1. Collective Behavior & Social Movements
Macionis, Sociology, 12th Edition, Chapter Twenty-three

2. Studying Collective Behavior
Social movements
Organized activities that encourage or discourage social change
Collective behavior
Activities involving a large number of people, often spontaneous, and typically in violation of established social norms

3. Collectives Differ From Groups
Collectives are based on limited social interaction
Interaction in mobs is limited and temporary
Collectives have no clear social boundaries
Little sense of unity compared to social groups
Collectives generate weak and unconventional norms
Mobs often destroy and act spontaneously

4. Crowds People Who Share a Common Focus of Attention and Whose Members Influence One Another
A Casual Crowd: People On A Beach
A Conventional Crowd: A College Classroom
An Expressive Crowd: A Church Service
An Acting Crowd: People Fleeing From A Fire
A Protest Crowd: A College Student Sit-in

5. When Acting Crowds Turn Violent
Mob
A highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal
Lynch mob
Riots
A social eruption that is highly emotional, violent & undirected
Watts, south central, after a LAKERS championship

6. Public Opinion & Propaganda
Public opinion – widespread attitudes about controversial issues
On any given issue from 2–10% of Americans
report they hold no opinion
Is this due to ignorance or indifference?
Not everyone’s opinion carries the same weight
Experts in a field
Propaganda– information presented with the intention of shaping public opinion
Thin line between information and propaganda
Not all propaganda is false

7. Fashions and Fads Fashions
A pattern favored for a time by a large number of people
Fashion characterizes all forms of art
Can trickle down through less expensive copies
THORSTEIN VEBLEN’S conspicuous consumption – people buying expensive products simply to show-off their wealth
Fads
An unconventional social pattern that people embrace briefly but enthusiastically
Sometimes called crazes

8. Kai Erikson’s Research (2005)
The social consequences of disasters of all types:
1) disasters cause damage to human community.
2) social damage is more serious when an event involves some toxic substance.
3) the social damage is most serious when the disaster is caused by the actions of others.

9. Types of Social Movements
Social Movements – an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change
Alternative
Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members
Example: planned parenthood
Redemptive
Selective focus, radical change
Example: some religious organizations
Reformative
Limited social change that targets all members of society
Example: equal rights amendment movement
Revolutionary
The most severe, striving for basic transformation of society
Example: ultra-conservative political movements

10. Stages of Social Movements
Stage one: emergence
Perception that something is wrong
Stage two: coalescence
Defining itself and “going public”
Stage three: bureaucratization
Organizing rationally to get job done
Stage four: decline
Is the movement in need of regrouping or is it simply time for its demise?
Reasons:
Signals success has been reached
Signals organizational problems (leadership, etc.)
Leadership sells out to other interests
Demise may result from state-sponsored repression

11. Figure (p. 624) Stages in the Lives of Social Movements Social Movements typically go through four stages. The last is decline, which may occur for any of five reasons.

12. “Write the bad things that are done to you in the sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.”
– Arabian Parable