Topic of Sociology, Defining Collective Behavior, Forms of Collective Behavior, Fashions and Fads, Rumors, Urban Legends, Mass Hysteria, Crowds, Theories of Collective Behavior, Need for Collective Behaviour Theories, Various Collective Behaviour Theories, Contagion Theory, Contagion Theory, Contagion Theory, Defining Social Movements, Formation of Social Movements, Types of Social Movements, Redemptive Movements, Alternative Movements, Decline of Social Movements, Theories of Social Movements, Deprivation theory, Mass-society theory, Resource-mobilization theory, New social movements theory, New social movements theory, Globalization and Internet, Social Change, Collective Behavior, Social Movement, Collective Actions, Reformative Social Movements, Reformative Social Movements, Transformative Social Movement, Transformative Social Movement, Reformative Social Movements

2. Collective Behavior
and
Social Movement

3. Collective Behavior

4. What shall be discussed by us?
 Defining Collective Behavior
 Forms of Collective Behavior
 Theories of Collective Behavior
 Defining Social Movements
 Formation of Social Movements
 Types of Social Movements
 Decline of Social Movements
 Theories of Social Movements

5. Social Change
“Social change refers to an
alteration in the social order of
a society”.
Social change may include changes in
nature, social institutions, social behaviors,
or social relations.

6. How does social change take
place?
Social changes may occur in two ways:
Within one society (e.g., a revolution that
brings a new government).
Within multiple societies (e.g.,
globalization brings a fast-food restaurant
or department store to places previously
without them).

7. Collective Behavior
“Spontaneous activities that involve
large numbers of people violating
established customs”.
 Collective behavior occurs when people
react to something new or unfamiliar.
 The results may be insignificant,
surprising, or even cause temporary
changes.

8. Social Movement
“Organized collective activities that
deliberately seek to create or resist
social change”.
 It is caused as a result of collective
behavior.
 Social movements purposely result in
long-term, sweeping changes.

9. Collective Action
“Activities that bring about a lasting
change are called collective action”.
• Social movements result in collective
action.
• Collective action also overlaps with
interests in a number of other disciplines.

10. Forms of Collective Behavior
There are five forms of collective behavior,
namely:
 Fashions and Fads
 Rumors
 Urban Legends
 Mass Hysteria
 Crowds

11. Forms of Collective Behavior
Collective behaviors take a variety of forms, all of
great interest to sociologists.
Several of those forms are discussed here.
 Fashions and Fads
 Rumors
 Urban Legends
 Mass Hysteria
 Crowds

12. Fashions and Fads
• Fashion:
“is a social pattern of behavior or appearance embraced by
large numbers of people for a long period of time.”

13. Fashions and Fads
• Fashion and thought of different sociologists:
• Herbert Blumer :
“ viewed fashion as a form of modern collective social life
scarcely to be found in settled societies, such as primitive
tribes, peasant societies, or caste societies, which cling to what
is established and has been sanctioned through long usage”
(1968)

14. Fashions and Fads
Fashion: Thought of different sociologist:(cont)
• Georg Simmel:
“studied the sociology of fashion a century ago. He saw the
wealthy as fashion trendsetters,
with others following their example”.
(1957)
• Thorstein Veblen :
“suggested that some people buy expensive things to show
that they could afford them. He called this conspicuous
consumption”.
(1967)

15. Fashions and Fads
• Pierre Bourdieu:
“also looked at the selection of products as related to,
and reinforcing, social position”.
(1984)

16. Fashions and Fads
• Fads:
“are typically seen as relatively novel behaviors that
appear suddenly, spread rapidly, are enthusiastically embraced
by a large number of people for a short period of time, and
then mostly disappear ”.
• Sometimes called crazes.

