When speaking colloquially of political participation or civic action, one thinks, in the first instance, of groups and organizations such as political parties, social movements or various types of voluntary associations. The perspective of individuals is not the first thing that comes to mind when seeking to understand their functioning. In contrast to this vision, understanding the dynamics of participation requires taking a closer look at the individual, that is, at his or her moral dispositions and projects, his or her multiple and simultaneous identities, the breaking points in his or her biographical trajectory, the roles he or she adopts in an organization or the styles of communication which he or she uses. The book comprises a variety of case studies and theoretical and methodological contributions that, independent of rational choice theories, seek to understand collective action at the level of the individual and, in doing so, to articulate the various fields of study in this regard with the singularity of biographies and the reflective personal identities that characterize contemporary individualism.

Kirk Ludwig develops a novel reductive account of plural discourse about collective action and shared intention. He argues that collective action is a matter of there being multiple agents of an event and requires no group agents, while shared intentions are distributions of intentions across members of the group.

Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.

The second edition of The Oxford Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology beautifully captures the history, current status, and future prospects of personality and social psychology. Building on the successes and strengths of the first edition, this second edition of the Handbook combines the two fields of personality and social psychology into a single, integrated volume, offering readers a unique and generative agenda for psychology. Over their history, personality and social psychology have had varying relationships with each other-sometimes highly overlapping and intertwined, other times contrasting and competing. Edited by Kay Deaux and Mark Snyder, this Handbook is dedicated to the proposition that personality and social psychology are best viewed in conjunction with one another and that the synergy to be gained from considering links between the two fields can do much to move both areas of research forward in order to better enrich our collective understanding of human nature. Contributors to this Handbook not only offer readers fascinating examples of work that cross the boundaries of personality and social psychology, but present their work in such a way that thinks deeply about the ways in which a unified social-personality perspective can provide us with a greater understanding of the phenomena that concern psychological investigators. The chapters of this Handbook effortlessly weave together work from both disciplines, not only in areas of longstanding concern, but also in newly emerging fields of inquiry, addressing both distinctive contributions and common ground. In so doing, they offer compelling evidence for the power and the potential of an integrated approach to personality and social psychology today.

Acting together requires collective intentions. The contributions to this volume seek to critically assess or to enrich theories of collective intentionality by exploring topics such as collective belief, mutual coordination, and the explanation of group behavior.

Kirk Ludwig presents a philosophical account of institutional action, such as action by corporations and nation states. He argues that it can be fully understood in terms of the agency of individuals, and concepts derived from our understanding of individual action. He thus argues for a strong form of methodological individualism.