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Chapter 17: Social Change |1
I. COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
A. What is Collective Behavior? Collective
behavior is the spontaneous and unstructured
behavior of a large number of people who
may violate traditional or conventional
norms and values. Collective behavior is a
broad term that encompasses a wide range of group phenomena, including riots, fads, fashion,
panic, rumors, responses to disaster, and social movements. Collective behavior is an act and
varies with the degree of spontaneity and structure. On the other hand social change is the
transformation of societies and institutions over time.
B. When Does Collective Behavior Occur? The rise of Gold Star Families for Peace is an example
of protests against the Gulf War in 2005. Cindy Sheehan, a mother whose son was killed in Iraq,
protested the Bush administration policies, eventually camping outside his ranch and forming the
Gold Star Families for Peace. This is an example of collective behavior. How it occurred can be
measured.
1. Structural Strain Theory postulates that there are six “determinants,” all of them at the macro
level, that encourage or discourage collective behavior. Neil Smelser described these six
stages as “value-added.” That is, each condition leads to the next one, ending in an episode of
collective behavior.
i.
Structural conduciveness refers to social conditions that allow a particular kind of
collective behavior to occur. When channels for expressing grievances either are not
available or fail, for instance, like-minded people might resort to protests to voice their
complaints. In Sheehan’s case, the families who lost children in the Iraq war supported
Sheehan because they felt that the White House was insensitive to their personal losses.
ii. Structural strain occurs when an important aspect of a social system is “out of sync,” seen
as unjust, creates problems, or interferes with people’s everyday lives. Many of the
families that sided with Sheehan, for example, did so because they felt that the
administration, by “dragging its heels” in ending the war in Iraq, increased the number of
U.S. casualties.
iii. Generalized beliefs include a general recognition not only that there is a problem but that
something should be done about it. In the Sheehan case, many mothers, especially,
supported Sheehan and were the most vocal leaders of a number of antiwar protests
because they felt that their children were dying “for nothing”
iv. Some sort of incident or dramatic experience triggers an event and inspires action.
Sheehan’s pitching a tent outside of President Bush’s ranch spurred many other anti-war
advocates to support her accusations on radio talk shows and in letters-to-the-editor.
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v. Mobilizing people for action. Leaders may emerge who encourage agitation, hostility, or
changing the status quo. Sheehan was the leader in agitating for peace in Iraq, but antiwar groups supported her efforts through television ads.
vi. Social control occurs where those in power try to counter, prevent, interrupt, deflect, or
repress “malcontents” and other “rabble rousers.” In the case of Cindy Sheehan, the Bush
administration tried to have her seen as a crackpot.
2. Critical Evaluation. Critics of Smelser’s model point out it don’t explain all forms of
collective behavior or that the determinants don’t always spark collective behavior. Another
criticism is that even when the stages occur, the sequence is not necessarily the same as the
actual course of events.
C. Varieties of Collective Behavior.
1. Rumors, Gossip, and Urban Legends. There were widespread beliefs that on January 1, 2000,
a computer glitch (Y2K) would cause computers around the world to crash, there would be
global power outages, banks would lose all of their customers’ statements, and even that
airplanes would fall from the skies. None of this occurred. A rumor is unfounded information
spread among people in relatively rapid fashion. Through modern communication
technology, a rumor can spread to millions of people over the Internet within seconds,
especially when the subject header says something like “THIS IS REALLY TRUE!” Rumor
can incite riots, panic, or widespread anxiety. Gossip is the act of spreading news, especially
rumors, about other people’s personal lives. Someone once said that “no one gossips about
other people’s virtues.” Another form of rumor is urban legends (also called contemporary
legends and modern legends), stories—funny, horrifying, or just odd—that supposedly
happened to people. Some of the most common and enduring urban legends, but with updated
variations, surround food contamination, like the finger at Wendy’s.
2. Panic and Mass Hysteria. A panic is a collective flight from a real or perceived danger in an
uncooperative and often irrational way. The danger seems so overwhelming, people
desperately jam an escape route, jump from high buildings, leap from a sinking ship, or sell
off much of their stock. A mass hysteria is an intense, fearful, and anxious reaction to a real
or imagined threat by large numbers of people. A recent example of mass hysteria is “mad
cow disease.”