17. Rumor
• Rumors:
“are unverified information spread through informal
social interaction, and often derived from unknown
sources”.
Allport and Postman:
Rumor thrives when the subject is important as well as
when accurate and reliable information on the topic is
lacking or ambiguous.
(1947)

18. Rumor
• Although they can address any topic, most rumors
involve some aspect of our everyday lives. That makes
them seem relevant to many people. They may be either
false or true, or at least have some aspect of correct
information in them.
(1947)

19. Rumor
Miller: summarizes a wide variety of rumors that deal
with products
we use in our daily lives (e.g., the quality or content of
food products), disasters
(the presence of dangerous situations or outcomes),
and atrocities (e.g., wartime
acts). He notes that the Internet has provided an
especially fertile place for conspiracy
rumors to flourish and has also made the spread of
rumors even faster. (2000)

20. urban legends
urban legends:
“are realistic but untrue stories that recount some alleged
recent event.”
• They are typically entertaining tales of ironic and
incredible things that have happened to some “friend of
a friend.” The sources of, or eyewitnesses to, these
alleged events are difficult, if not impossible, to trace or
verify. Urban legends, like rumor, thrive on ambiguity
and the possibility that the alleged event occurred. They
may even be a very persistent form of rumor.

21. 4. Mass Hysteria
“A reaction in which people become
excited to the point of losing their
critical-thinking abilities and acting
irrationally.”.
• A classic example of mass hysteria is the
Halloween 1938 War of the Worlds radio-
theater broadcast.

22. War of the Worlds
It occurred when Orson Welles caused
thousands of listeners to believe that an
actual Martian invasion was taking place.
The hour-long radio broadcast was narrated
in a news bulletin format without any
commercial breaks.

23. War of the Worlds (cont’d)
It caused many in the audience to become
hysterical, reporting that they could smell
poison gas or see lightning flashes in the
distance. According to some historians,
approximately six million people heard the
broadcast. 1.7 million thought it was true,
and out of those, 1.2 million actually
exhibited hysterical behavior.

24. 5. Crowd
“A crowd is a temporary collection
of people in physical proximity who
interact and have a common focus”.
Sociologists have identified different types of
crowds. Some are discussed below:

25. Casual Crowd
“People who just happen to be at the
same place at the same time.”
Examples:
• People gathering at the scene of a car
accident
• Watching a crane place a steel beam on a
high-rise building.

26. Crowd Crystals
“Something or someone who draw
attention to themselves in some
manner”.
Example:
• A street-corner preacher or someone
slipping on an icy road might draw a
casual crowd.

27. Conventional Crowd
“These are deliberate gatherings
bound by norms of behavior.”
Examples:
• Attendees at a wedding
• Fans at a rock concert

28. Expressive Crowd
“A crowd that forms specifically
around events with emotional
meaning for the members”.
Examples
• The championship game of a basketball
tournament.
• A religious revival.
• A political rally.

29. When a crowd gets emotional
• When emotions become intense, the result
may be a crowd in action.
• As the crowd members interact, the
emotional intensity builds into behavior
that may be destructive or aggressive.
• The result may be a mob or even a riot.

30. Mob versus Riot
• Mobs are crowds that take action toward
an emotionally driven goal.
• Riots involve public disorder that is less
directed and may be of longer duration
than mob behavior.

31. Need for Collective Behaviour
Theories
In the behavioural sciences;
Sociologist were normally concerned with
the reason why people behave collectively
the way they do.
They monitor the spontaneity of the
behaviour
They observe the factors that influence the
behaviour of people collectively

32. Various Collective Behaviour
Theories
Contagion Theory
Initially developed by Gustave Le Bon but later
refined by Herbert Blumer.
Being swept up in a crowd results in a
hypnotic sort of influence on individuals
Conscious personalities, personal will,
discernment, and restraint disappear
Later researchers criticised this as over-
simplistic

33. Emergent-Norm Theory
The Theory imply the emergence of new
norms as events occur.
Development of norms are influenced by
the communication and cues circulating
among the crowd. It is guided by the
emerging leaders as the situation
progresses.
Implications of this theory are most
commonly linked with the aftermath of

34. Value Added Theory
As the name value-added theory implies,
various factors adds something of value to
the collective action.
According to Neil Smelser (1962), together
there are six factors that set the stage for
collective action as people react to
situations and events.
These six factors include;
 structural conduciveness
 structural strain

35. Social Movements Defined
Social movements are any broad social alliances
of people who are connected through their
shared interests in blocking or affecting social
change. Social movements do not have to be
formally organized. Multiple alliances may
work separately for common causes and still be
considered as a social movement.

