SOC 1105 Lecture 4: Lecture 4 - collective behaviour

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1105
• Professor: Sam Alvaro

Document Summary

Social movement - organized activity that encourages or discourages social change. Collective behaviour - activity involving a large number of people, often spontaneous, and usually in violation of established norms. Other forms of collective behaviour include mobs, riots, and crowds; rumour and gossip; public opinion; fashions and fads; panic and mass hysteria. Collective behaviour is difficult to study for 3 reasons. It is diverse: involves a wide range of human action. Much collective behaviour is transitory: it can come and go quickly. Collectivity - a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the absence of well defined and conventional norms. Localized collectivity - people physically close to one another. As in the case of crowds and riots. Dispersed collectivity or mass behaviour - involves people who influence one another despite being spread over a large area. Collectivity"s differ from the familiar concept of social groups in three ways. People in collectivities have little or no social interaction.