Download Social movements

Sociology
Sixth Edition
Chapter Twenty One
Collective Behavior and
Social Movements
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Chapter Overview
 Collective Behavior
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Early Explanations:
The Transformation
of the Individual
The Contemporary
View: The Rationality
of the Crowd
Forms of Collective
Behavior
 Social Movements
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Types and tactics of
Social Movements
Why People Join
Social Movements
On the Success and
Failure of Social
Movements
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Collective Behavior
 Collective Behavior - actions by a group of
people who bypass the usual norms
governing their behavior and do something
unusual.
 It includes violent acts, panics, rumors,
fads, and fashions.
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Early Explanations: The
Transformation of the Individual
 When people cannot figure something out, they
often resort to “madness” as the explanation.
 People feel anonymous in crowds and less
accountable for what they do.
 A Collective Mind - when people are swept away
by almost any suggestion.
 Contagion takes over and destructive instincts are
released.
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Herbert Blumer and the Acting
Crowd
 Five stages precede an acting crowd - an
excited group that moves towards a goal.
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1. Tension or unrest.
2. Exciting event.
3. Milling.
4. A common object of attention.
5. Common impulses.
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The Contemporary View: The
Rationality of the Crowd
 Beneath the surface, crowds are often quite
rational.
 Crowds take deliberate steps to reach their
goals.
 Minimax strategy - the fewer costs and
more rewards we anticipate from
something, the more likely we are to do it.
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Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian:
Emergent Norms
 Emergent Norms - when people develop
new norms to deal with new situations.
 Even new definitions of right and wrong
may be developed under new
circumstances.
 Not everyone in a crowd shares the same
point of view.
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Forms of Collective Behavior
 Riots - violent crowd
behavior aimed
against people and
property.
 Panics - when people
become so fearful that
they cannot function
normally.
 Moral panics - when
large numbers of
people become
concerned, even
fearful, about some
behavior that they feel
threatens morality.
 Fads and Fashion novel behaviors that
catch people’s
attention.
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Social Movements
 Social movements - large numbers of
people who organize to promote or resist
social change.
 At the heart of social movements lies a
sense of injustice.
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A proactive social movement - when the goal
is to promote social change.
A reactive social movement - when there is
organization to resist change.
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Types and Tactics of Social
Movements
 Alternative Social
Movements - seek
only to alter some
specific behavior.
 Redemptive Social
Movements - the aim
is for total change.
 Reformative Social
Movements - seek to
reform some specific
aspect of society.
 Transformative
Social Movements seek to transform the
social order itself.
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Propaganda and the Mass Media
 The leaders of social movements try to
manipulate the mass media in order to
influence public opinion.
 Propaganda - the presentation of
information in the attempt to influence
people.
 Propaganda attempts to influence public
opinion.
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Why People Join Social
Movements
 Mass Society Theory an impersonal society
makes people feel
isolated.
 Social movements fill
this void by offering a
sense of belonging.
 Deprivation Theory people who feel
deprived join social
movements with the
hope of redressing
their grievances.
 They key is what
people think they
should have relative to
what others have.
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On the Success and Failure of
Social Movements
 Large industrial societies give rise to the
discontent that spawns social movements.
 Social movements have brought us
extensive change.
 Most social movements are not successful.
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The Stages of Social Movements
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(1) Initial unrest and agitation.
(2) Mobilization
(3) Organization
(4) Institutionalization
(5) Organizational decline and possible
resurgence
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The End
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