Benet Davetian
Theories of Collective Behavior
î-2004
Introduction
A considerable change has occurred over the past decades in our theorizing of collective behavior. While collective behavior was for long considered to be a manifestation of mass behavior energized by irrational forces, it is now studied in terms of changing social conditions and transformations in cultural values. What at first sight seems irrational or 'crazy' makes more sense when examined within the framework of rational processes ongoing in society. For example, some young people took to running in the streets naked in the early 1970's when the 'streaking' fad hit North America. While shocked adults found such behavior totally bizarre and reprehensible, interviews with the streakers revealed that they were trying to make a social statement about repressive sexual mores. Being 'outrageous' was considered a means of resisting repression. More recently, media commentators were shocked that some Boston Red Sox fans rioted in the streets of Boston when their favored team won the 2004 World Series. Why would happy fans become violent? Analysts wondered if this was the result of years of frustration (the team had continuously failed to capture a World Series since 1918), or a reflection of the pent-up tension of the American electorate on the eve of national elections. As you can see, explanations of crowd behavior require careful analysisÉmoreover, we don't always have a complete answer.
In the sections that follow I will try and show how our conception of collective behavior has changed as we have gone from theories stating that people are potentially irrational when put in a crowd setting to theories focusing on the structures and social conditions that facilitate collective expression and action.
Is crowd behavior simply a matter of contagion? Is it little else than a 'virus' that spreads from one person to another? What conditions facilitate an outburst of collective behavior?
The first sociological theory of crowd behavior was offered by Gustave Le Bon, a historian and philosopher, who wrote a seminal text on the subject: The Crowd: The Study of the Popular Mind (France, 1985). Le Bon did not believe that members of a violent crowd were deranged. He proposed, instead, that it is the structure of the crowd itself that has a powerful influence on the behavior of its members. When individuals assemble in a crowd they become transformed or reduced to the level of the least thoughtful members. The most violent in the group set the tone and initiated the actions of others. Le Bon's 'mob perspective' sought to explain why people in a crowd were able to suddenly break free of established norms, often at the promoting of a few influential members
Le Bon explained that certain factors facilitate sudden emotional arousal in a crowd setting:
1. Members of the crowd feel anonymous; such sentiments of anonymity release participants from usual restraints and unleash the spread of contagious norm-breaking behavior.
2. When the crowd reaches a critical level of arousal, members lose their power to resist suggestions from influential members. A strong emotional reaction spreads with contagious results.
According to LeBon, there is a 'hypnotic' factor to crowd behavior and it is this hypnotic reaction that suspends the ordinary judgment of participants, making them less aware of their behavior and more willing to 'go with the flow.' They may even do things that they would otherwise find despicable. Some analysts of genocides have suggested a similar explanation for inter-ethnic massacres: it would seem that during genocides the offenders are taken in by a contagious frenzy that causes a complete transformation in their personalities; this may explain why one person can suddenly turn and kill a neighbor who has been a long-standing friend but who now finds himself or herself on the weaker side of the 'ethnic divide' (Davetian, 1996: 71-112).
In his seminal work, The Crowd and the Public (1904), Robert Park moved away from LeBon's simplified explanations of crowd behavior and tried to provide a sociological explanation of why it is that an 'idea' can suddenly spread in a crowd setting. He proposed that it was the manner in which an idea spread in a 'circular reaction' that moved individuals to exhibit behavior which they normally might not. A contagious idea preceded irrational emotional expression.
Park's theory is based on an explanation of 'intense interaction' processes. These processes become activated during times of stress and social anomie. Individuals develop a heightened awareness of one another and become particularly attuned to one another's thoughts and emotions. As a result, each person becomes embroiled in a circular process that imposes the overpowering mood of the group on him or her. For Park, it is this circular reaction, rather than a predisposition towards violence, that leads to contagious behavior. Such contagion spreads as individuals imitate one another's mood and become taken up by a collective behavioral pattern that represents what 'everybody' is supposedly thinking and feeling.
Park's explanation is 'situational.' It is the 'situation,' rather than some type of emotional virus, that determines the outcomes of a crowded gathering. It is the situation that makes people become mindless and prone to exhibiting a 'massive' reaction. The presence of the crowd, as well as the circular process of imitation, is what weakens individual control and judgment---the crowd becomes the standard; everything it stands for is judged right and all opposition to it is denounced as wrong.
Park was suggesting that crowds form more readily in times of social instability. His theory is more explanatory than that of Le Bon because it introduces some new elements, including the notion of an 'ecstatic' or 'expressive' crowd. Such crowd situations can include dances, ritualistic events, fervent religious gatherings, political rallies and music concerts.
Herbert Blumer's work in the study of collective behavior refines some of Park's concepts. Blumer analyzes crowds from the perspective of 'interpretive interaction.' Individuals act according to their interpretation of the words and actions of others. Blumer uses the phenomenon of 'aimless milling' to illustrate his understanding of how contagion develops in a crowd setting.
