SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Sickle-Cell Disease, Ice Bucket Challenge, All Lives Matter
6 Nov 2017
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Collective Action
• Collective action: takes place in groups and diverges from the social norms of the situaiton
• Two types of collective action
• Crowd collective action: face-to-face with other members of group (example- protest march)
• Mass collective action: various locations (example-campaign to call members of congress)
Theories of Collective Action
• Convergence theory: collective action happens when people with similar ideas tend to gather in
the same place
• Doesn’t euie planing
• Critique: Doesn't explain inconsistencies of group action (example: English football fans)
• Contagion theory: collective action arises because of people's tendency to conform to behavior of
others in close contact
• Examples: protest, concert, sports
• Critique: downplays individual agency
• Emergent Norm Theory: emphasizes the influence of "keynoters" in promoting new behavioral
norms (Especially when established norms are inadequate)
• Critique: Does not explain why particular people emerge as leaders
Social Movements
• Social movements: Collective behavior that is purposeful, organized, and institutionalized
• Motivated by a social or political aim
Types of Social Movements
• Alterative: Target particular subgroups, limited social change
• Redemptive: Target Particular Subgroups, radical social change
• Reformative: Limited social change, Target entire society,
• Revolutionary: Target Entire Society, Radical social change
How do Social Movements arise?
• Classical Model: Structural weakness/strain in society results in psychological disruption of
individuals
• Resource-mobilization: emphasizes political context, movements need resources
• Political process model: focuses on political opportunities-when they are favorable for a
challenger, better changes for social movement to be successful
Political Process Model
• 3 sets of conditions
1. Expanding political opportunities
2. Indigenous organizational strength
3. Certain shared cognitions (e.g. belief of injustice)
-not perfect but widely accepted as the most useful model
Stages of Social Movements
• Emergence: social problem first identified
• Coalescence: Resources are mobilized and concrete action is taken
• Routinization/Institutionalization: Formal structure develops to promote the cause
Black Lives Matter: Backlash
• "All Lives Matter
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge 2014
• Reformative Movement Advocates for limited social change across entire society (awareness
of/funding for ALS)
• Coalescence: Resources are mobilized and concrete action is taken.
• Results: Enough funding for meaningful research
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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