Collective Resistance and Social Change

Question 1

Describe different forms of collective behaviour.

Answer 1

• There are four primary forms of collective behaviour: the crowd, the mass, the public, and social movements
  (1) A mass is a relatively large and dispersed number of people with a common interest, whose members are largely unknown to one another and who are incapable of acting together in a concerted way to achieve objectives, such as fans of a television show
  (2) A public, on the other hand, is an unorganized, relatively diffused group of people who share ideas on an issue, such as social conservatives
  (3) Social movements are purposeful, organized groups striving to work toward a common goal

Question 2

Differentiate between types of crowds.

Answer 2

• Casual crowds consist of people who are in the same place at the same time, but who are not really interacting, such as people standing in line at the post office.
• Conventional crowds are those who come together for a scheduled event, like a religious service or rock concert.
• Expressive crowds are people who join together to express emotion, often at funerals, weddings, or the like.
• Acting crowds focus on a specific goal or action, such as a protest movement or riot

Question 3

Discuss emergent norm, value-added, and assembling perspective analyses of collective behaviour.

Answer 3

Emergent norm theory asserts that, in this circumstance, people perceive and respond to the crowd situation with their particular (individual) set of norms, which may change as the crowd experience evolves;
reflects a symbolic interactionist perspective

Value-added: a perspective within the functionalist tradition based on the idea that several conditions must be in place for collective behaviour to occur

Assembling perspective: another system for understanding collective behaviour that credited individuals in crowds as rational beings (interactionist)

Question 4

Identify stages of social movements.

Answer 4

(1) In the preliminary stage, people become aware of an issue and leaders emerge
(2) the coalescence stage when people join together and organize in order to publicize the issue and raise awareness
(3) the institutionalization stage, the movement no longer requires grassroots volunteerism: it is an established organization, typically peopled with a paid staff
(4) When people fall away, adopt a new movement, the movement successfully brings about the change it sought, or people no longer take the issue seriously, the movement falls into the decline stage