Transcript What Is Sociology?Chapter 23

Collective Behavior &
Social Movements
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Studying Collective
Behavior
• Collective behavior–Activity involving a
large number of people that is unplanned,
often controversial, and sometimes
dangerous
– Examples: Mobs, riots, panic, mass hysteria,
and social movements
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Studying Collective
Behavior
• Collective behavior is diverse
– A wide range of human action
• Collective behavior is variable
– Why do some rumors catch on, but others
don’t?
• Much collective behavior is transitory
– Disasters, rumors, and fads come and go
quickly.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Collectivity
A large number of people whose minimal interaction
occurs in the absence of well-defined and
conventional norms
• Localized collectivity–People physically
close to one another
• Dispersed collectivity (or mass behavior)–
People who influence one another despite
being spread over a large area
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
How Collectives Differ
from Social Groups
• Collectives are based on limited social
interaction.
– Interaction in mobs is limited and temporary.
• Collectives have no clear social boundaries.
– Little sense of unity compared to social groups
whose members often share a common identity
• Collectives generate weak and
unconventional norms.
– Mobs often destroy and act spontaneously.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Crowds
A temporary gathering of people who share a common
focus of attention and who influence one another
Blummer identified 4 types, we add a 5th:
• A casual crowd: people on a beach
• A conventional crowd: a college classroom
• An expressive crowd: a church service
• An acting crowd: people fleeing from a fire
• A protest crowd: a college student sit-in
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Mobs and Riots
• Mob–A highly emotional crowd that
pursues a violent or destructive goal
– A lynch mob
• Riot–A social eruption that is highly
emotional, violent, and undirected
– Sports riots, race riots, riots related to social
injustice
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Crowd Behavior
• Le Bon’s contagion theory
– Crowds exert hypnotic influence over their
members, people surrender to a “collective
mind” its members rid themselves of
inhibitions and act out and the crowd assumes
a life of its own
• Critical review
– Crowd actions result from the intentions and
decisions of specific individuals.
– Not necessarily irrational
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Crowd Behavior
• Convergence theory: The crowd doesn’t
generate the action, but rather the
members themselves stimulate the action
of the crowd.
– Example: neighborhood groups concerned
about crime and want to do something about it
• Critical evaluation
– Some people do things in a crowd that they
would not have the courage to do alone.
– Crows can intensify a sentiment simply by
creating a critical mass of like-minded people.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Crowd Behavior
• Turner & Killian’s emergent-norm theory
– People in crowds have mixed interests.
– In less stable crowds (expressive, acting, and
protest), norms might be vague or changing.
• Critical evaluation
– Crowd behavior reflects the desires of
participants, but is also guided by norms that
emerge as the situation unfolds.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Mass Behavior
Collective behavior among people dispersed over
a wide geographical area
• Rumor and gossip
• Public opinion
• Propaganda
• Fashions and fads
• Panic and mass hysteria
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Rumor and Gossip
• Rumor–Unconfirmed information people
spread informally, often by word of mouth
– Thrives in a climate of ambiguity
– Is unstable
– Is difficult to stop
• Gossip–Rumor about people’s personal
affairs
– Rumors spread widely, but gossip is more
localized.
– A means of social control
– Too much gossip is discouraged.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Public Opinion & Propaganda
• Public opinion–Widespread attitudes
about controversial issues
– Some people have no opinion at all.
– Even on some important issues, a majority of
people have no clear opinion.
• Propaganda–Information presented with
the intention of shaping public opinion
– Thin line between information and propaganda
– Not all propaganda is false.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Fashions and Fads
• Fashion–A social pattern favored by a large
number of people
– Traditional style gives way to changing fashion in
industrial societies.
– Veblen: Conspicuous consumption–people buying
expensive products to show off their wealth
• Fads–An unconventional social pattern that
people embrace briefly but enthusiastically
– Sometimes called crazes
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Panic & Mass Hysteria
• Panic–A form of collective behavior in
which people in one place react to a
threat or other stimulus with irrational,
frantic, and often self-destructive
behavior
• Mass hysteria–A form of dispersed
collective behavior by which people
respond to a real or imagined event
often with irrational and even frantic
fear
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Disasters
An event, generally unexpected, that causes
extensive harm to people and damage to property
• Natural disaster
– Flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc.
