Collective Behavior

Collective Behavior Books, Social movements and activism, Abstracts, Bibliography, Journals, Syllabus, Sociology Books 2011, Sociologyindex, Collective Behavior

Collective behavior is defined as activity involving a relatively large number of people that is often spontaneous. Social movements and activism are organized and relatively sustained activities that have a clear goal in terms of achieving or preventing some social change.

Throughout history, in all societies and civilizations, people have absorbed themselves in episodes of dramatic behavior, such as the crowd, the riot, and the revolution. The nature of these episodes has long attracted a curiosity that has evolved into a loosely defined field of sociology and a concept known as collective behavior. Collective behavior is "the actions, often disorganized, taken by a large number of people gathered together usually in defiance of society's norms."

The three generalized types of collective behavior are:

• localized, which include crowds/mobs/riots

• dispersed, or mass behavior, which include rumor/gossip/fads/public opinion/propaganda.

• social movements

The Importance of Learning Collective Behavior
Studying collective behavior can be very practical and useful in today's society. One example is the safety of people who become involved in crowds. There have been numerous accounts of crowds/mobs/riots that have turned dangerous and even fatal. People have been trampled to death at concerts, building panics, and crowd surges in the past; but, had there been knowledge of crowd management and behavior, along with better architectural design, injury and loss of life could have been avoided. Studying collective behavior will allow people to better understand how people respond in certain situations. Predicting these outcomes can help prevent conflict from becoming worse in a destructive way.

What Is Collective Behavior?
People in many countries have taken to the streets protesting against US action in Iraq. Divided groups are on the street demanding or opposing abortion rights, gay marriages or gender discrimination. Many people have started wearing tattoos instead of clothes. All these come under collective behavior.

Collective behavior includes a range of behaviors based on concern and attitude or just panic and fads. It includes many sociological sub-fields. Many areas of sociology involve the study of behavior but they tend to be restricted to niche areas.

University syllabii for "Collective Behaviour" course lists crowds, panics, social movements and many more. But what is common to them. What should be part of the list? and what should not be? Will a silent peaceful march be included? Is a labor dispute based on agreed rights collective behaviour? Is a religious congregation an example of collective behaviour?

For a complete essay on Collective Behaviour go to: web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/cbchap1.html

Collective Behavior - Abstracts

A Study of Sports Crowd Behavior: The Case of the Great Pumpkin Incident 
Linda Levy, Department of Sociology Rutgers University 
Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 13, No. 2, 69-91 (1989) SAGE Publications.
Disagreement on which theory of collective behavior best predicts or explains how crowd processes work prompted this case study. By closely examining, through participant observation, the unfolding of one episode of nonviolent collective behavior at a professional football game, four frequently applied theories of collective behavior are tested for their utility in sports crowd situations. - jss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/2/69

Collective Behavior in Organizational Settings 
Ralph L. Blankenship 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Wisconsin-Platteville 
Work and Occupations, Vol. 3, No. 2, 151-168 (1976) SAGE Publications.
Abstract: Two episodes are compared and analyzed to reveal negotiation as the primary mechanism of controlling equals and to indicate collective behavior as an alternative course toward negotiated order when routine channels of communication are blocked. - wox.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/2/151

The Internationalization of Collective Behavior: Lessons from Elian
Abstract: Cuba is in a pre-transitional political stage in which civil society is undeveloped and in which the systems of social control do not permit the occurrence of organized collective behavior. They are least effective in controlling the emergence of a generalized culture of opposition to the government and the occurrence of relatively unorganized collective protests. 
- udel.edu/DRC/Aguirre/publications/ag72.pdf

The Apparent Madness of Crowds: Irrational collective behavior emerging from interactions among rational agents
Authors: Sitabhra Sinha - 2006 -  arxiv.org/abs/physics/0606078
Standard economic theory assumes that agents in markets behave rationally. However, the observation of extremely large fluctuations in the price of financial assets that are not correlated to changes in their fundamental value, as well as the extreme instance of financial bubbles and crashes, imply that markets (at least occasionally) do display irrational behavior.

