Collective Behavior, Social Movements, and Social Change

Chapter Outline Collective Behavior Social Movements Social Movement Theories Social Change in the Future

Collective Behavior Collective behavior is voluntary activity

engaged in by a large number of people and typically violates dominant-group norms and values.

Social change is the alteration, modification, or transformation of public policy, culture, or social institutions over time; such change is usually brought about by collective behavior.

Factors That Contribute to Collective Behavior

1. Structural factors that increase the chances of people responding in a particular way.

2. Timing.

3. Breakdown in social control mechanisms and corresponding feeling of normlessness.

Types of Crowd Behavior Casual crowds - people who happen to be in

the same place at the same time. Conventional crowds - people who come

together for a scheduled event and share a common focus.

Protest crowds - crowds that engage in activities intended to achieve political goals.

Types of Crowd Behavior Expressive crowds - people releasing

emotions with others who experience similar emotions.

Acting crowds - collectivities so intensely focused that they may erupt into violent behavior.

Expressive and Acting Crowds A mob is a highly emotional crowd whose

members engage in, or are ready to engage in, violence against a person, a category of people, or physical property.

A riot is violent crowd behavior fueled by deep-seated emotions but not directed at one target.

A panic is a form of crowd behavior that occurs when a large number of people react to a real or perceived threat with strong emotions and self destructive behavior.

Protest Crowds Protest crowds engage in activities intended to

achieve specific political goals. Examples: sit-ins, marches, boycotts,

blockades, and strikes. Some protests take the form of civil

disobedience - nonviolent action that seeks to change a policy or law by refusing to comply with it.

Explanations of Crowd Behavior Contagion Theory - People are more

likely to engage in antisocial behavior in a crowd because they are anonymous and feel invulnerable.

Social unrest and circular reaction - the discontent of one person is communicated to another who reflects it back to the first person.

Explanations of Crowd Behavior Convergence theory - focuses on the

shared emotions, goals, and beliefs people bring to crowd behavior.

 Emergent norm theory - crowds develop their own definition of the situation and establish norms for behavior that fits the occasion.

Mass Behavior Mass behavior is collective behavior that takes

place when people (who often are geographically separated from one another) respond to the same event in much the same way.

The most frequent types of mass behavior are rumors, gossip, mass hysteria, public opinion, fashions, and fads.

Mass Behavior Rumors are unsubstantiated reports on an

issue or subject. Gossip refers to rumors about the personal

lives of individuals. A fad is a temporary but widely copied activity

enthusiastically followed by large numbers of people.

Mass Behavior Fashion is defined as a currently valued style

of behavior, thinking, or appearance. Public opinion consists of the attitudes and

beliefs communicated by ordinary citizens to decision makers.

Propaganda—information provided by individuals or groups that have a vested interest in furthering their own cause or damaging an opposing one.

Social Movement Theories

Relative Deprivation

People compare achievements, become discontent and join social movements to

get their “fair share”.

Resource Mobilization

People participate in social movements when the movement has access to key

resources.

Social Movement Theories

New Social Movement

Focus on sources of social movements, including politics,

ideology, and culture.

Social Construction Theory:

Frame Analysis

Used to determine how people assign meaning to activities and processes

in social movements.

Social Movement Theories

New Social Movement

The focus is on sources of social movements, including politics, ideology, and culture. Race, class, gender, sexuality, and other sources of identity are alsofactors in movements such as ecofeminism and environmental justice.

