Social and Spatial Networks in Rural Development: A Study of Uganda's Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project
(In collaboration with Guy Grossman)
(In collaboration with Guy Grossman)
| rationale |
Development scholars regard producer organizations as a core component of poverty reduction strategies, but little is known about the social dynamics that make certain producer organizations more successful than others. In collaboration with Guy Grossman (Columbia University), I am organizing an extensive research on producer organizations to study the social factors that explain group variation in economic performance, as well as the consequences of economic development on the quality of life (health, education, well-being) of households and villages. Goal of the research is to assess the importance of social and spatial networks, associational capital, and leadership accountability in shaping economic and social outcomes.
|
| research |
The research will focus on Uganda's largest rural development project in recent years – the Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project (APEP) – involving over 60,000 farmers and 2,500 village-level organizations. APEP's stated goal is to support subsistence farmers' transition into commercial farming and increase small farmers' productivity and marketing capabilities. APEP's rate of success varies across villages due to local leaders' capacity to spread information, elicit trust relationships, and facilitate the emergence of accountability practices. Following a multilevel and multimethod research design, data will be collected at the farmer, village, and parish levels through farmers and local leaders survey interviews and will include observational data, social networks, and behavioral games. Among the innovations of the project, we will use behavioral games to capture the motivations behind actors' strategic interactions and will provide valuable insight on the effect of interpersonal, associational, and spatial (inter-village) networks on economic outcomes. Overall, the research contributes to the shift from a suggestive to an empirically grounded understanding of social capital, by systematically measure its relevant aspects (i.e., social networks, associational memberships, spatial proximity and inter-village relationships) and distinguish between social capital – defined as the ability of persons and groups to secure benefits through social networks – and its source mechanisms (i.e., social norms, trust, reciprocity) and consequences (i.e., innovation adoption, organizational building, economic performance). ; |
| papers
|
please, contact me at dbalda@princeton.edu if you want to know more about this project. |
|other research|
Civic Networks, Associational Life and Social Integration
| rationale |
While
civic engagement and a vibrant associational life
usually bring positive outcomes for the collectivity, they are not
themselves a
guarantee of democratic outcomes. To
assess civil society's potential as a
public arena for discussion, mediation, and deliberation, it is
important to consider the properties of the network that connects
organizations to each other,
thus facilitating or constraining their crosscutting, bridging and
bonding
capability. I pursue this agenda in two ways: First, by analyzing the actual web of collaborative ties among civic society organizations – civic networks – in order to investigate inter-organizational patterns of relations and the emerging structural properties they generate. Second, I consider trends of individuals’ civic engagement in different types of associations and relate them to patterns of social and political polarization. Taken together, these contributions add to current debates by focusing on the meso-level mechanisms that translate individual civic engagement into collective outcomes. This poses questions for further research. |
| research |
Civic
Networks and
Social
Integration
(in collaboration with Mario Diani) Results suggest that civic networks present a polycentric structure based on horizontal solidarity and generalized exchange, in which organizations choose allies that are mutually compatible and engage in patterns of exchange that typically involve multiple actors. In such a model, collaboration patterns while reflecting two alternative structural tendencies – clustering and connectivity – generate different kinds of social capital – bonding and bridging. Changes
in the Associative Patterns of Americans
I intend to combine empirical data analysis and simulation techniques. Two main sources of data are currently available. The General Social Survey, that provides consistent information about 16 different types of organizational involvement of respondents covering a time period of 30 years (1972-2004) and the Encyclopedia of Associations, which is a comprehensive source of information on nonprofit membership organizations that covers more than 115,000 U.S regional, state and local associations. |
| papers
|
D.