• Technological disaster
– Oil spills, industrial accidents
• Intentional disaster
– War, terrorist attacks, genocide
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Erikson’s Research
• Three conclusions about the
consequences of disasters:
– Disasters are social events.
– Social damage is more serious when an event
involves a toxic substance.
– Social damage is most serious when the
disaster is caused by others.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Types of Social Movements
• Social movement–An organized activity
that encourages or discourages social
change
• Alternative: Least threatening, limited
change for a limited number of members
– Example: Planned parenthood
• Redemptive: Selective focus, radical
change
– Example: Some religious organizations
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Types of Social Movements
• Reformative: Limited social change,
targets everyone
– Example: Equal rights amendment
movement
• Revolutionary: The most extreme, seeks
basic transformation of society
– Example: Ultra-conservative political
movements
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Claims Making
The process of trying to convince the public and
public officials of the importance of joining a social
movement to address a particular issue
• For a social movement to form, some
issue has to be defined as a problem that
demands public attention.
• Usually, claims making begins with a
small number of people.
• Example: AIDS
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• Deprivation theory: Social movements
seeking change arise among people who
feel deprived
– Relative deprivation–A perceived
disadvantage arising from some specific
comparison
– Critical evaluation
• Theory suffers from circular reasoning
• Focuses exclusively on the cause, telling us
little about movements themselves
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• Kornhauser’s mass-society theory: Social
movements attract socially isolated
people who feel personally insignificant.
– Movements are personal as well as political,
giving people with weak social ties a sense of
purpose and belonging.
– Critical evaluation
• No clear standard for measuring the extent
to which we live in a “mass society”
• Explaining social movements in terms of
people hungry to belong ignores the socialjustice issues that movements address
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory
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Structural conduciveness
Structural strain
Growth and spread of an explanation
Precipitating factors
Mobilization for action
Lack of social control
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• Resource-mobilization theory: No social
movement is likely to succeed or even get off
the ground without substantial resources
– Critical evaluation
• Powerless can promote change if they are
organized an have committed members
• Overstates the extent to which powerful people
are willing to challenge the status quo
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• Culture theory: The recognition that social
movements depend not only on material
resources and the structure of political power
but also on cultural symbols.
– Critical evaluation
• Does not address how and when powerful
cultural symbols turn people from supporting the
system toward protest
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social
Movements
• Political-economy theory: Social movements
arise within capitalist societies because the
capitalist economic system fails to meet the
needs of the majority of people.
• Critical review
– Doesn’t explain the recent rise of social
movements concerned with non-economic
issues such as obesity, animal rights, or the state
of the natural environment
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Explaining Social Movements
• New social movements theory: Recent
social movements in the postindustrial
societies of North America and Western
Europe have a new focus.
– Most of today’s movements are international.
– Tends to focus on cultural change and
improving social and physical surroundings
– Draws support from middle and upper classes
– Critical evaluation
• Tends to exaggerate differences between
past and present social movements
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Gender and Social
Movements
• Gender figures prominently in the
operation of social movements.
• In keeping with traditional ideas about
gender in the US, more men than women
tend to take part in the public life—
including spearheading social
movements.
• “Freedom Summer” in 1964
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Stages of Social Movements
• Stage one: Emergence
– Perception that something is
wrong
• Stage two: Coalescence
– Defining itself and “going public”
• Stage three: Bureaucratization
– Organizing rationally to get job
done
• Stage four: Decline
– Success
– Organization failures
– Leaders “sell out”
– Crushed by repression
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Social Movements:
Looking Ahead
• Scope of social movements is likely to
increase.
– Protest should increase as groups gain
political voice.
– Information revolution means anyone can be
well-informed.
– Technology uniting people in social
movements
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.