Description
Advances in the social sciences have emerged through a variety of research methods: field-based research, laboratory and field experiments, and agent-based models. However, which research method or approach is best suited to a particular inquiry is frequently debated and discussed. Working Together examines how different methods have promoted various theoretical developments related to collective action and the commons, and demonstrates the importance of cross-fertilization involving multimethod research across traditional boundaries. The authors look at why cross-fertilization is difficult to achieve, and they show ways to overcome these challenges through collaboration.
The authors provide numerous examples of collaborative, multimethod research related to collective action and the commons. They examine the pros and cons of case studies, meta-analyses, large-N field research, experiments and modeling, and empirically grounded agent-based models, and they consider how these methods contribute to research on collective action for the management of natural resources. Using their findings, the authors outline a revised theory of collective action that includes three elements: individual decision making, microsituational conditions, and features of the broader social-ecological context.
Acknowledging the academic incentives that influence and constrain how research is conducted, Working Together reworks the theory of collective
Chapter
Cases, Case Studies, and Case Study Research
Analytical Strengths and Weaknesses
Synthesizing Challenges and Coordinating New Research Efforts
Contributions to the Study of the Commons
Property Rights and Tenure Security
Case Studies as a Foundation
Chapter Three Broadly Comparative Field-Based Research
Methodological Practices over Fifteen Years of Research
Defining the Units of Analysis
Trading Geographic Scope for Numbers?
Theoretical Aspirations and Methodological Practices
Practical Challenges to Broadly Comparative Field-Based Research
Research Design and Sampling
The Implications of Data Scarcity and Costliness
Meta-Analysis: An Introduction
Weighing the Benefits and Costs of Meta-Analysis
Coding Strategies and Missing Data
Potential Sources of Sample Bias
The Choice of Methodological Strategy: Weighing Costs against Control
Chapter Four Meta-Analysis: Getting the Big Picture through Synthesis
Meta-Analysis: A Recapitulation
The Common-Pool Resource (CPR) Research Program
Compensating for Gaps in Case Materials
Adaptation of the CPR Protocols
Additional Examples of Meta-Analysis
An Example of Narrative Synthesis
Progress and Continuing Challenges
Chapter Five Collaborative Field Studies
Collaboration in Field-Based Research, 1990–2004
Two Research Partnerships
Community-Based Management of Common-Pool Resources in Tanzania
Traditional Management of Artisanal Fisheries in Nigeria
Thoughts about Research Partnerships
CGIAR: A Global Research Alliance
IFRI: An International Research Network
Strategies for Data Collection
Strategies for Coordination
Contributions and Challenges
Comparing the Strategies and Drawing Implications
Part Three: Models and Experiments in the Laboratory and the Field
Chapter Six: Experiments in the Laboratory and the Field
Laboratory Experiments of Relevance to the Study of the Commons
Common-Pool Resource Experiments
Insights from Public Goods and Common-Pool Resource Experiments in the Laboratory
Face-to-Face Communication in the Laboratory
Toward a New Generation of Experiments of Commons Dilemmas
New Developments in Laboratory Experiments
Toward a New Generation of Field Experiments
Chapter Seven Agent-Based Models of Collective Action
A Brief Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling
Strengths and Weaknesses of Agent-Based Models
Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma
Cooperation among Egoists
Evolving Strategies in Prisoner’s Dilemma Tournaments
Spatial Social Dilemma Games
Spatial Public Goods Games
Evolution of Costly Punishment
Evolution of Social (Meta) Norms
Chapter Eight Building Empirically Grounded Agent-Based Models
Comparing Simulations with Data
Different Approaches to Combine Empirical Data and Agent-Based Models
Agent-Based Models of Laboratory and Field Experiments
Role Games and Companion Modeling
Methodological Challenges
Chapter Nine Pushing the Frontiers of the Theory of Collective Action and the Commons
Synopsis of Research Developments Reviewed in Parts II and III
Toward a More General Behavioral Theory of Human Action
Assumptions of a Behavioral Theory
Unpacking the Concept of Context
The Microsituational Context
The Impact of Microsituational Variables on Cooperation
The Challenge of Linking Contextual Scales
The Broader Scale Affecting Collective Action
An Ontological Framework of Social-Ecological Systems
Predicting Self-Organization Drawing on the SES Framework
Diagnosing Institutional Change
Challenges for Future Research
Appendix 9.1: A Theoretical Puzzle: Why Do Some Resource Users Self-Organize and Others Do Not?
Chapter Ten Learning from Multiple Methods
Interlocking Developments in Methods and Theory
Methodological and Disciplinary Cross-Fertilization and Theoretical Innovation
Sequential Movement between Methods and Disciplines
Combining Multiple Methods and Disciplines in a Program of Research
Spaces for Cross-Fertilization
Trade-Offs in Training and Research
Collaborative Research as a Collective-Action Problem
Rewards to Individual and Collaborative Research
Fragmentation of Academia
Misunderstandings and Mistrust
Responding to the Challenges
Working Together
：Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice
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