Describe the causes and development of collective behavior, social movements, and social change

Collective behavior is non-institutionalized activity in which several people voluntarily engage. There are three different forms of collective behavior: crowd, mass, and public. There are three main theories on collective behavior. The first, the emergent-norm perspective, emphasizes the importance of social norms in crowd behavior. The next, the value-added theory, is a functionalist perspective that states that several preconditions must be in place for collective behavior to occur. Finally the assembling perspective focuses on collective action rather than collective behavior, addressing the processes associated with crowd behavior and the lifecycle and various categories of gatherings.

What you’ll learn to do:

• Describe different forms of collective behavior, differentiate between types of crowds, and explain theories of collective behavior
• Discuss emergent norm, value-added, and assembling perspective analyses of collective behavior
• Demonstrate awareness of social movements on a state, national, and global level
• Distinguish between different types of social movements and identify stages of social movements
• Discuss theoretical perspectives on social movements, like resource mobilization, framing, and new social movement theory
• Explain how technology, social institutions,population, and the envronment can bring about social change
• Discuss the importance of modernization in relation to social change

Learning Activities

The learning activities for this section include:

• Reading: Collective Behavior
• Reading: Levels of Social Movements
• Reading: Types and Stages of Social Movements
• Reading: Theoretical Perspectives on Social Movements
• Reading: Occupy Wall Street
• Reading: Social Change and Modernization
• Self-Check: Collective Behavior