Monday, January 16, 2012
Heterogenous and Homogenous Collective Action Contexts
Insider-outsider problem is a difficult nut when it comes to the question of Commons. The heterogenity of outsiders is a manageable issue if the insiders have strong unity and when they are homogenous. The problem gets complex when the insiders are heterogenous. Small sections within insiders have some strong linkages with outsiders (which may be heterogenous or homogenous).
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When there is a conflict of self interest versus community interest, self interest always has an upper hand and this situation is aggravated when the appropriators of “commons” have a heterogeneous group, the group members’ act as the house member who ruins his own house, since they collude with the outsider with which they may have a strong link and try to gain a short term benefit out of the “commons” and suffer from myopic prisoners dilemma.
Ritu Kashyap(32037)
Whenever outsiders try to invade the “common” no matter whether they are homogenous or heterogeneous it can be managed easily if there is unity among the insiders. One good example is when outsiders are prohibited to reap the benefits of an overgrazed land by a homogenous group of insiders. Contrary to this if the insiders are heterogeneous and have different self interest, they would try to transfer the benefits to the outsiders with whom they associate themselves at the cost of the other insiders’ benefits leading to exploitation of the “common”.
Shipra Sharma
(32092)
The outsiders only act as a facilitator in initiating a collective action. Composition of the outsiders (homogenous or heterogeneous) does not affect the collective action because of their low association with the group. But the success of the action solely depends on the members. When the group will have similar interests and needs they would unite together for the common purpose. For having the common wants, the group must be in similar conditions, that is having homogenous composition. People with similar levels identify themselves with each other and come to a consensus easily.
Lipsa Mishra (32078)
Heterogeneity amongst the insiders would lead to a conflict over some issue or the other. Agreeing with what Ritu put forward, self-interest mostly tends to have an upper hand over community interest. No matter how united they may be inspite of their heterogeneity; there is always a threat of a few insiders colluding with the outsiders. Also, the role of outsiders cannot be discounted completely as they can be a medium of relevant information and a catalyst to influence those in power. Hence, if the group is heterogeneous, outsider intervention in the group should be minimal.
Arshia Gupta (32057)
Unity determines the strength of the group and it is assumed or observed that the heterogeneous composition of the group dilutes the unity component. If the common is prone to invasion by outsider, unity of the group will be crucial in protecting the common. But what are the advantages of a heterogeneous group’s ownership of common. Heterogeneity brings in varied thinking and acts as a self-check to avoid exploitation of common by powerful. Hence, homogeneity is desirable if there is a threat from outsiders and heterogeneity is desirable if efficiency is the need of the hour.
Pavan EVSR (32084)
In my opinion, the strength of the linkage between the insider(s) and the outsider plays a greater role than the question of their being a homogeneous of a heterogeneous group.If the linkage of an insider to the outsider is a very strong one or has an incentive attached to it, even the homogeneity of the insider group takes a back seat.
Parneet Kaur(32028)
Heterogeneity of insiders need not always add to the complexity but tends to bring people with varying potentials,views & linkages together which in-turn increases the efficiency of group . Excessive homogeneity increases unity but also restricts vision & resources to limited set of people which may hamper growth in long run. People associate together if added heterogeneity in group increases the net benefit thus increasing their individual benefit share.What needs to be checked is whether loss due to self-interest of smaller sections within do not exceed he benefits which heterogeneity brings along with it.
Neelam(32026)
In my opinion heterogeneity of insiders can actually benefit if there is availability of perfect information to all the agents. For ex. in sugar cooperatives large farmers’ political and bureaucratic linkages will be an input to the cooperative and at the same time if perfect information is available to small farmers also, large farmers will not be allowed to use the surplus for their personal gains. However, they can always invest in the public goods and use the surplus for their political benefits which will again help as ultimately the small farmers will be benefitting.
Raj kamal goldi
32033
Whenever a common is faced by an insider-outsider situation, friction is natural between the two groups as the insiders would like to protect their interests. No matter what the composition of outsiders be, it is always easy to work out an agreement if the insiders are homogeneous. They will all be working for the same goal and trusting each other would be easy. Problems can arise in case of heterogeneity of insiders, as their motives for participating in the collective can be different.
Arpit Bansal
32009
When insiders are heterogeneous, there is higher probability that a particular stratum of this heterogeneous sect has some alignment with outsiders. This may result in favoritism by that sect towards outsiders. This may result in dis-contention within Insiders and can spoil whole of the collective action.
Gurpreet (32066)
Whenever the insiders are homogeneous, all of their common problems are solved by the whole group. But whenever the personal interests of a particular individual is not met as a collective by the group, then that particular individual maintains linkage with an outsider in order to meet his personal interests. At this point, the collective action fails. It becomes quite difficult to persuade him to act according to the group. Hence the primary pre requisite for a collective action is to work in a homogenous group, where there is no clash of interests.
Abhishek Misra
(32001)
The insiders, which would be composed of diverse groups, have to look upon their priorities, that is whether to achieve the collective action or their individual group's self interest. This choice has to be followed as a norm, for the collective action not only to be a success but also to be sustainable in nature.
Durga Satapathy
32065
When there is heterogenity amongst the insiders then the insiders having the same interests will get together to have a strong clout. Due to this they will join with the outsiders who share the same interests as they do,the reason being to garner support for their own benefit.This may lead to several complexities as there would be inter group trifles and this may also lead to an erosion of group benefits that they would have otherwise reaped if the 'insiders'worked together.
Arjun Sood (32008)
In my opinion, the homogeneity of the insiders always help in process of collective action. For example, In Bikaner (Fieldwork Segment), the heterogeneity of the outsiders (different religion) came across the homogeneous insiders while initiating a collective action of building a temple. But, since the collective action was not possible without the help of outsiders, the insiders managed the issue somehow and collectively led to the completion of collective action. Had the insiders been heterogeneous the collective action would not have taken place.
