Collective Behavior and Social Change Chapter 18

Collective Behavior and Social Change Chapter 18

After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following: Describe the source of social change in society. Describe the attributes and types of crowds. Know what the various dispersed forms of collective behavior are. Describe the major types of social movements. Understand the life cycle of social movements. Contrast differing ideologies and show how they influence social change. Explain the processes of cultural diffusion and forced acculturation. Understand the impact of technological innovation. Summarize the changes that will occur in the U.S. labor force in the future.

In your opinion how much has society change from five years ago?

Society and Social Change What, exactly, is social change?

Social Change Consists of any modification in the social organization of a society in any of its social institutions or social roles. Social change Often the result of collective behavior therelatively spontaneous social actions that occur when people respond to unstructured and ambiguous situations.

Collective behavior has the potential for causing the unpredictable, and even the improbable, to happen. Collective actions are capable of unleashing powerful social forces that catch us by surprise and change our lives, at times temporarily but at other times even permanently.

Sources of Social Change Internal Sources of Social Change External Sources of Social Change

Internal Sources of Social Change Include those factors that originate within a specific society and that singly or in combination produce significant alterations in its social organization and structure.

Technological Innovation Technological change in industrial society is advancing at a dizzying pace, carrying social organizations and institutions along with it.

Ideology Refers to a set of interrelated religious or secular beliefs, values, and norms that justify the pursuit of a given set of goals through a given set of means.

Conservative Ideologies • Try to preserve things as they are

Liberal ideologies Seek limited reforms that do not involve fundamental changes in the social structure of society.

Radical ideologies • Seek major structural changes in society.

External Sources of Social Change Diffusion is thus an example of an external source of social change, changes within a society produced by events emanating from outside that society. A social change that is imposed by might or conquest on weaker people is called forced acculturation.

Crowd Behavior and Social Change Crowd A temporary concentration of people who focus on some thing or event, but who also are attuned to one another’s behavior.

Attributes of Crowds Crowds are self-generating. Crowds are characterized by equality. Crowds love density. Crowds need direction.

Types of Crowds An acting crowd is a group of people whose passions and tempers have been aroused by some focal event, who come to share a purpose, and who feed off one another’s arousal, often erupting into spontaneous acts of violence. A threatened crowd is an acting crowd that is in a state of alarm, believing that some kind of danger is present.

Expressive Crowd Drawn together by the promise of personal gratification through active participation in activities and events

Conventional Crowd Gathering in which people’s behavior conforms to some well-established set of cultural norms, and gratification results from a passive appreciation of an event.

Casual Crowd Is the inevitable outgrowth of modern society, in which large numbers of people live, work, and travel closely together. Is any collection of people who happen, in the course of their private activities, to be in one place at the same time and focus attention on a common object or event.

Dispersed Collective Behavior Sociologists use the term mass to describe a collection of people who, although physically dispersed, participate in some event either physically or with a common concern or interest.

Fads and Fashions A fad that is especially short-lived may be called a craze. Fashionsrelate to the standards of dress or manners in a given society at a certain time. They spread more slowly and last longer than fads.

Rumors Information that is shared informally and spreads quickly through a mass or a crowd. It arises in situations that, for whatever reasons, create ambiguity with regard to their truth or their meaning. Rumors may be true, false, or partially true, but characteristically they are difficult or impossible to verify.

Public Opinion Public refers to a dispersed collectivity of individuals concerned with or engaged in a common problem, interest, focus, or activity. An opinion is a strongly held belief.

Propaganda Advertisements of a political nature, seeking to mobilize public support behind one specific party, candidate, or point of view technically. Opinion leaders Socially acknowledged experts whom the public turns to for advice.

Mass Hysteria and Panic Occurs when large numbers of people are overwhelmed with emotion and frenzied activity or become convinced that they have experienced something for which investigators can find no discernible evidence. A panic is an uncoordinated group flight from a perceived danger, as in the public reaction to Orson Welles’s 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.

Four reasons why people First, people must feel that they are trapped in a life-threatening situation. Second, they must perceive that the threat to their safety is so large that they can do little else but try to escape. Third, they must realize that their escape routes are limited or inaccessible. Fourth, there must be a breakdown in communication between the front and rear of the crowd.

Social Movements Social movement Form of collective behavior in which large numbers of people are organized or alerted to support and bring about, or to resist, social change.

Relative Deprivation Theory Relative deprivation is a term that was first used by Samuel A. Stouffer (1950). It refers to the situation in which deprivation or disadvantage is measured not by objective standards, but by comparison with the condition of others with whom one identifies or thinks of as a reference group. Assumes social movements are the outgrowth of the feeling of relative deprivation among the large numbers of people who believe they lack certain things they are entitled to—such as better living conditions, working conditions, political rights, or social dignity.

Resource Mobilization Theory Assumes that social movements arise at certain times and not at others because some people know how to mobilize and channel the popular discontent.

Types of Social Movements Reactionary Social Movement Reactionary Conservative Social Movement Revisionary Social Movement Revolutionary Social Movement Expressive Social Movement

The Life Cycle of Social Movements Armand L. Mauss (1975) suggested that social movements typically pass through a series of five life cycle stages: Incipiency Coalescence Institutionalization Fragmentation Demise

Incipiency Begins when large numbers of people become frustrated about a problem and do not perceive any solution to it through existing institutions. Coalescence Groups form around leaders to promote policies and to promulgate programs. Institutionalization Social movements reach the peak of their strength and influence and become firmly established. Fragmentation When the movement gradually begins to fall apart. Demise The organizations that the movement created and the institutions they introduced may well survive—indeed, their goals may become official state policy—but they are no longer set apart from the mainstream of s

Globalization and Social Change Globalization The worldwide flow of goods, services, money, people, information, and culture. It leads to a greater interdependence and mutual awareness among the people of the world.

Social Change in the United States Technological Change Technological innovation takes hold only when there is some need for it and social acceptance for it. Technology itself is neutral; people decide whether and how to use it

Collective Behavior and Social Change Chapter 18