36. Social Movements Defined (CON,T)
Social movement may also refer
to organized collective activities to
bring about or resist fundamental
change in an existing group or
society.
Likewise social movement is
defined as “collective enterprises to
establish a new order of life”.

37. Types of social
movements

38. Redemptive Movements
Redemptive movements are
usually religious in Nature
which do not attempt to change
the society but specifically,
target change in society.

39. Alternative Movements
Alternative movements seek total
change among individuals.
Examples are students,
organization, civic societies, non-
government organization or
government organization
campaigning to people, especially
the young’s one, to steer clear of
prohibited drugs.

40. REFORMATIVE SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
• Seeks a partial change of society

41. WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AND CHILD
LABOR

42. TRANSFORMATIVE SOCIAL
MOVEMNET

43. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS

44. REFORMATIVE SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS

46. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Deprivation theory:
social movements
arise when people feel
deprived of something
that others have or
that they feel others
have.
Merton 1968

47. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Deprivation
theory: (Cont’d)
Relative deprivation
A perceived disadvantage
arising from some specific
comparison.
Merton 1968
– Critical evaluation
• Theory suffers from circular reasoning
• Focuses exclusively on the cause, telling us little
about movements themselves

48. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Mass-society theory:
modern society is
alienating, immoral,
apathetic, and
discourages
individuality, and that
in this context, socially
isolated people are
attracted to social
movements for
personal reasons.
Kornhauser
1959

49. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Mass-society theory:
(Cont’d)
Movements are personal
as well as political, giving
people with weak
socialties a sense of
purpose and belonging.
– Critical evaluation
• No clear standard for measuring the extent to which
we live in a “mass society” .
• Explaining social movements in terms of people
hungry to belong ignores the social-justice issues that
movements address.
Kornhauser
1959

50. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Resource-mobilization
theory:
social movements need
to generate adequate,
and often substantial,
resources to achieve
their goals.
Zald and Ash
1966

51. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Resource-mobilization
theory: (Cont’d)
They include money,
membership , office
facilities and equipment,
communication processes,
political influence, and a
skill base with expertise in
organization, leadership,
and marketing the cause.
Zald and Ash
1966

52. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• Resource-mobilization theory: (Cont’d)
These resources are mobilized through the efforts of
social-movement organizations (SMOs):
formal organizations that seek social change by achieving a social
movement’s goals.
– Critical evaluation
• Powerless can promote change if they are organized
an have committed members
• Overstates the extent to which powerful people are
willing to challenge the status quo.

53. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• New social
movements theory:
bringing about social
change through the
transformation of
values, personal
identities and
symbols.
Scott 1990
Examples of those new movements include the women's
movement, the ecology movement, gay rights movement and
various peace movements, among others.

54. Theories : Explaining Social Movements
• New social movements theory: (Cont’d)
• Most of today’s movements are international.
• Tends to focus on cultural change and improving
social and physical surroundings.
• Draws support from middle and upper classes.
• Critical evaluation
• Tends to exaggerate differences between past and present
social movements.

55. New Social Movements
• Focuses on bringing about social change
through the transformation of values
personal identities and symbols
• They are not primarily political as they do
not challenge the state and social
structures directly rather they are located
in and defend civil society.

56. Example
• AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
(ACT_UP) is a new social movement
formed in1987 that discriminated against
people with AIDS.

57. Anti-nuclear movement
• The anti-nuclear movement is a social
movement that opposes various nuclear
technologies. Some direct action groups,
environmental groups, and professional
organisations have identified themselves
with the movement at the local, national,
and international level

58. Animal rights movement
• The animal rights movement, sometimes
called the animal liberation movement,
animal personhood, or animal advocacy
movement, is a social movement which
seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal
distinction drawn between human and
non-human animals, an end to the status
of animals as property,

59. Characteristics Of Social
Movements
• Develop new skills knowledge and values.
• They become educated on science and
medicine

60. Globalization and Internet
• Some are nation specific eg; fish workers
movement in INDIA.
• NGO’s which are private organizations or
groups of citizens that work against
destructive government or large
organizations.
• Internet has provided people with as source
with which they can generate revenue at the
same time they can also spread their
message across the globe