Chapter 22, Collective Behavior And Social Movements

1. Chapter 22, Collective Behavior And Social Movements • Characteristics Of Collective Behavior • Crowds • Riots • Collective Preoccupations • Social Movements • Diversity, Globalization and Social Change

2. Characteristics of Collective Behavior • Represent the actions of groups of people, not individuals. • Involve new relationships that arise in unusual or unexpected circumstances. • Capture the changing elements of society more than other forms of social action.

3. Characteristics of Collective Behavior • May mark the beginnings of more organized social behavior. • Exhibit patterned behavior, not the irrational behavior of crazed individuals. • Usually appear to be highly emotional, even volatile.

4. Characteristics of Collective Behavior • Involve people communicating extensively through rumors. • Are often associated with efforts to achieve social change.

5. Crowds • Involve groups of people coming together. • Usually transitory, volatile, and have a sense of urgency. • Distinctly social, not individual, forms of behavior.

6. Panic Three factors characterize panic situations: • A perceived threat. • Possible entrapment. • A failure of front-to-rear communication - people at the rear of the crowd push to the front of the crowd.

7. Three Types of Riots • Commodity riots - property, not people, is the object of attack. • Communal riots - violent outbursts in which civilians riot against other civilian groups. • Political riots - against a government policy or treatment by government officials.

8. Characteristics That Make Cites Prone to Riots • Economic deprivation of racial-ethnic minority groups. • Failure to address the grievances of the rioting group. • A rapid influx of new populations.

9. Characteristics That Make Cites Prone to Riots • A precipitating event and failure of social control mechanisms. • The resources to initiate and sustain rebellious activity.

10. What Stops Riots? • Goals of the protest groups have been satisfied. • Actions of social control agents end violence. • Political situation changes. • Discontent has been regulated by the expansion of relief services.

11. Collective Preoccupations • Often begin within a small group of people involved in face-to-face interaction. • Involve some aspect of social change. • Provide opportunities for participants to belong to a group while differentiating themselves from other groups.

12. Types of Collective Preoccupations • Fads provide a sense of unity and a sense of differentiation.Examples: inline skates, hula hoops, streaking, popular heroes, words and phrases (yo!, cool). • Fashion can mark inequality between groups.Examples: hairstyles, clothing, jewelry.

13. Types of Collective Preoccupations • Hysterical contagions involve the spread of symptoms of an illness when there is no disease present. • Scapegoating commonly targets racial minority groups and other groups perceived by the dominant group to be a threat.

14. Type of Social Movements • Personal transformation movementshippie, new age • Social change movementsenvironmental and animal rights movements • Reactionary movements Aryan Nation, Right-to-Life

15. Elements Necessaryfor Social Movements • Pre-existing communication network. • Pre-existing grievance. • Precipitating incident. • Ability to mobilize.

16. Theories of Social Movements • Resource mobilization theory - social movements develop when people can compete for and gain resources needed for mobilization • Political process theory - social changes provide the conditions that spawn social movements.

17. Theories of Social Movements • New movement theory links culture, ideology, and identity to explain how people in groups frame events, and how new identities are forged within social movements.