Transcript Collective Behaviour, Social Movements and Social Change

Collective Behaviour, Social
Movements, and Social Change
Outline
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Collective Behaviour
Social Movements
Social Movement Theories
Social Change in the Future
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Collective Behaviour
 Defined:
– Voluntary, often spontaneous activity that is
engaged in by a large number of people and
typically violates dominant group norms and
values (p. 632)
 Contrast to organizational behaviour
 Examples: social protests against social
problems
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Conditions for Collective
Behaviour
 Terms:
 Collectivity: a relatively large number of
people who mutually transcend, bypass, or
subvert established institutional patterns and
structures (p.632)
 Conditions:
– Timing
– Breakdown in social control mechanism
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Dynamics
 Acting outside of established norms
 Need of immediate communication
 Attitudes: people tend to have attitudes
about something but do not do anything
about it
 Why collectively and not individually?
– Strength in numbers
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Distinctions
 Crowds
 Defined: a relatively
large number of
people who are in one
another’s immediate
vicinity
 Masses
 Defined: a large
number of people who
share an interest in a
specific idea or issue
but are not in one
another’s immediate
vicinity
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Types of Crowd Behaviour
Casual and
Conventional
Causal: large;
happen to be in
one place at one
time
Conventional:
those who come
together for a
scheduled event
Expressive and Acting Crowds
Protest
Expressive: Come together to
express a strong emotions
Not
violent;
may take
the form of
civil
Acting: intense and violent
Mob: a highly emotional crowd
who are violent against a
person, groups or places
Riot: violent crowds with no
target
Panic: when people react to a
real or perceived threat
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disobedience
(Martin
Luther
King Jr)
Explanations
 Contagion: people feel vulnerable and, with
anonymity, the crowd transforms people
from being rational to being irrational and
with a common mind (p. 637)
 Social unrest and circular reaction: social
unrest is transmitted by a process of circular
reaction—discontent is passed to others and
then returns again from whence it began
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Explanations
 Convergence theory: the shared emotions,
goals, and beliefs many people bring to
crowd behaviour. These shared elements
bring people together
 Applied to lynch mobs and environmental
protests
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Explanations
 Emergent Norm Theory
 The vitality of social norms in shaping crowd
behaviour
 The behaviour is not purely random and
irrational
 Example: the Los Angeles riots of 1992
purposively targeted Korean businesses
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Mass Behaviour
Defined:
 a collective behaviour
that takes place when
people respond to the
same event in much
the same way (e.g., a
rock concert)
Types:
 Rumours
 Gossip
 Mass hysteria
 Public opinion
 Fashions
 Fads
 Propaganda
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Mass Behaviour
Rumours
 Unsubstantiated
reports on an issue or
subject
Gossip
 Refers to rumours
about the personal
lives of others
Mass hysteria
 Dispersed collective
behaviour that occurs
when a large number
of people react with
strong emotions and
self-destructive
behaviour
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Mass Behaviour
Fads
 Temporary but widely
copied activity
enthusiastically
followed by large
numbers of people
 Examples: Harry
Potter, Pokemon and
the like
Fashions
 Currently valued style
of behaviour, thinking
or appearance
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Mass Behaviour
 Public Opinion
 Political attitudes and
beliefs communicated
by ordinary citizens to
decision makers
 Propaganda
 Information provided
by individuals or
groups that have a
vested interest in
furthering their own
cause or damaging an
opposing one
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Social Movements
 Defined: an organized group that acts
consciously to promote or resist change
through collective action (p. 645)
 Elements:
– More likely in democracies
– Help excluded groups into political processes
– Rely on volunteers
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Types of Social Movements
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Reform
Revolutionary
Religious
Alternative
Resistance
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Types of Social Movements
 Reform
 Movements that seek
to improve society
 Work within existing
structures
 Examples: labour
movements, animal
rights
 Revolutionary
 Hope to bring about a
total change in society
 Examples:
 French(1789),
American (1779), or
Russian Revolutions
(1917)
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Types of Social Movements
 Terrorism– calculated
unlawful use of physical
force or threats of violence
against persons or property
to intimidate or coerce a
government, organization, or
individual for the purpose of
gaining some political,
religious, economic or social
objective
 Example: 09/11/01
 Religious
 Inner change focus
 Messianic movements
are examples
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Types of Social Movements
 Alternative– To seek
limited change in some
aspects of people’s lives
 Example: The Women’s
Christian Temperance
Union to prevent the use
of alcohol
 Resistance
 Seek to prevent change
 Example: the Pro Life
Movement to protect the
rights of the unborn
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Social Movement Theories
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Relative Deprivation
Value-Added
Resource Mobilization
Social Constructionist
New Social Movement
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Relative Deprivation
 Theme: people are not satisfied with their
present condition
 They may feel when they compare their
achievement with those of similarly situated
persons and find that they have less than
what they deserve
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Value-Added
 Theme: that each step in the production
process adds something to the finished
product
– Certain conditions must be met for the
development of a social movement:
 1) Structural conduciveness
 2) Structural strain
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Value-Added
 Elements are needed:
– 3) Spread of generalized belief
– 4) Precipitating factors
– 5) Mobilization for action
– 6) Social control factors
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Resource Mobilization
 Theme: members of a social movement
gather, trade, use, and occasionally waste
resources
 Resources such as: money, members’ time,
access to the media, property and
equipment
 Use of reason to plan for their strategies
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Social Constructionist
 A version of symbolic interactionism
 Frame analysis from Goffman
 Goal: to try to isolate some of the basic
frameworks of understanding available in
our society for making sense out of events
and to analyze the special vulnerabilities to
which these frame of reference are subject
(p. 650 and Goffman)
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Social Constructionist
 Applied to a social movement:
 A grievance needs to be present
 Then, these ways of framing it are created:
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1) Diagnostic framing
2) Prognostic framing
3) Motivational framing
4) Frame alignment
 Shows how a social movement is mentally
constructed before it becomes a reality
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New Social Movement
 Theme: scholars look at a diverse array of
collective actions and the manner in which
these actions are based on politics,
ideology, and culture
 Elements:
– Personal identity, race, class, gender and
sexuality
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New Social Movement
 Examples:
– Ecofeminism
– Concerns with the environment
– New term: environmental racism —the belief
that a disproportionate number of hazardous
facilities are placed in low-income areas
populated primarily by people of colour (p. 651)
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Social Change in the Future
 Other factors besides collective behaviour
and social movements contribute to change.
They include:
 The Physical Environment
 Population
 Technology
 Social Institutions
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