He identifies five phases to crowd behavior: During the first phase, there is a certain amount of confusion and lack of consensus; this leads to a second phase during which there is a breakdown of social norms. The third phase involves 'milling,' brought about by confusion and lack of norms. This 'milling' leads to the release of 'collective excitement.' Contagion occurs during the last phase, when the excitement spreads in the crowd and emerges in a final collective act.
Writing at a time when communications media were expanding, Blumer introduced a new concept to the study of collective behavior: the mass, a modified version of the crowd. Individuals who form a mass share two things in common: 1) The members of a mass are personally unknown to one another, and, 2) They do not engage in interaction with one another even though they may resemble each other in their sentiments and acts. Due to this 'spatial disconnection,' they cannot mill around in a crowd setting nor experience the kind of collective excitement that leads to immediate collective action. Instead, members of a mass develop a self-awareness in relation to an object or group of people outside their immediate realm of experience; this awareness plays an important role in shaping their attitudes. Thus, although they are not face to face, they begin sharing a common attitude or activity. While their action is impulsive and may even contradict their usual common sense, they are united with others in that they are focusing on a common issue or object. People watching television, concerned about an impending disaster, may experience the same anxiety as they would were they face to face; similarly, millions can watch a show on dieting and then end of eating similar foods.
Summary:
All contagion theorists focus on the 'mental state' of participants in crowds or mass settings. They attempt to understand the processes that produce an alteration in habitual consciousness and sentiment. Their theories are based on the premise that individuals can act in irrational and unthinking ways. Contemporary theorists of collective behavior have questioned this assumption, however.
Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian's Collective Behavior (1957), is considerably informed by the symbolic interactionism perspective. They reject the premise that individuals become irrational in crowd situations due to the invasive power of irrationality.
Focusing on the conditions that bring about collective behavior, Turner and Killian base their theoretical arguments on four basic premises:
1) Collective behavior is facilitated by situations in which there is uncertainty and confusion. Imitative behavior follows due to the need for specificity, certainty and consensus.
2) When one member initiates an action, other members observe to see if there is opposition to the behavior. If there is no opposing reaction, they conclude that the behavior is acceptable. It is such 'normalization' that encourages and permits individuals to engage in norm-breaking behavior. Ironically, it is this normalization factor that facilitates norm-breaking behavior.
3) So, since people tend to conform to the norms of their group or society, they are susceptible to accepting and following a new emerging norm, especially when there is no overt opposition to it.
4) People engage in novel behavior not because of irrational predispositions, but because the novel behavior seems to be the 'right' action for them.
According to Turner and Killian, therefore, collective behavior occurs in parallel to social uncertainty and instability. It may even reflect the breakdown, or growing irrelevance, of established norms. Yet, the authors specify that while the norms change, the process of norm-selection and conformity does notÉthe need for norms underlies all behavior.
According to Turner and Killian's model of collective behavior, the group exerts a strong influence on the individual. It is the norm of the group rather than some contagious force that constrains and guides individual action. Whether a person is giving flowers to others or throwing bottles at them, he or she is regulated by the fact that others in the same 'situation' are doing the same. Collective behavior is, therefore, an outcome of conformity.
The Emergent Norm Perspective rejects notions of pathology in participants. While it recognizes pathology in 'fringe participants' it maintains that rational individuals acting in concert with one another energize the core of a collective action. Following the central premise of symbolic interactionism and its explanation of how individuals calibrate their action towards one another based on 'definitions of situation,' Emergent Norm Theory focuses on the social conditions and processes that affect communication and understanding. New norms are accepted as 'normal' because they are evaluated in relation to a situation rather in relation to an a-priori sense of normal behavior. While the participants may have a preceding conception of right action, their definition of 'present circumstances' helps rationalize selected norm-breaking behaviors. So, people engaging in 'strange' behavior do so because the behavior has come to 'make sense' to them in light of the situation they share with one another.
An important factor to consider when evaluating Emergent Norm Theory is the stress placed on the power of individuals to 'define' a given situation. While the group exerts considerable influence on each of its members, it is the members who initially and ultimately decide on the direction and nature of their acts. Although leaders can play a vital role in collective behavior, guiding members to play key roles in altering group decisions and moods, a collective action can change direction and sentiment in mid-stream as a result of changes in the manner in which participants define their shared situation. Collective behavior is, therefore, affected by what the collective believes to be valid. A collective is not a mindless crowd but numerous individuals who have chosen to behave in a collective fashion.
Turner and Killian are stating that collective behavior cannot be adequately understood unless one takes into account the interactive and influential relationship between the group as an entity and its members as individuals. This proposition is born out by the fact that even in a violent crowd members are not all acting identically; some even become spectators, reluctant to take part but willing to approve of the action they are witnessing.
The Emergent Norm Perspective is very useful for explaining why it is that individuals participate in highly irrational and destructive behavior yet according to very rational and instrumental goals. For example, a group may define its economic survival as being in danger and then choose the rational end of preserving its interests. Yet, the action it will select for doing so may be totally irrational and destructive, demanding the massacre of the competing group. This process was observable in the highly bureaucratized and rationalized structure of the German Third Reich during World War II.
