1. Ch. 23 Social Movements and Collective Behaviour

2. How to start a social movement
Derek Sivers: How to start a movement
(TED2010: This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by [the] editors on the home page.)

3. Studying Collective Behaviour
Activity involving a large number of people often spontaneous and usually in violation of established norms
Collective behaviour is diverse
Collective behaviour is hard to explain
Much collective behaviour is transitory
The most important type is a social movement, an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change

4. Social Movements in Canada
We have seen social movements arising from:
Quebecois seeking to reshape relations with the rest of Canada
Aboriginal peoples seeking change and self-government
ie the Idle No More Mission Statement: "Idle No More calls on all people to join in a revolution which honors and fulfils Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water."
Ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities seeking to participate and maintain identities (i.e. Gay Pride, LBGTQ)

5. Types of Social Movements
Alternative: Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members, e.g., planned parenthood
Redemptive: Selective focus, radical change, e.g., some religious organizations
Reformative: Limited social change that targets all members of society, e.g., anti-abortion and pro-choice movements
Revolutionary: The most severe, striving for basic transformation of society, e.g., sovereigntist (separatist) movement

7. An Example of an Alternative (or perhaps Reformative
An Example of an Alternative (or perhaps Reformative!) Peaceful Social Movement: Earth Hour 2017
On Saturday, Mar. 25, 2017, around the globe 187 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour. More than 3,000 landmarks, including the CN Tower in Toronto, and millions of individuals, businesses and organizations switched off their lights to support the fight against climate change.
Earth Hour was started by the World Wildlife Federation and its supporters 10 years ago.
Visit:
Watch 10th anniversary video

8. Claims Making
The process of trying to convince the public and public officials of the importance of joining a social movement to address a particular issue
Gay communities mobilized to alert people to AIDS
Environmental groups mobilize to alert people to global warming i.e. Earth Hour 2017.

9. Explaining Social Movements
Deprivation theory: People mobilize because of relative deprivation: perceived disadvantage from a specific comparison
Mass-society theory: Movements attract social isolates seeking importance (opening video?)
Resource-mobilization theory: Success depends on available resources as well as the problem

10. Explaining Social Movements (cont.)
Culture theory: Often movements depend on cultural symbols, e.g.,barricades at Oka and Caledonia fueled Aboriginal rights movements
Political economy theory: movements rise because capitalist society fails to meet people’s needs
New social movements theory: New focus on quality of life, world peace, environment.

11. Explaining Social Movements (cont.)
Structural –Strain theory: 6 factors create movements
Structural conduciveness: problems exist
Structural strain
Growth and spread of an explanation
Precipitating factors, a specific event
Mobilization for action: building alliances and holding rallies.
Lack of social control

12. Stages in Social Movements
Emergence: Perception that something is wrong
Coalescence: Defines itself, recruits members, and devises strategies and tactics
Bureaucratization: Organizes rationally to get job done
Decline: Is the movement in need of regrouping or is it simply time for its demise?

14. Social Movements and Social Change
Social movements exist to encourage or resist change and many have been successful, e.g., feminism and environmentalism, LBGTQ
Major social transformations, like the industrial revolution, have given rise to workers’ movements which reduced working hours or ended child labour
Social change is a cause and consequence of social movements

15. About Collectivities and Social Movements
Crowd: a temporary gathering of people who share a common focus of attention and who influence one another:
Casual: a loose collection, e.g., people at an accident
Conventional: planned, e.g., a lecture
Expressive: an event with emotion
Acting: a crowd set in motion

16. Explaining Crowd Behaviour
Contagion theory:
crowds exert a hypnotic effect over their members and take on a life of its own
Convergence theory:
people who wish to act in a certain way come together
Emergent norm theory: distinctive patterns of behaviour may emerge within a crowd; rules are made as they go along

17. Localized Collectivities
Mob: a highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal ie when trucker Denny King is attacked in L.A.
Riot: a social eruption that is highly emotional, violent, and undirected i.e. the Rodney King Riots in L.A. in 1992
Mobs and riots can challenge or support society

18. Rodney King and the L.A. Riots
In 1991, black man Rodney King, after a high speed chase, was tasered and beaten by police in L. A. In 1992, King’s the four responsible officers were acquitted and riots ensued in L.A. White trucker Reginald Denny was beaten to within an inch of his life. In all 55 people were killed, more than 3000 were injured and 12,000 were arrested in the L.A. riots. The impact of these events on political and popular culture still continue.
Watch: Documentary – Rodney King Riots (2015)

19. Technology and Social Movements
Technology and media can raise awareness, as in the case of Rodney King and the use of television.
New technology, in the form of social media, can reach both national and international audiences and bring people together into a movement globally.
How Black Lives Matter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power | WIRED (2015)

20. Dispersed Collectivities: Mass Behaviour
Behaviour spread over a wide area:
Rumour: unconfirmed information spread informally, often by word of mouth; it thrives in ambiguity, is unstable, and is difficult to stop
Gossip: rumour about people’s personal affairs
Public Opinion: widespread attitudes about controversial issues
Propaganda: information presented with the intention of shaping public opinion.
Example: the U.S. shaped public opinion (through rumour and propaganda) to bring the U.S. “collectivity” onside prior to the invasion of Iraq.
Watch CBC’s The Fifth Estate The Lies That Led to War” (March 2007)

21. Dispersed Collectivities: Mass Behaviour (cont.)
Fashion: a social pattern favoured by a large number of people
Fad: an unconventional social pattern that people embrace briefly, but enthusiastically
Panic: people in one place react to a threat with irrational, frantic, or self-destructive behaviour
Mass hysteria: people react to a real or imagined event with irrational fear
On Oct. 31, 1938, Orson Wells directed and narrated H.G. Wells’ book War of the Worlds on radio.
Caused mass panic when listeners believed the earth was being invaded by Martians.