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Collective Behavior and Social Movements

Collective Behavior and Social Movements. Collective Behavior. Activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned often controversial sometimes dangerous Other characteristics: Little or no social interaction No clear social boundaries

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Collective Behavior and Social Movements

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  1. Collective Behavior and Social Movements

  2. Collective Behavior Activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned often controversial sometimes dangerous Other characteristics: • Little or no social interaction • No clear social boundaries • Generate weak and unconventional norms

  3. Studying Collective Behavior • Often difficult because: • Diverse • Wide range of human action • Variable • Sometimes it will catch on sometimes it won’t • Transitory • Come and go quickly

  4. Localized Collectives Crowds Temporary gathering of people who share a common focus of attention and influence one another Types of crowds • Casual – people on the beach • Conventional – lecture • Expressive – concert • Acting – fleeing gunshots in mall

  5. Localized Collectives • Mobs • Highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent and destructive goal (ex. Lynch Mobs) • Riots • Social eruption that is highly emotional, violent, and undirected

  6. Localized Collectives • Contagion Theory • influence; anonymity • Convergence Theory • people with like minds and behaviors meet • Emergent-Norm Theory • Distinctive patterns of behavior develop

  7. Mass Behavior • Rumor and Gossip • Thrives in uncertainty • Unstable • Difficult to stop • Public Opinion and Propaganda • Fashion and Fads • Panic and Mass Hysteria • Disasters

  8. Social Movements Organized activity that encourages or discourages social change Types • Alterative • Help certain people alter their lives • Redemptive • Help certain people redeem their lives (AA) • Reformative • Aim for limited social change but targets everyone (multiculturalism) • Revolutionary • Seek the transformation of the entire society

  9. Social Movements Claims Making Process of trying to convince the public and public officials of the importance of joining a social movement to address a particular issue

  10. Stages in Social Movements • Emergence • Coalescence • Bureaucratization • Decline • Met goals • Organizational failure • Leader “selling out” • Crushed by repression

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