Taking into consideration all of the previous factors, how can communities (including scientific minds, scholars, and even those without formal training or education in marine science) come together to effectively regulate and undergo coral reef conservation? The answer, ultimately, lies within collective action and other methods of equitable collaborative efforts. But before breaking apart what is necessary for such activism, it is important to have a basic understanding of the term.

What is collective action?

From our interview, my father defined collective action to be “getting a bunch of people to head in the same direction and work on the same task . . . [w]hether that is a social justice task, an environmental justice task, or simply just doing good work.” This serves as a rather comprehensive definition, though a few important details should also be added for consideration. For one, there is a need to avoid the development of any form of hierarchy or power imbalance. All people must be upon a so-called even playing field and feel safe to voice their own questions, comments, and concerns throughout the process. Likewise, collective action necessitates a connection between communities, with the possibility for there to be a difference in culture, language, and education. As such, it is also important to keep materials and discussions free from too much jargon or assumptions of background information. However, these concerns are only the starting point to collective action. Two far larger encompassing details involve the ability to own up to when someone has done something wrong and seek help or advice, as well as acknowledging when one may need the expertise of another person before a mistake can be made.

Another important element of collective action revolves around a shift from hyper-individualism, especially regarding activism which centers around consumption and not action. This is heavily detailed in Building Something Better: Environmental Crises and the Promise of Community Change, more specifically within its fourth chapter entitled “Human Beings, Not Humans Buying.” Within its pages, authors Stephanie A. Malin and Meghan Elizabeth Kallman discuss how viewing things as a means of trade – from goods to even nature or people themselves – is an inherently dangerous process of commodification which “personifies the market and equates people’s freedom with their ability to buy things.” While it may feel like collective action when a group of people go out and purchase the same thing, such as a reusable tote bag promoted to “help save the planet,” this so-called consumer-based activism fails to actually take into consideration what is needed within collective activism. After all, the ultimate prioritization of such sales is often just that: the production of profit.

Taking all of these ideas into consideration, therefore, three of the biggest facets of collective action seem to be acknowledging one’s mistakes, admitting to one’s shortcomings, and avoiding the prioritization or personal or corporate profit.

A self-generated Venn diagram of three of the biggest components of collective action, the ways that they interact, and their ability to generate successful action when all three are in place.