Download Chapter 22 , Collective Behavior And Social Movements Key Terms

Chapter 22 , Collective Behavior
And Social Movements
Key Terms

Collective behavior
Behavior that occurs when the usual social
conventions are suspended and people
collectively establish new norms of behavior
in response to an emerging situation.

Emergent norm theory
Theory that describes how crowds can be
both emergent forms of behavior and socially
organized.

Expressive crowds
Primary function is the release or expression of
emotion.

Convergence theory
Explains riots by focusing on the participants in
riots and presupposes that rioters are acting on
predispositions and attitudes.

Competition theory
Conflicts between different groups can erupt
into riots when these groups have to compete
for limited resources.

Collective preoccupations
Forms of collective behavior wherein many
people over a broad social spectrum engage in
similar behavior and have a shared definition of
their behavior as needed to bring social
change or to identify their place in the society.

Scapegoating
When a group collectively identifies another
group as a threat to the perceived social order
and incorrectly blames the group for problems
they have not caused.

Social movements
An organized social group that acts with some
continuity and coordination to promote or resist
change in society or other social unit.

Personal transformation movements
Aim to change the individual, focus on
development of new meaning within
individual lives.

Reform movements
Seek change through legal or other
mainstream political means, typically working
within existing institutions.

Radical movements
Seek fundamental change in the structure of
society.

Social change movements
Aim to change some aspect of society.

Reactionary movements
organize to resist change or to reinstate an
earlier social order that participants perceive to
be better.

Mobilization
The process by which all social moments and
other leaders secure people and resources for
the movement.

Resource mobilization theory
An explanation of how social movements
develop that focuses on how movements gain
momentum by gathering resources, competing
with other movements and mobilizing the
resources available to them.

Political process theory
Movements achieve success by exploiting a
combination of internal factors and external
factors.

Frames
Schemes of interpretation that allow people in
groups to perceive, identify and label events
within their lives that can become the basis for
collective action.

New social movement theory
Links culture, ideology, and identity
conceptually to explain how new identities are
formed within social movements.