•WALL STREET JOURNAL OCTOBER 5, 2009 FreedomWorks Harnesses Growing Activism on the Right

By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS WASHINGTON -- When throngs of conservative protesters descended on the capital last month, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey led the crowd in a pro-market chant. "Freedom works!" he yelled. "Freedom works!"It wasn't just a rallying cry. It was also a plug for Mr. Armey's small-government advocacy group, FreedomWorks, which the Texas Republican hopes will emerge from a summer of political turmoil as the right's answer to such liberal activist groups as MoveOn.org.Little-known outside the Beltway, FreedomWorks is trying to achieve a delicate balance, tapping into an emotional conservative uprising -- which gained force during a series of raucous health-care town-hall meetings this summer -- without appearing to co-opt it."People are looking for a home; they don't have a home in the Republican Party and they don't have a home in the Democratic Party," says Brendan Steinhauser, the group's director of federal and state campaigns.The FreedomWorks strategy has been to lend financial clout and organizational skills to those running tea-party and town-hall demonstrations and others angry about Democratic health-care proposals, environmental bills and deficit spending. At the same time, it has been using those events to build its own membership rolls to more than 400,000 nationwide, according to the group.MoveOn.org claims more than five million online members. Organizing for America, an offshoot of President Barack Obama's campaign, boasts an email list 13 million names long."It's a loose-knit group of people, the tea-party patriots, and they don't know each other well," says Mr. Armey, who left the House in 2003. "Then there are grassroots groups like our own. I think we are the best out there. People are going to find us."Mr. Armey chairs both FreedomWorks Inc. and its foundation, with $7 million in combined revenue last year, according to tax filings. The group, which has fewer than 20 paid staffers, declines to identify its major donors. Steve Forbes, the former presidential candidate and president and CEO of publisher Forbes Inc., is on the board of FreedomWorks Foundation.

Example, Emerging Social Movement

Since its creation in 2004, FreedomWorks has championed conservative causes, from Social Security privatization to telecommunications deregulation. It lent its backing to the controversial payday-lending and tobacco industries.In February, when CNBC reporter Rick Santelli delivered an on-air angry tirade over government bailouts of troubled homeowners and announced a protest tea party, FreedomWorks staffers put together an "I am with Rick" Web site.FreedomWorks linked together would-be tea-party protesters and provided tips on everything from sound systems to news releases. Perhaps more importantly, FreedomWorks extended its liability-insurance policy to cover tea parties around the country, turning local events into FreedomWorks-branded ones, spokesman Adam Brandon says."I'm brand new at this game," says Mary Rakovich, a former automotive engineer who turned to FreedomWorks to help put together an event in Cape Coral, Fla.The Sept. 12 Washington protest was set in motion earlier in 2009 when FreedomWorks officials applied for a march permit, choosing the date because it followed Congress's return from recess, according to Mr. Brandon.Glenn Beck, the Fox News television commentator, seized on the date -- the day after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks -- as a symbol of what he called national unity and began promoting 9/12 demonstrations. (Fox is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.)The growing movement has turned off some high-profile conservative voices, such as former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, who worry that raucous displays and occasionally extreme language risk alienating moderates.And even as they ride the conservative wave, FreedomWorks officials worry about being seen as aspiring to control it. The movement has so far been reluctant to embrace a leader; many protesters seem deeply suspicious of those in authority."We're all leaders," says Maryann Clements, a Tallahassee, Fla., office worker who rode a bus to Washington for last month's demonstrations.—Naftali Bendavid contributed to this article.

Value-Added Theory Conditions required for social

movements to develop:1. People are aware of a problem and

engage in collective action.2. Society cannot meet expectations for

taking care of the problem.3. Spread of a belief of possible

solutions to the problem.

Value-Added Theory

4. Events reinforce the beliefs.5. Mobilization of participants for action.6. Society allows the movement to take

action.

Types of Social Movements Reform movements seek to improve society by

changing an aspect of the social structure. Revolutionary movements seek to bring about

a total change in society. Religious movements seek to produce radical

change in individuals and typically are based on spiritual or supernatural belief systems.

Types of Social Movements Alternative movements seek limited

change in some aspect of people's behavior.

Resistance movements seek to prevent or undo change that has already occurred.

Stages in Social Movements Preliminary stage - people begin to

become aware of a threatening problem. Coalescence stage - people begin to

organize and start making the threat known to the public.

Institutionalization stage - organizational structure develops.

The Earth’s Supply of Potable Water