3. Fashions, Fads, and Crazes: Fashion is a temporary standard of appearance, thinking, or
behavior that enjoys widespread acceptance within a society. Whether they last for years or
change after a few months, fashions are highly institutionalized processes and the products
are popular among a large number of people. Compared with fashions, a fad is a form of
collective behavior that spreads rapidly and enthusiastically, but lasts only a short time.
Examples of a fad include the hula hoop, yo-yos, pet rocks, or television shows. A craze is a
form of collective behavior that becomes an all-consuming passion for a short period of time.
The Beanie Babies fad during the late 1990s turned into a craze. After an entrepreneur
published a highly-successful magazine on these stuffed toys, there was a mad rush to buy
Beanie Babies.
i.
Betty Crocker is an example of how fashion changes. In 1921, a fictitious woman with
gray hair was used to answer questions. Over the years, she got younger and eventually
by the 1960s had dark skin and was dressed in casual attire, reflecting changes in style.
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4. A disaster is an unplanned and unwanted occurrence that causes widespread damage, destruction,
distress, and loss. Some disasters are due to social causes, such as war, genocide, terrorist attacks,
and civil strife (see online Chapter 18). Some are due to technological causes involving oil spills,
nuclear accidents, burst dams, building collapses, and mine explosions. Others are the result of
natural causes such as fires.
5. Publics, Public Opinion, and Propaganda. A public is a collection of people, not necessarily in
direct contact with each other, who are interested in a particular issue. A public is not the same as
a general public, referring to everyone in a society. Some publics keep their views to themselves,
but others express them through public opinion, or how people feel about a particular issue.
Public opinion has three components: 1) a verbalization rather than an action, 2) about a matter of
concern to many people, and that 3) involves controversial matter. Propaganda is the presentation
of information deliberately designed to influence the opinions or actions of individuals or groups.
Propaganda isn’t a type of collective behavior, but it affects collective behavior in several ways.
Propaganda is institutionalized in advertising, political campaigning, and government control.
6. A crowd is a temporary collection of people who are in one another’s immediate vicinity and who
share a common interest. Crowds come together for a specific reason.
i.
A casual crowd is a loose collection of people who have little in common except for being in
the same place at the same time and participating in a common event.
ii. A conventional crowd is a group of people that assembles for a specific purpose and follows
established norms. Unlike casual crowds, conventional crowds are structured, may interact,
and conform to rules that are appropriate for the situation.
iii. An expressive crowd is a group of people who exhibit strong emotions toward some common
object or event. The feelings—which can range from joy to grief—pour out freely as people
let off steam. Examples include religious revivals, revelers during Mardi Gras, enthusiastic
fans at a rock concert, and cheering crowds at football games.
iv. An acting crowd is a group of people motivated by intense, powerful emotions and who have
a single-minded purpose.
v. A protest crowd is a group of people who assemble to achieve a specific goal.
vi. A mob is a highly emotional and disorderly crowd that uses force or violence against a
specific target. Demonstrate their public support of or opposition to an idea or event.
vii. A riot is a violent crowd that directs its hostility at a wide and shifting range of targets. Unlike
mobs that usually have a specific target, rioters rarely have a common purpose. Instead, they
may unpredictably attack people, property, or both, and whoever or whatever gets in their
way during a rampage. Most riots involve longstanding anger, frustration, or dissatisfaction
that smolder for years or even decades. Some of the long-term tensions include
discrimination, poverty, poor housing conditions, unemployment, economic deprivation, or
other unaddressed grievances.
viii. An example of a riot occurred in Paris in 2005. Arab youth set fire to cars and buses after
two French youth were accidentally electrocuted.
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II. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
A.
What is a Social Movement? A social
movement is a large group of people who are
organized to promote or resist some social change in
society. Examples of social movements include
groups that focus on religion, civil rights, the
disabled, crime victims, gun control, and drunk driving, to name just a few. Unlike the other
forms of collective behavior that you’ve just read about, social movements are organized, goaloriented, deliberate, structured, and can have a lasting impact on a society. The people who make
up a social movement are dispersed over time and space and usually have little face-to-face
interaction.
