## 2 Tourism, Common-Pool Resources and Collective Action
### The Application of ICT in Collective Action  
Collective action involves not only people, but also a variety of nonhuman resources, such as ICT, and interactions between actors and nonhuman entities [39]. The scholarly literature increasingly recognizes the contribution of technology, especially ICT, in the shaping of social processes, including those related to collective action. [PERSON] et al. (2015) [48] conceptualize technology as potentially useful knowledge that may offer solutions for new or existing problems. Technology, in general, includes both software, such as processes and methods, as well as hardware [48]. ICT relates mostly, but not exclusively, to the Internet, databases and communication devices [43].  
Despite being a part of many collective efforts, the function of ICT in collective action has not been well understood as yet [21]. ICT changes communication dynamics and thereby has the potential to overcome collective action challenges such as free riding [16] or problems of monitoring and coordination [43]. However, it can also cause problems, for example, by making communication more difficult or increasing the relative benefits of free riding [21]. Ongoing debates on how ICT may change the premises of collective action provide evidence of both the success and failure of ICT use in collective efforts [43; 49]. However, to date, we lack data on how ICT influences collective action.  
To understand the function of ICT in collective action, social informatics [26; 27; 50; 51], which can be defined as \"the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts\" [52] (p. 688), offers some inspiration. In social informatics, ICT is seen as embedded in complex and dynamic social, cultural, organizational and institutional structures [53; 54], and a sociotechnical network concept can be applied to understand the function ICT assumes in the actions of an organization [50; 55]. A sociotechnical network is an interactive and interdependent network of co-existing human or organizational agents and technology [50]. ICT is thus socially produced, but can also act as an agent influencing its users by reconstituting social ties and redrawing social boundaries [54].  
From a social informatics perspective, technology forms part of the social capital that is embedded in a network of actors performing collective action and can modify the network's structure and functioning. Social capital describes the group relations, norms and practices that drive collective efforts and is a widely recognized concept in collective action theory [13; 56; 57]. Social capital emphasizes the importance of relations and interactions in coordination and cooperation for achieving mutual benefits [49; 58]. Networks, trust and norms are often perceived as the essence of social capital [56; 59] and reciprocity and exchanges, common rules, norms, and sanctions, as well as connectedness in networks and groups play an important role too [30]. Through social capital, resource users govern resources and perform collective action. Social capital can help people overcome collective action issues, such as free riding, lack of social mobilization or overuse of resources [60].  
ICT interacts with the social capital of a group of actors and, consequently, with the resources used and the specific context of their use. As collective action is an outcome of an interaction between a network of actors and environmental resources [45], ICT can be classified as a new actor in a network, which helps the human actors to embrace the complex and dynamic character of mutual relations between the varied components of collective action.