Dissertation Research: Collective Action Theory Explanations of Cooperative Association's Behavior

本论文项目涉及一位来自华盛顿大学圣彼得堡分校的人类学专业学生。路易。这项研究将在西非尼日尔豪萨县参与合作储蓄和贷款协会的非洲农村妇女中进行。利用人种学参与者观察、开放式访谈和正式问卷相结合的方法，学生将检验关于在这些情况下(经济贫困和社会和经济基础设施不足)成功合作所需条件的几个假设。这些假设涉及信息的作用、群体规模、非贡献者的排斥性以及领导力对合作社成功的影响。这个项目很重要，因为它促进了我们对解释集体行动成败的一般原则的理解。我们在这一领域的理论复杂性将来自理论上知情的密集案例研究，如本项目，这将使决策者能够促进更有效的经济发展。此外，培训新的专业社会科学家增加了国家在世界这一重要领域的专业知识储备。

This dissertation project involves an anthropology student from Washington University-St. Louis. The study will be conducted among rural African women involved in cooperative saving and loan associations in Hausa territory, Niger, West Africa. Using a combination of ethnographic participant observation, open-ended interviews and formal questionnaires, the student will test several hypotheses about the conditions necessary for successful cooperation in these circumstances (of economic poverty and inadequate social and economic infrastructure). The hypotheses involve the role of information, group size, excludability of non-contributors, and the presence of leadership on the success of cooperatives. This project is important because it advances our understanding of the general principles explaining success or failure in collective action. Increases in our theoretical sophistication in this area that will come from theoretically-informed intensive case studies such as this project will allow policy makers to facilitate more effective economic development. In addition training new professional social scientists adds to the nation's store of expertise about this important area of the world.