Chapter 17Social Change and Collective

Behavior

Social Change

• New societal behaviors with important long term consequences.

• Social change from a historical standpoint has occurred in the blink of an eye.

• It is only when we look at it from the perspective of the human life span that it sometimes seems to be a slow process.

Predicting Social Change in America-- Tocqueville

1. Major social institutions would continue to exist. He did not think that the family, religion, or the state would disappear

2. Human nature would remain the same3. Equality and the trend toward a centralized

government would continue4. The availability of material resources (such as

land, minerals, and rich soils) limits and directs social change.

5. Change is affected by the past, but history does not strictly dictate the future.

6. There are no social forces aside from human actions.

Social Processes• Series of steps leading to change on a

societal level– Discovery- process where something is

learned or reinterpreted (explorers, salt)– Invention- process of creating something

new from previously existing items or processes (airplane, NASA)

– Diffusion- process where one culture or society borrows from another (almost always involves picking and choosing)

Technology

• Knowledge and tools used to achieve practical goals

• New technology is usually a sign that social change will soon follow.

• It took more than a century (100 years) for telephones to spread to 94% of homes. In contrast in less than 5 years the internet reached over 25% of Americans.

Population

• Changing demographics is another important factor for creating social change.

• When there are baby booms– health care, child care, and schools have to be improved

• When the population ages– other issues with health care and physical care also have to be considered.

The Natural Environment

• Western Expansion

• Destruction of Native American culture

• Great Depression and drought

• Oil demand from other countries led to oil embargo of the 1970’s.

Revolution and War

• Revolution- sudden and complete overthrow of a social or political order

• Charles Tilly- a revolution results in the replacement of one set of power holders by another.

• The new social order is many time a compromise between the new and old.

• War- organized, armed conflict that occurs within a society or between nations.

• Wars promote cultural diffusion, invention, and discovery– Robert Nisbet

Theoretical Perspectives on Social ChangeTheoretical Perspective

Concept Example

Functionalism Equilibrium Continuity in the nature of the presidency despite the scandals in the Nixon and Clinton administrations

Conflict Theory Interest Group

Enactment of civil rights laws in the 1960’s as a result of the struggle over racial equality

Symbolic Interactionalism

Urbanism The smaller proportion of social interaction in a big city vs. a small town is based on a decrease in # of shared meanings.

Functionalist

• Emphasize social stability and continuity

• William Ogburn and Talcott Parsons– Based on equilibrium: a society’s

tendency to react to changes by making small adjustments to keep itself in a state of functioning and balance

– A society in change moves from stability to temporary instability and back to stability– dynamic equilibrium

Conflict Perspective

• Social change is the result of struggling among groups for scarce resources– change is created as these conflicts are resolved.

• Dahrendorf sees conflict among groups at all levels of society: political, economic, religious, racial, ethnic, or gender based.

Symbolic Interactionism

• Urbanism- the distinctive way of life shared by the people living in a city

• Tonnies argues the urbanization creates a very different way of life. Social interaction in impersonal and fragmented because most people one interacts with are strangers who share little common tradition.

Collective Behavior• Collective behavior- the spontaneous behavior of a

group of people responding to a similar stimuli (rumors, fads, fashions, mass-hysteria, and panics)

• Collectivity- collection of people who do not normally interact and who do not share clearly defined norms

• Dispersed Collectivity- made up of people who are not physically connected but who follow common rules or respond to common stimuli (tv and internet make this common now)

• Problem: How do you study a social phenomenon that happens spontaneously?

Role Play

• Get into groups of 4 or so

• Develop a role play illustrating collective behavior

• Go! You only have 5 minutes to plan!

Rumors, Legends, Fads, and Fashions

• Rumor- widely circulated information that hasn’t been verified for truthfulness

• Urban legend- moralistic tale that focuses on current concerns and fears of the city or suburb dweller

• Fad- unusual behavior pattern that spreads quickly and disappears quickly

• Fashion- widely accepted behavior pattern that changes periodically.

Mass Hysteria and Panics

• Mass hysteria- collective anxiety crated by the acceptance of one or more false beliefs (Salem witches, AIDS)

• Panic- reaction to a real threat in fearful, anxious, and often self damaging ways

Crowds1. Casual crowd- least organized, least emotional.

Gathering after an accident, listen to street musician

2. Conventional crowd- specific purpose, accepted norms for appropriate behavior– little interaction (watching a movie)

3. Expressive crowds- no significant long term purpose beyond releasing emotion. (Times Square New Years Eve)

4. Acting crowd- concentrates intensely on some objective and engages in aggressive behavior to get it. (protesters, rowdy soccer fans)

Mobs and Riots

• Mob- emotional crowd ready to use violence for a specific purpose

• Riots- episode of largely random destruction and violence carried out by a crowd

Theories of Crowd Behavior

• Contagion theory– members of a crowd stimulate each other to higher and higher levels of emotion and irrational behavior (Le Bon)– Blumer- crowd goes from milling to collective

excitement, to finally social contagion

Theories of Crowd Behavior (continued)

• Emergent Norm Theory- norms develop to guide crowd behavior– Within crowds rules develop.– Different people are there for different reasons

so some will be active participants while others are passive participants.

Theories of Crowd Behavior (continued)

• Convergence Theory– crowds are formed by people who deliberately congregate with like minded people.– believe the independent variable in crowd

behavior is the desire of people with common interests to come together.

Social MovementsSocial Movements

Large # of peopleLarge # of people Common goal to promote or prevent Common goal to promote or prevent

social changesocial change Structured organization with commonly Structured organization with commonly

recognized leadersrecognized leaders Activity sustained over a relatively long Activity sustained over a relatively long

time periodtime period

Primary types of Social Primary types of Social MovementsMovements

Revolutionary movement– attempts to Revolutionary movement– attempts to change to total structure of societychange to total structure of society

Reformative movement– attempts to Reformative movement– attempts to make limited changesmake limited changes

Redemptive movement– seeks to change Redemptive movement– seeks to change people completelypeople completely

Alternative movement– focuses on Alternative movement– focuses on bringing about limited changes in peoplebringing about limited changes in people

Value Added TheoryValue Added Theory1.1. Structural conduciveness- environment must be Structural conduciveness- environment must be

social-movement friendlysocial-movement friendly2.2. Structural strains- conflicts, ambiguities, and Structural strains- conflicts, ambiguities, and

discrepenciesdiscrepencies3.3. Generalized beliefs- recognition there is a Generalized beliefs- recognition there is a

problemproblem4.4. Precipitating factors- significant events must Precipitating factors- significant events must

happen to galvanize people into actionhappen to galvanize people into action5.5. Mobilization of participants for actionMobilization of participants for action6.6. Social control- they can stop social movements Social control- they can stop social movements

under the right circumstances.under the right circumstances.

Resource Mobilization Resource Mobilization TheoryTheory

Focuses on the use of resources to Focuses on the use of resources to achieve goalsachieve goals Leadership, organizational ability, labor Leadership, organizational ability, labor

power, money, property, equipmentpower, money, property, equipment