B. Types of Social Movements.
1. Alternative social movements are focused and want to change some people’s attitudes or
behavior in a specific way. These movements typically emphasize greater spirituality, selfimprovement, or physical well-being. They are the least threatening to the status quo because
they seek limited change and only among some people. Examples include Alcoholics
Anonymous
2. Redemptive social movements want to create a more dramatic change, but only in some
peoples’ lives. Redemptive movements are typically based on spiritual or supernatural
beliefs, promising to renew people from within and to guarantee a place in heaven. Examples
include any religious movements that actively seek converts, such as the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and certain Christian fundamentalist groups.
3. Reformative social movements want to change everyone, but only on a particular topic or
issue. These movements, the most common type in U.S. society, do not want to destroy or
replace the existing economic, political, or social class arrangements, but to change society in
some specific way. Examples include suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, labor unions, and
animal rights groups.
4. Resistance social movements (also called reactionary movements) try to preserve the status
quo by blocking change or undoing change that has already occurred. Reactionary
movements are often called “counter movements” because they usually form immediately
after an earlier movement has succeeded in creating changes within society. An example is
the anti-abortion movements that arose shortly after the passage of Roe v. Wade (1973).
5. Revolutionary social movements want to completely destroy a social order and replace it with
a new one. Their goal is the total transformation of society instead of working within the
existing social system. Revolutionary movements range from utopian groups that withdraw
from society and try to create their own to radical terrorists who use violence and
intimidation. Examples of the latter include the “militia groups” in the United States that
believe the federal government is evil and want to overthrow it. Fidel Castro’s socialist
movement in Cuba, the French Revolution, and the Communist Revolution in China all
succeeded in completely destroying the existing power structure and replacing it with a new
social order.
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C. Why Social Movements Emerge
1. Mass Society Theory. Early on, sociologists believed that the people who formed social
movements felt the most powerless, insignificant, and isolated in modern mass societies that
are impersonal, industrialized, and highly bureaucratized.
2. Critics of mass society theory point out that not all political activist have been or felt
powerless. Many in fact are from the privileged backgrounds.
3. Relative Deprivation Theory proposes that when there is a gap between what people have and
what they think they should have compared with others in a society they will mobilize.
According to relative deprivation theory, what matters is not what people actually have—
whether it’s money, social status, power, or privilege—but what they think they should have
relative to others.
4. Critical Evaluation. Critics point out, however, that there is always a certain amount of
relative deprivation in all societies, but that people don’t always form social movements.
5. Resource Mobilization Theory postulates that a social movement will succeed if it can
manage (“mobilize”) organization and leadership to advance its cause but also legal
knowledge, money, dedicated volunteers, paid staff, access to the mass media, effective
communication systems, contacts, special technical or legal knowledge and skills, equipment,
physical space, forging alliances with like-minded groups, and a positive public image.
6. Critical Evaluation. A major criticism is that resource mobilization theory largely ignores the
role of relative deprivation in the formation of a social movement. If there aren’t large
numbers of dissatisfied people, even plentiful resources will have little effect in forging or
sustaining a movement.
7. New social movements theory, which became prominent during the 1970s, emphasizes the
linkages between culture, politics, and ideology. Unlike the earlier perspectives, new social
movements theory proposes that many recent movements (such as those that support peace
and cleaning up the environment) promote the rights of all people rather than specific groups
in particular countries.
8. Critical Evaluation. Critics point out that social movements—including feminism and
environmentalism—have been around for a long time and still focus on similar issues such as
women’s second-class citizenship and population growth.
D. The Stages of Social Movements.
1. Emergence is the first stage of a social movement. People are upset about some condition and
want to change it. One or more people, such as agitators and prophets, emerge as leaders.
They verbalize the feelings of the discontented, crystallize the issues, and urge taking action.
2. Organization. Once people’s consciousness has been raised, the second stage is organization.
The most active members form alliances, seek media coverage, develop strategies and tactics,
recruit members, and acquire or mobilize the necessary resources.
3. Institutionalization means the staff numbers increase, members draw up by-laws governing
the organization’s activities, the group may hire outsiders (such as writers, attorneys and
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lobbyists) to handle some of the necessary tasks, and the charismatic or dedicated leaders
may spend more of their time on speaking tours, media interviews, and national or
international meetings.
4. Decline
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
If a social movement is successful, it can become an interest group and a part of
society’s fabric.
Members, and especially their leaders, may be co-opted by government officials and
other groups.