Baldassarri, M. Diani
"The
Integrative Power of Civic Network," American
Journal of
Sociology, forthcoming. |
links and data |
Network of Civic Organizations in Britain: research report, summary, papers(ESRC) General Social Survey 1972-2004: Cumulative file Encyclopedia of Associations: on-line search database |
|other research|
Social Contexts, Interpersonal Influence and Dynamics of
Polarization
| rationale |
I address the debate on public opinion polarization, by showing the impact of relational networks and social context in the production and reinforcement of political attitudes and identities. This study gives primacy to the social groups in which people are actually embedded in over the social categories they belong to and focuses on the relation between alters’ political orientation and ego’s attitudes and behavior. My strategy has been, first, to model dynamics of interpersonal influence over political attitudes in order to study the simultaneous evolution of political views and patterns of interaction. I then test the simulation results against empirical evidence, both relying on existing public opinion surveys and designing new ones. |
| research |
Interpersonal
Influence and Dynamics of Polarization
(in collaboration with Peter Bearman) |
| |
Issue
Alignment and Political Polarization in Contemporary America
(in collaboration with Andrew Gelman) |
| |
Social
Contexts Polarization
The questions were asked in three different social contexts: family; workplace or school; and groups or associations and have been analyzed in order to study the relation among exposure to more or less homogeneous social contexts, strength of individual attitudes and political behavior. Findings suggest that there is a positive relation between frequency of interaction, contextual knowledge and the level of homogeneity of ego’s social contexts and that the family and associational social contexts affect both political behavior and the strength of political commitment, even controlling for individual socio-demographic characteristics and ideology. A similar set of questions has been proposed for the American National Elections Studies Pilot Study 2006 and General Election Study 2008. Its inclusion is contingent on the decision of the ANES Board of Oversees. |
| papers
and projects |
D.
Baldassarri, P.
Bearman "Dynamics
of Political Polarization", American Sociological Review, forthcoming. D. Baldassarri, A. Gelman 2008 "Partisans without Constraint: Political Polarization and Trends in American Public Opinion,"American Journal of Sociology. 114(2): 408-46. D. Baldassarri, A.Gelman "Political Polarization and Social Groups," research proposal submitted to the American National Election Studies Fall 2006 Pilot study. D. Baldassarri "Political Polarization and Social Contexts," working paper. |
| links
and data |
Italian National
Election Studies research group Itanes Itanes 2006 data will be available in January 2008 |
|other
research|
Public
Opinion,
Cognitive Heuristics and Political Decision
Making
(in collaboration with Hans Schadee)
(in collaboration with Hans Schadee)
| rationale |
Voters differ in
their
level of political interest and information, thus it is not plausible
to assume that all voters deploy the same decision-making strategy.
Yet, most
empirical analyses of electoral surveys make precisely this assumption
by using a single set of independent variables for modeling electoral
choice. Instead, it is more conceivable that voters reason in
qualitatively different ways, evaluate according to different criteria,
use different types of information, and thus follow different paths to
define their preferences. Drawing on studies of decision-making,
cognitive and political psychology as well as previous research in
public opinion sensitive to voters’ heterogeneity, I developed a
model where voters use various cognitive shortcuts –
heuristics – to arrive at decisions. |
| research |
By using only two sets of
variables present in
nearly all election surveys, I propose classification criteria that are
both able to grasp actual differences in the level of political
cognition and sophistication, and identify what kind of information are
pertinent for the task at hand. I demonstrate
that people follow multiple strategies and rely selectively on
different kind of available information. It follows that parties,
leaders, coalitions and media affect voter behavior, but they have
different leverage on different types of voters. Thus a proper account
of voter behavior needs to move from the search of vote determinants to
the search of multiple mechanisms through which voters perceive,
represent and evaluate politics. Future research unfolds in two directions. First, I will broaden this research to a larger set of countries. A second line of inquiry focuses the study of dynamic decision patterns in experimental settings. |
| papers
and projects |
D. Baldassarri La
semplice
Arte di Votare. Le Scorciatoie cognitive degli Elettori Italiani,
Il
Mulino, Bologna, 2005. D. Baldassarri, H.M.A. Schadee "Voter Heuristics and Political Cognition in Italy: An Empirical Typology,” Electoral Studies, forthcoming. D. Baldassarri, H.M.A. Schadee "The Appeal of Coalitions: How and Why Electoral Alliances Affect Voters' Political Understanding," Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 2, 249-276, 2004. D. Baldassarri, “Does the Ideological Voter Exist?: The Use of 'Left' and 'Right' by Italian Voters,” Quaderni dell’Osservatorio Elettorale, 49, 5-34, 2003. |
links and data |
Italian National Election Studies research group Itanes Itanes Election Surveys data |
Formal
Models of
Collective
Action
| rationale |
In
the study of formal
models of collective action my goal has been to move beyond the ‘free
rider’ problem and to apply analytical tools for the understanding of a
broader set of aspects that are distinctive of collective action
phenomena: Namely, the formation of collective identities and
interests; the interplay between individual attitudes and social
networks, and between multiple levels of decision making; and finally,
the
interdependence of individual and collective interests. In sum, I
suggest
shifting the research agenda from the study of
problems of coordination and aggregation of individual choices to
problems of identity construction and social influence. |
| research |
Consistent with this research agenda, I am working on a formal model of
collective action able to account for the ideational and structural
preconditions of collective action. Distinctive features of the model
are the endogenous selection of the ‘public good’ from a pool of
different issues of interest, and the dynamic evolution of both the
social structure and individuals’ political attitudes from patterns of
social interaction and influence sensitive to the intensity and
directionality of actors’ political commitment. This work builds upon
the model of interpersonal influence I have developed with Peter
Bearman in order to study dynamics of political polarization. |
| papers
and projects |
D.
