Collective Action anyone??

Last night I was watching a movie- 'The help.' As I started watching it, the horses of my thoughts also followed the symphony of move and started galloping. When the movie concluded with the song 'The Living Proof', a remain of our CAC class finally came to the brim! The Living Proof! Yes it is a living proof of a handful of ordinary Helps making the entire community of whites realize their atrocities against the black race!
Before I take my stand on the circumstance depicted in the movie, I would like to give everyone a clue of what the movie actually had. This is a story of late 1940s when America started to expand at a lightning pace. We can compare that era with the current Indian scenario of development. The people were earning a handsome amount with high disposable income. But, as there are always a dark face beneath the brighter one, the racism also reached the peak in the tenure of the American President John F. Kennedy. The culture which was pretty popular in that era was of black helps(maids) assisting the white affluent families. Their work  included all the chores along with the added work of baby sitting. We can call it the case of modern day maids combined with the babysitters in a single package. The treatment which the whites provided them can obviously be understood by us as we are having enough experiences of discrimination form the fieldwork! Even in the present world the situation of Apartheid exists in America. The only difference we can notice is that the situation has improved a bit.
The story takes a 90 degrees turn when an American white female wants to publish the perspectives of the Helps in a newspaper to get the required ovation and a job in the hot shot corporate editorial clubs of flying city New York. As it was difficult to get a Help interviewed with her own will (especially to speak against the Whites) and tell her true story, she first tried to interview a Help by force. The Help also responded to her as if she was ordered by her boss to answer the questions to this interviewer. These two conducted few sittings at the Help's house and soon became good friends. Help starts narrating her part of the story. American interviewee than asked the Help to get some more friends of her so that she can form a document which is more credible. Her request was obviously denied as no one wanted to go against their own WHITE bosses! Importantly, in the outer world, the atrocities against these helps also became more rampant. After some days the Helps decided to meet this American lady and tell their part of the stories. No wonder , in just a single night the entire book of 262 pages was ready to be published. To know what happened next, just click on

Kathryn Stockett, Author of The Help. 

Many elements of collective Action are highlighted in this movie. Being a student of CAC, I would like to mention 

some of them. According to me the people came together because:

• They wanted to change the status quo.
• They wanted to live a  happy life.
• They wanted equal representation.
• They realized a way by which they could use their weapon(weapon of the weaks!)
• They wanted to change the existing power structure.

Still, I would like to roll the ball in your mind to let you think about my classification if it as a collective action! Is it a collective action accordng to you?Think and comment!

Power of the weak

What a contradiction! But, that is what weapons of the weak indicate. Wherever power dichotomy exists such as landlord-labourer, teacher-student, Leader-follower, voter-legislator, parent-child, it is most likely that weapons of the weak will be used. Do we have examples of how weapons fo the weak limits the choices that powerful person has got?

Challenges of Defining Power

If scarcity explains collective action, do we still need to bring the concept of power to understand the nature of collective action? If yes, why? How are different dimensions of power impact on the nature of collective action?

Tragedy of commons in IRMA

We, IRMANs are considered as most responsible persons in society. We also always boast of it. Reason being, many IRMANs are serving in the area of social development.

But when I see as Insider, I don’t find any reason to believe this fact.

Just 3 days before there was a lot of fun in IRMA. “Jatra”, an internal event where hostel blocks locked horns with each other for the title, was organized. A lot of congratulations to “D” block for grabbing the trophy once again. It was the best example of collective action in IRMA in front of my eyes, where 24 individuals of each block fought with other block for winning the event.

Common rooms have been the most important part of Jatra for every block. Most of the blocks started preparation almost a month before so regular meetings were held in common rooms. A lot of strategic decisions were taken by hostel blocks before and during Jatra-

What is our current position?

What to do in next event?

What about next day?

To which block, we should collude to fight a common enemy.

Apart from it, common rooms were the places of preparation for blocks- whether to make props for mock rock or fashion parade, practice for block song, DJ war or adapt tune etc.

I thank a lot to Dr Kurien to provide hostels with common rooms facility. After this I got understood the importance of common rooms.

For whole Jatra, common rooms were the busiest rooms in IRMA. Blocks were preparing whole night for events of next day.

But once Jatra was over, no one looked for common rooms. No one went inside them. No one cleaned the common rooms. Even after three days, Jatra is over. This has become dirtiest place in IRMA.

I tried to find answer to this thing. And it again remembers me two events of Jatra. One is “Dirty Room”, other is “Treasure Hunt”.

As the name suggests, the dirtiest room will be winner. So we did a lot of things so that rooms should look dirty like- Spoiled eggs, dirty cloths and Socks etc. Event happened in morning and surprisingly such dirty rooms were clean by evening. The reason being it is private property of individuals whereas even after two days of event, common rooms still remain dirty, reason being it is common property of 24 individuals residing in that particular block.

In “Treasure Hunt” there was a clue “tragedy of commons” about common rooms and TV room. But no one took lesson from game. And game remained game only.

What could be solution of these problems?

May be, Make rules or game so that blocks will clean their common rooms after Jatra. And most clean common room will be awarded in “Clean room” competition.

Does solution always lie in making rules? Or can we do it collectively.

Please ponder for two minutes…………..

Collective Action for the Poor and Rich

"Collective Action" most of the times seems to strike the cord among the poor people. The very reason for this phenomena may be that the poor are not economically sound enough to pool in enough resources for a particular activity. If they are made aware of a potential income source which can be tapped then obviously the people will come forward together, which would not only benefit them but the entire community. Moreover one can also say that collective action is simply not for the poor. Everyone can reap the benefits out of it. With time people have begun to understand the positive aspects of collective efforts and nowadays this is also visible in almost every sector starting from the ground level to big organizations.

The world is scarce or abundant?

Is not the question of scarcity very similar to the paradox of half-full glass? Is scarcity really a determinant of collective action? We could make argument for and against such a statement. What contexts of scarcity may generate collective action, and what may demobilise collectives?

Common Property as Social Institutions for Resource Management

Commons is an attitude; a worldview. A worldview that instills a strong sense of responsibility towards our surroundings and our future. There is also a danger here: the logic of commons is understood and internalised by the members of commons and not outsiders. In other words, worldviews are still not shared worldviews with wider world. What is required to transcend this?