Mob Sociology and Escalated Force: Sociology's Contribution to Repressive Police Tactics (2000) By David Schweingruber - public.iastate.edu/~dschwein/abstracts.html
Abstract: Mob sociology is a theory of crowd behavior that is found in the United States police literature. Mob sociology is derived from sociological theories about crowd behavior, but ignores their originators' assertions that crowds occur within a larger social context. Mob sociology was diffused throughout the United State through a national civil disorder training program and a variety of police manuals and magazines. Mob sociology is highly compatible with the escalated force style of protest policing. Appeared in The Sociological Quarterly 41(3): 371-389.

The Crowd and Collective Behavior: Bringing Symbolic Interaction Back In
Clark McPhail, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - Symbolic Interaction, Fall 2006, Vol. 29, No. 4, Pages 433-464 
Abstract: Distinguished Lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in Philadelphia. This article's objective is to illustrate the importance of symbolic interaction in the formation of temporary gatherings, in the dynamic alternation between individual and collective actions that comprise those gatherings, and in the dispersal processes that bring such gatherings to an end. I also call attention to the limitations of the concepts of "the crowd" and of "collective behavior." - caliber.ucpress.net

"The Media as Spur and Spoiler: A Theory of Multiple Influences on Collective Behavior" 
David A. Siegel, 
Abstract: "I present a model of interdependent collective behavior under the influence of both local social networks and a mass media. Individual interests are heterogeneous, and people choose whether or not to participate in the behavior based on a comparison of subjective costs and benefits. I find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, neither increased connectivity in local networks nor an increased role for the media uniformly increases participation in collective behavior: in many cases both can decrease participation rates. - stanford.edu/~dasiegel/Siegel-networks-and-media.pdf

"When Does Repression Work? Collective Behavior Under the Threat of Violence" 
Abstract: Detailed model involving adaptive social learning, shaped by the network structure, targeted repression, and mass media, with some applications to the Iraqi elections at the start of 2005. - http://www.stanford.edu/~dasiegel/Siegel-repression.pdf

Society: Collective Behavior, News and Opinion, and Sociology and Modern Society. by Robert E. Park, Everett Cherrington Hughes 
Review author: Rudolf Heberle
The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jul., 1956), pp. 97-98

The Collective Dynamics of Belief
Duncan J. Watts, Department of Sociology, and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University
I first review briefly the debate between what I call “rationalist” and “historicist” views of human behavior, and argue that both perspectives suffer from different versions of the same problem—that of explaining collective behavior in terms of a representative individual. 
I then motivate and describe a very simple class of decision making models, from which I conclude that rules which are simple, intuitive, and even rational from an individual's perspective, can generate collective dynamics that are complex, unpredictable, and counter-intuitive. - cdg.columbia.edu/uploads/papers/ watts2007_collectiveBeliefs.pdf 

A Test of the Emergent Norm Theory of Collective Behavior 
Authors: Aguirre B.E; Wenger D; Vigo G.
Source: Sociological Forum, Volume 13, Number 2, June 1998, pp. 301-320(20)
Abstract: Conclusion: The results augment the theory by showing the continued importance of enduring social relationships as determinants of collective behavior. Enduring social relationships are not only useful to differentiate collective behavior from institutionalized behavior but also specify the dynamics attending the occurrence of collective behavior. - ingentaconnect.com

BREAKDOWN THEORIES OF COLLECTIVE ACTION
Bert Useem ­ Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24: 215-238 (Volume publication date August 1998) Historically, breakdown theory dominated the sociological study of collective action. The evidence against breakdown theory is weak once a distinction is made between routine and nonroutine collective action. Several recent contributions affirm the explanatory power of breakdown theory for nonroutine collective action. Breakdown theory also contributes to an understanding of the use of governmental force against protest and of the moral features of collective action. Breakdown and resource mobilization theories explain different types of phenomena, and both are needed to help account for the full range of forms of collective action. - arjournals.annualreviews.org

Psychoanalytic Sociology: An Essay on the Interpretation of Historical Data and the Phenomena of Collective Behavior: By Fred Weinstein and Gerald M. Platt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Review by: Jerome D. Oremland, M.D. 
(1979). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 27:238-247

“What's Cool? - Modelling Fashion-like Collective Behavior Emergence from Individual Neuro-psychological Conditioning” - Jorge Simão, Peter M. Todd, Luís Moniz Pereira
Abstract: In this article we have presented a simple model that shows how mechanisms of neuro-psychological conditioning at the individual level can generate the emergence of fashion-like collective behavior.

