Collective Action Infrastructure: Downstream Consequences of Urban Organizing (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Grassroots Politics: Collective Action, Elites, and Local Political Behavior

Abstract

When citizens in urban Latin America face problems, they often organize to share information or make demands on government. But what happens afterward? Does neighborhood-level organizing have downstream consequences? We ask whether groups of citizens that organize for one purpose create collective action infrastructure that is repurposed for future information-sharing or demand-making. Ex ante, it is not obvious that we should expect such spillovers. While groups may develop connections and practices that reduce the costs of future collective action, these groups may well fall away once the original need has been eliminated.

We present original survey research on how Mexico City residents use in-person and social media networks to solve everyday problems, including reduced access to water and rising insecurity. Using variation from exogenous crime shocks that prompt local collective action, we test the hypothesis that, all things equal, citizens who have collectively organized with their neighbors about one issue (ie, robberies) will be more likely to do so for other issues (ie, water pressure). We also use survey vignettes and qualitative interviews to examine three possible mechanisms for this collective organizing effect: transaction costs, social capital, and learning.

In addition, our survey offers a new look into collective action in urban settings in the 21st century. We build on Latin America's rich tradition of studying community organizing, and shed new light on how decentralization, democratization, and new communications technologies may have shaped collective action in the region’s cities.

Authors

• Alyssa Huberts, Harvard University

• Kaitlyn Chriswell, Harvard University