1. Chapter 17 Social Change and Collective Behavior

2. 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.

3. Predicting Social Change in America-- Tocqueville
Major social institutions would continue to exist. He did not think that the family, religion, or the state would disappear
Human nature would remain the same
Equality and the trend toward a centralized government would continue
The availability of material resources (such as land, minerals, and rich soils) limits and directs social change.
Change is affected by the past, but history does not strictly dictate the future.
There are no social forces aside from human actions.

4. 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)

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Theoretical Perspectives on Social Change
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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. Role Play Get into groups of 4 or so
Develop a role play illustrating collective behavior
Go! You only have 5 minutes to plan!

15. 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.

16. 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

17. Crowds
Casual crowd- least organized, least emotional. Gathering after an accident, listen to street musician
Conventional crowd- specific purpose, accepted norms for appropriate behavior– little interaction (watching a movie)
Expressive crowds- no significant long term purpose beyond releasing emotion. (Times Square New Years Eve)
Acting crowd- concentrates intensely on some objective and engages in aggressive behavior to get it. (protesters, rowdy soccer fans)

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Social Movements Large # of people
Common goal to promote or prevent social change
Structured organization with commonly recognized leaders
Activity sustained over a relatively long time period

23. Primary types of Social Movements
Revolutionary movement– attempts to change to total structure of society
Reformative movement– attempts to make limited changes
Redemptive movement– seeks to change people completely
Alternative movement– focuses on bringing about limited changes in people

24. Value Added Theory
Structural conduciveness- environment must be social-movement friendly
Structural strains- conflicts, ambiguities, and discrepencies
Generalized beliefs- recognition there is a problem
Precipitating factors- significant events must happen to galvanize people into action
Mobilization of participants for action
Social control- they can stop social movements under the right circumstances.

25. Resource Mobilization Theory
Focuses on the use of resources to achieve goals
Leadership, organizational ability, labor power, money, property, equipment