Social movements may become distracted because the original group may lose sight of
its original goals and its members’ enthusiasm might diminish.
A social movement may experience fragmentation because the participants disagree
about the goals, strategies, or tactics.
Social movements may also decline because of repression. Many autocratic governments
quash dissent.
E. Why Social Movements Matter. Social movements can create or resist change.
1. On an individual level, many of us enjoy a variety of rights as workers, consumers, voters,
and even victims that began with highly dedicated people who were determined to change
inequitable laws and practices.
2. On an institutional level, shopping for healthy food is much easier today than it was even
twenty years ago when “veggie burgers,” tofu, and organic produce were rare.
3. On a societal level, social movements have had a major effect in the United States and around
the world. Most of the world’s great religions began as protest movements.
III. TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
A. Some Recent Changes
1. Technology is the scientific application of knowledge for practical purposes, and is a vitally
important aspect of human life: “For good or ill, [technologies] are woven inextricably into
the fabric of our lives, from birth to death, at home, in school, in paid work.” Computer
technology, robots, and humanoid robots now do a number of tasks. Japan’s intelligent robot
Walamaru is three foot tall, can keep its owners schedule, recite the day’s news headlines,
and alert family if the owner doesn’t respond to a message. The AIBO serves the same
function as a live dog, relieving the loneliness of nursing home residents.
2. Biotechnology is a broad term that applies to all practical uses of living organisms in the
biological sciences. Genetic engineering allows us to change the makeup of cells and move
genes across species boundaries to produce novel organisms. Stem cell research has
discovered the building block of human bodies. Proponents of the research point out they can
be used to treat heart disease, leukemia and other cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and
numerous other problems. Opponents of stem cell research argue that all embryos deserve
protection.
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3. Nanotechnology is the ability to build objects and substances one atom or molecule at a time.
The key idea is tiny, tiny, tiny. Nanotechnology is based on a nanometer, a unit of
measurement equal to one-billionth of a meter or 1/80,000th the width of a human hair.
B. Some Benefits and Costs of Technology
1. DNA Testing. Technology has played a major role in detecting, apprehending, and
prosecuting criminals. As DNA technology becomes more sophisticated, criminal
investigation labs can trace semen and other body fluids that are 30 years old
2. Privacy. Cell phones, the Internet, and other telecommunications technology bring people
together and provide quick access to local, national, and international information. Corporate
America routinely collects information about people as they click from site to site on the
Internet. Much Web tracking is done anonymously and marketing firms are typically aware
only of the sites that someone has visited, but not the user’s name or address. Snooper sites
collect data on individuals even selling it. There are numerous surveillance devices that can
distribute information about us without our knowledge. Information Technology can lead to
identity theft, a term that describes a variety of illegal acts including a misuse of personal
information to obtain loans or to commit other crimes. The newest technology is changing
society. The "iGeneration" or people born after 2000 experience the world in a very different
manner than previous generations. Many Americans see technology in a positive light while
taking a very negative view of congress and banks and financial institutions.
3. The Digital Divide. Internet usage is unequal across and within societies, creating a “digital
divide.” The number of Internet users worldwide will be over 2 billion by about 2011,
increasing steadily from only 2 million in 1990. An estimated 20 percent of the world now
uses the Internet, but wealthy nations are heavily wired while developing nations lag far
behind. For example, 70 percent of Americans use the Internet compared to only 5 percent of
Africans.
C. Some Ethical Issues. Technology can cause a cultural lag or gap between technological advances
and attitudes. Biomedical technology sparks the greatest ethical controversies. About 20 years
ago, many ethicists complained that test-tube babies were “the biggest threat since the atom
bomb” and demanded that government rein in the “unpredictable scientists.” Ethicists worry,
however, that this technology has become a heavily-marketed business accessible only to those
who can afford to pay for it and that medical science has no information about the long-term
health consequences of such conceptions. A bigger ethical dilemma—in reproduction and other
areas—is that technology is most available to the wealthy. Whether in the United States or
elsewhere, there’s still a digital divide between the poor and the rich. Organ scarcity is a major
concern.
1. For instance, in France when a women’s face was mauled by her Labrador retriever, she was
given a new face by transplant. She signed a film deal to do a movie on her face. This brings
up ethical dilemmas marketing transplants to the wealthy.