings or possibly develop new preferences. Labor unions are important collective action organizations with which members form identifications and grounds for ethical reciprocity. They also vary in terms of the preferences they engender among members. Investigations of unions permit exploration of the mechanisms by which "business unions" induce economistic preferences and "social movement unions" class consciousness and ideological commitments to improving the material well-being of others as well as themselves. The researchers are interested in how an organizational culture is created and maintained, how and when it produces contingent consent, and the mechanisms by which the combination of the organizational culture and contingent consent enable members to learn from each other and leaders and, in the process, develop new preference rankings, beliefs, and goals. The intuition is that democratic institutions and practices, particularly those that facilitate member participation and that make leaders accountable, are key to solving the "Lenin Problem". The investigators create analytic narratives by integrating detailed case research and rational choice accounts to provide causal explanation and assessments of the plausibility of the argument. Intellectual merit: The project promises theoretical and empirical advances for those in a wide range of disciplines concerned with developing a more powerful, testable, and tested model of cooperation and sacrifice. It also aims at improving the analytic narrative approach, an increasingly important tool for qualitative, comparative, and historical studies. Finally, it should offer a sharper grasp of labor unions and other organizations cross-nationally. By participating in multi-disciplinary conferences and by publishing their findings in journals and as a book, they hope to influence how social scientists understand actions that are rational but also motivated by ethical, ideological, identity, and contextual considerations. Broader impact: The collaboration between the PI and the senior consultant enhances the international impact. There will also be the creation and dissemination of new data bases; integration of students into research-based learning; and potential policy impacts. The authors will share the data widely and quickly by developing web-sites as well as by depositing the data in relevant archives. Undergraduate and graduate research assistants will be well integrated into the research effort and become authors or co-authors when feasible. The PI and the senior consultant are already involved with policy communities eager to learn from the results of the research. The work on labor unions will inform current debates about the future of unions, their optimal constitution, and corrupt and undemocratic practices. The research proposed here and its extensions to nationalist, religious, and political groups will contribute to understanding how organizational cultures and their governance structures affect the preferences and behavior of behavior.

左翼长岸工会成员放弃了时间和金钱代表社会正义事业作战，他们可以期望没有个人物质回报。 哪些信念和偏好指导这些选择，它们如何形成？ 本调查中的因变量是组织成员在为自己贡献金钱和时间以及愿意参与的行动的目标方面做出的选择。 他们已经选择了四组成对的工会当地人的比较，他们的成员在加入之前在社会人口统计学特征和兴趣上看起来相似，但是，研究人员认为：（1）由于组织文化产生了与领导者及其目标的同意，发展了不同的偏好（2）。 “列宁问题”是如何将狭义的唯物主义者或标记为“经济”偏好秩序标记为什么，其中包括对社会正义的承诺以及包括其他陌生人的改善的承诺。在美国，从经济学到阶级意识的转变相对罕见，而在其他先进的工业民主国家中，这种转变只有更有可能（尽管如此）。但是，当这种转变发生时，它就会深入了解个人如何改变偏好排名或可能发展新的偏好。工会是重要的集体行动组织，成员构成道德互惠的身份和理由。 他们在成员之间产生的偏好方面也有所不同。 对工会的调查允许探索“商业工会”引起经济偏好和“社会运动工会”阶级意识和意识形态承诺的机制，以改善他人的物质福祉。研究人员对组织文化的创建和维护，如何以及何时产生或有同意的方式以及组织文化和临时同意的结合的机制感兴趣。直觉是，民主制度和实践，尤其是那些促进会员参与并使领导者负责的机构和实践是解决“列宁问题”的关键。研究人员通过整合详细的案例研究和理性选择说明来创建分析叙事，以提供因果关系的解释和评估。 知识分子的优点：该项目有望为那些涉及建立更强大，可检验和经过测试的合作与牺牲模型的人的理论和经验进步。 它还旨在改善分析叙事方法，这是一种越来越重要的定性，比较和历史研究的工具。 最后，它应该更详尽地掌握工会和其他组织的跨国公司。 通过参加多学科会议，并通过在期刊上发表他们的发现，他们希望影响社会科学家如何理解理性但也受到道德，意识形态，身份和上下文考虑因素的动机。 更广泛的影响：PI与高级顾问之间的合作增强了国际影响力。还将建立和传播新的数据基础；将学生整合到基于研究的学习中；和潜在的政策影响。作者将通过开发网站以及将数据存放在相关档案中，从而广泛，快速地共享数据。 本科和研究生研究助理将充分融入研究工作，并在可行的情况下成为作者或合着者。 PI和高级顾问已经参与了渴望从研究结果中学习的政策社区。 关于工会的工作将为有关工会的未来，最佳宪法以及腐败和不民主做法的当前辩论提供信息。这里提出的研究及其对民族主义，宗教和政治团体的扩展将有助于了解组织文化及其治理结构如何影响行为的偏好和行为。