A Method for Systematically Observating and Recording Collective Action
By David Schweingruber and Clark McPhail -
Abstract
The collective action observation method is a method for systematically observing and recording collective action across temporary gatherings, such as political demonstrations. It uses trained observers, distributed across a gathering, who complete a code sheet during time-interval samples. The code sheet allows the observers to record participation in up to 50 elementary forms of collective action by members of seven actor categories.
Sociological Methods and Research 27(4): 451-498.

Simulating Arcs and Rings in Gatherings (1999)
By Charles W. Tucker, David Schweingruber and Clark McPhail - public.iastate.edu/~dschwein/abstracts.html
Abstract: A theory of collective behavior must be able to account for simple and common collective phenomena such as arcs and rings.
This paper appeared in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 50:581-588.

Unpacking Protest Events: A Description Bias Analysis of Media Records with Systematic Direct Observations of Collective Action -- The 1995 March for Life in Washington, D.C. (1998)
By Clark McPhail and David Schweingruber - public.iastate.edu/~dschwein/abstracts.html
This paper appeared as a chapter in Acts of Dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest. 1998. Dieter Rucht, Ruud Koopmans and Friedhelm Neidhardt (eds.). Berlin: Sigma Press.

A Computer Simulation of a Sociological Experiment
By David Schweingruber - Social Science Computer Review 13(3):351-359
The GATHERING program, which is based on the principles of perception control theory, is used to simulate a simplified form of McPhail and Wohlstein's (1986) collective locomotion experiment. The main finding of the experiment--that more reference signals in common resulted in greater coordination of collective behavior--was replicated in the simulation. The ability of the GATHERING program to reproduce collective behavior observed in the field and in an experiment provides evidence for the usefulness of the theory of individual behavior on which the program is based. The simulation reported here also demonstrates how a key hypothesis--that collective behavior is a result of similar or related reference signals in common--can work in some instances of collective behavior. .

Collective Behavior and Social Movements - Oliver and Johnston
ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/PROTESTS/PROTESTS.HTM

Books On Collective Behavior

The Wisdom of Crowds : Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business,Economies, Societies and Nations [ABRIDGED] by JAMES SUROWIECKI, ERIK SINGER (Narrator)

The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure
Brian Skyrms' study of ideas of cooperation and collective action.

The Social Mind : Cognitive and Motivational Aspects of Interpersonal Behavior by Joseph P. Forgas (Editor), Kipling D. Williams (Editor), Ladd Wheeler (Editor)

Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action
David L. Miller
Over the last half-century, the field of collective behavior and collective action has generated some of the most innovative research methods in sociology. Now titled Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action, provides the first systematic overview of collective action theory and research written at the undergraduate level. It is also the first to offer a side-by-side presentation of collective behavior and collective action theories, providing clarity of presentation and aiding in comparison and discussion of the two perspectives.

Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action (Comparative Politics) by Mario Diani, Doug McAdam (Editors)

Rational Herds : Economic Models of Social Learning by Christophe P. Chamley - November 24, 2003 "Christophe Chamley brings the reader to the state of the art in formal modeling of social learning.

Collective Behavior
David A. Locher
David Locher illustrates all the major sociological perspectives and theories of collective behavior and classical social movements. Addresses the study of collective behavior, theory, categories of collective behavior, an analysis of modern episodes of collective behavior and social movements. For those curious about collective behavior.

Collective Violence
Steven E. Barkan, Lynne L. Snowden
Collective Violence discusses and analyzes this behavior through the eyes of social change researchers and theorists. This book defines a new subfield in the study of collective behavior and social movements, focusing on the characteristics, history, and structure of violent groups.
Collective Violence teaches readers how to understand violent group behavior on the only level at which it can be controlled, at the group level. Rather than focusing on the social conditions that may lead to violence or the characteristics of individuals who might join these groups..
For anyone interested in the sociology of group behavior, society, and criminal justice..

Theories of collective behavior and classical social movements

Books, E-Books Great Discounts