Baldassarri, P.
Bearman "Dynamics
of Political Polarization", American Sociological Review, forthcoming. D. Baldassarri, “Collective Action” in P. Hedström and P. Bearman (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology. D. Baldassarri, "Beyond Free Riding: On the Use of Formal Models for the Study of Collective Action," Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 1, 125-156, 2005. |
links and data |
the
simulation script
and
other support material will be available soon. |
Militants,
Soldiers and
Partisan Resistance in Italy (1940-1945)
| rationale |
By
referring to a period as dramatic as the Second World War and to the
stories of front line combatants, being them political opponents,
Partisans, regime loyal, or regular soldiers, I intend to focus on the
consequences of political commitment, partisan loyalty and group
influence in extreme situations, when people are exposed to ultimate
threats. Oftentimes we explain people’s behavior on the basis of their
ideology or value system, taking for granted the fact that political
attitudes automatically translate into consistent courses of action. At
the same time we are apt to recognize that the translation of
ideological values into everyday practices usually does not occur in
their most pure, extreme forms. The study of political action in extreme conditions challenges these two statements at once. First, it is reasonable to think that, when the cost of certain actions is high, behavior does not necessary follows from attitudes, in fact, most of the time it does not. Second, and more interesting, it is the case that, in extreme situations, when congruence between ideological attitudes and behavior actually occurs, often they take on the most extreme forms. |
| research |
Prisoners
"collective"
I rely on an exceptional document, the “Register of political prisoners’ punishments" of the prison of Civitavecchia, in which guards on duty reported prisoners’ infractions, including their date, number and name of the prisoners, and in great detail, the nature of the infraction, as well as prisoners’ defense and the final decision on the case. The peculiarity of the documentation can be understood only by referring to the practices that took places among prisoners. Specifically, communist prisoners organized themselves in a “collective” (il collettivo) in which egalitarianism ruled. Although facing extreme conditions, both physical and psychological, prisoners systematically engaged in high risk, forbidden activities, in order to build and sustain a virtuous circle of solidarity. After a systematic coding and analysis of each of the 243 episodes of infraction that involved 184 prisoners over a period of 500 days, I argue that egalitarianism became the ruling system among prisoners as result of the interplay between their strong, preexistent ideological commitment, and the peculiarity of the control system. 'Partigiani' and
'Repubblichini'
In a research that took more than two decades, the Institute of the History of the National Liberation of the Cuneo Province collected information on all people that died in the war from 1940 to 1945. For each of the 15430 persons reported, there are socio-demographic and family data, occupation, military history, Army battalion and the date, place, and cause of death. This complete census of the fallen in the Cuneo Province allows, given its size and its level of detail, to trace the profile of these combatants, and compare their life stories, seeking those differences (or similarities) that brought them into opposing alternative fronts. Data will be (probably) released in the Summer 2007. |
| papers
|
D.
Baldassarri "Prisoners without dilemma. Punishment and Resistance in
the
Civitavecchia political Prison (1941-1943)", working paper. |
links and data |
A. Natoli, V., Foa, C.,
Ginzburg Il
registro. Carcere politico di Civitavecchia 1941-1943, Roma,
1994. know
more M. Calandri (ed) Vite spezzate. I 15430 morti nella guerra 1940-1945, Cuneo, 2001 know more National Institute of the History of the Italian Liberation Movement Insmli data archives |