Himanshu Pilania
(32070)
I think it’s the shared interests with mutual trust among insiders are the driving force for the collective action. It is highly likely that homogeneous group of insiders will have less conflicting self interests which can be easily shared than the heterogeneous group but not necessarily. It will depend upon context and need of the environment. For example homogenous group of small farmers may not collude in situation of good monsoon conditions for irrigation project but there is incentive for heterogeneous group of small and big farmers to collude in drought situation.
Mahesh Dharap(p32019)
If insiders have higher degree of heterogeneity then incentives to work for common action could vary among the participants and it may lead to hamper the action. Heterogeneity of outsiders is not a big problem because most of the time outsiders act only as moderator in a collective action. Once they found the action at right and sustainable track, they make themselves apart from it. Insiders‘linkages with outsiders could affect commons which depends on insiders’group structure, if homogeneous then most likely it will assist the commons in form of facilitation of external help in performing a collective action.
Gaurav Singhal (32014)
Building upon Durga's comment: the classification of Insider/ Outsider and Heterogenous/ Homogenous for discussion purposes without knowing the context of the Commons does not provide sound base for judging what will work or which situation will result in greater problem complexity. Priorities of each individual and in turn groups within the larger whole have to be first understood. These priorities themselves will be influenced by the exact nature of the Commons in question and how the situation is understood by different units of people. Differences in understanding of the situation by different units supersedes all other classification. -pankaj kela
In a heterogeneous group of insiders, there would be a group of homogenous people who would be more powerful. They might have a higher chance for external linkages which can lead to aggregation within a limited set of people. However, as a need to increase the size and scope of the cooperative is felt, there would be inclusion of more and more people amongst the insiders in the movement which would reduce the impact of such external linkages. Similar pattern was observed in the formation of AMUL.
Darshit Shah (32062)
It is true that groups become cohesive and effective if it has homogeneous members. If the group is heterogeneous then different groups have different motives to be part of the collective like in case of large farmers when compared with small/marginal farmers in the case of sugar cooperative, being part of the cooperative is political rather than economic necessity. In this case large farmers end up with control rights in the cooperatives because of their outside influences and contacts with politicians, bureaucrats, and their ability to undertake the market transaction costs.
Ankithreddy (32054)
In many cases there is an inverse relation between the importance or gravity of the objective of collective action and level of conflict due to heterogeneity between insiders. This was embodied in a major collective action that took place in the form of a protest that took place in our village, wherein even though leaders from different caste based hamlets participated, there was little internal conflict. Whereas on micro issues like utilization of common hand pump heterogeneity aggravated the dispute.
Mayank Gupta(32022)
Its true that the heterogeneity of the members especially the insiders can bring variety and potential to the group but for a collective action to sustain what is more important is the homogeneity of its members not just on social level but also on the mental level. They should be able to form a consensus and the action must go on. Otherwise there could be conflict even among people with similar levels.
Prateek Parimal(32029)
Homogeneity among elite groups definitely enhances capacity for collective action but in a heterogeneous group, the presence of actors with diverse characteristics increases the likelihood that a group of highly motivated people will emerge to initiate action. Going with what Mayank said, in case of extractions from common pool resources individually, there is no difference in efficiency between homogeneous and heterogeneous group. However, collective action becomes difficult to achieve and reach at an efficient agreement when, there is heterogeneity in economic wealth, groups can vote on allocation schemes and agreement over authority of the leadership.
Tanu Shree Shekhawat
(32044)
It is true that different groups among the insiders is a hard nut to crack but it also means having different point of views, different perceptions for the same problem of "commons". No doubt, with homogeneity group will be easy to manage because of their unified thoughts but it has a tradeoff of ignoring other line of thoughts. And in most practical scenarios, it is difficult to have a homogenous group. So to overcome the problem of so many different ideas with heterogeneity, may be efficient leaders are needed, as Mayank mentioned about an incident in his village.
Shweta
32094
Homogeneity does not mean that everyone in the group has to think the same way.Honest differences of views and honest debate are not disunity, they are the vital process of policy making among free men. So when it comes to the question of Commons, there might be some differences among insiders regarding the appropriation of common pool resources and the likes but if this heterogeneity arises on account of some form of alliance with the outsiders then it plays against the insider's group and in the long run the unity of the group suffers. On the flip side, constructive differences of opinions and views brings in a sense of overall understanding of the surroundings which in turn can help to deal with the outsiders because a pure homogeneous ideology in everyone aspect of life and society, blind the people living in a homogeneous society about the development of the rest of the world.
Tahira Sheikh(32043)
The very diversity of background and culture among heterogeneous outsiders can make for various angles of thinking. As the homogeneous insiders interact with these heterogeneous outsiders the homogeneous insiders themselves are enriched – culturally and intellectually.
However, if insiders are heterogeneous, a particular section of the insiders tends to enlist the support of or collude with heterogeneous outsiders to further its own interests. Such a conflict of interest may arise even among homogeneous insiders. In Gorkhaland in West Bengal for example there are Gorkha elements opposed to even the dominant party GJM although racially and culturally they are no different.
Ayan Roy(32061)
The collective action is not a problem when the outsider is either heterogenous or homogenous. The problem arises when the insiders are heterogenous or homogenous. The reason might be that the interests of the commons are vested with the insiders and not outsiders. The insiders are only linked with the outsiders to get a proper guidance to lead the commons. The success of a collective action does not depend whether an insider is homogenous or heterogenous, rather it depends on the conditions prevailing for a colletive action to occur.
Khushboo Sinha(p32017)
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