Now, regardless of whether the chosen collective behavior is constructive or destructive, communication and the interpretation of such communication are important factors affecting collective outcomes. In fact, it is 'ambiguity' that leads to the spread of rumors and releases the energy required to mobilize and launch collective action. Each member of a collective possesses the need to maintain mental certainty by defining a situation in some personally satisfying form. It is this need for a reliable definition of reality that creates the circular processes that facilitate collective action.
The progression of a collective action includes specific and chronologically linked stages: Uncertainty ¨¨ Urgent need for a definition of a situation ¨¨ Communication of mood in the crowd or group ¨¨ heightened personal suggestibility ¨¨ acceptance of group's mood and emerging norms ¨¨ readiness to participate in behavior that deviates from previously-established norms ¨¨ the collective act.
It is important to note that the manner in which participants define what is acceptable and non-acceptable behavior is affected by communication, interpretation of received communication, and evaluation of whether others in the group are reaching similar conclusions. Because of this 'in-built' uncertainty regarding the accuracy of understandings and the limits of permissiveness, opportunities are created for individual participants to accelerate or slow down the momentum of collective action.
Because of such possibilities of variance in attitude and predisposition, Turner and Killian further refine their theory by categorizing participants into five types: The Committed, The Concerned, The Insecure, The Spectators, and The Exploiters. The motivations and characteristics of the five types are different. The 'committed' are energized by the emotional conviction that something must be done; they are more than willing to assume roles of leadership. The 'concerned' are also interested in seeing action taken, but are willing to go along with the initiative taken by others. The 'insecure' are interested in participating because they have an a-priori need for belonging; because of this inborn need, they will move in whatever direction is chosen by the group leaders. The 'spectators' are either curious or sympathizers; they do not participate in the action; rather, they serve to energize the action by either expressing encouragement or acting as an audience for those who are active. Finally, the 'exploiters' join a collective action because they have an a-priori need to let go of their own behavioral restraints; they are the ones who search for groups that are on the point of erupting, hoping to ride the wave of sentiment.
THE VALUE-ADDED
THEORY
Neil J. Smelser's theory of collective behavior made a radical departure from previous perspectives. In a 1962 work entitled Theory of Collective Behavior Smelser argued that collective behavior was determined by social rather than psychological factors. While contagion theorists focused substantially or partially on the inner workings of the minds and emotions of participants in collective action, Smelser turned his attention to the social structure of a culture.
Using a functionalist perspective, Smelser adopted the premise that collective behavior served a function in society since it was observable in most periods of history. He concluded that collective behavior helps decrease accumulated 'strain' in a society. Strain precedes collective action and creates the conditions in which collective action becomes not only necessary but also functional for the maintenance of balance in a culture.
Smelser's theory is based on the recognition that tension decreases if a means is found for periodic and manageable events that drain off excessive tension or strain. Social actors are not predisposed to seeking collective action. Rather, they are moved to react collectively when certain conditions exist. These conditions, or determining factors, include: structural conduciveness (i.e. material and social conditions that call for and facilitate collection action), the experiencing of strain by a sufficient percentage of the population, the acceptance of common explanations for the strain by those affected by it, sufficient means for the transmission of information amongst those affected in order that resources for action be mobilized, a failure on the part of social control agents to minimize or eliminate the strain and/or prevent the collective action from occurring. Smelser suggested that, in the presence of the above conditions, the occurrence of collective episodes would be inevitable. He called such episodes 'collective seizures.' They were a direct consequence of periods during which social norms, values, organizations and resources were put under strain. People's need to eliminate the discomforting sentiments that follow the experiencing of strain was the precipitating factor for collective relief-seeking behavior.
Smelser's theory helps explain the reason why crazes and hysterical beliefs come into being. Actors seeking relief from strain and needing a specific explanation for their discomfort may create a plausible (if unrealistic) explanation for their situation. Concluding, for example, that a recent disaster such as a devastating hurricane is the sign of the impending end of the world may not be rational, but it does serve to give a certain sense to the shock experienced in the wake of the hurricane. A similar need for certainty, explanation and relief lies at the root of wish-fulfillment beliefs, ideologies that are hostile to a foreign group, and norm-based or value-based movements that seek to replace or revitalize a threatened social norm or value. In all cases, participants remain convinced that their actions are for the social good.
What finally triggers the occurrence of a collective event is a 'precipitating factor.' An episode occurs, providing participants with confirmation that their generalized beliefs are rationally founded. In the struggle for racial equality in the U.S.A., for example, the refusal of a restaurant owner to serve two young black men was the precipitating factor in formalizing a civil rights movement that had been a long time in the making.
The final phase preceding the event is the mobilization of participants. Not only must individuals be ready to act, they must be able to be at the place where the event is to occur. This requires them to have access to information facilitating assembly, as well as access to leaders who can control, direct and amplify the collective response.
One of the more useful features of Smelser's theory is the fact that it may be able to provide social policy makers with the ability to predict when, where and why a collective episode may occur. It enables them not only to analyze the levels of strain on a society at a given time, but also notice the collective action in its earliest stages. Such information facilitates preventive as well as controlling measures to be put into place.
INDIVIDUALIST
APPROACHES TO COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
Theorists who favor individualist analysis of collective behavior disagree with the structural explanations for collective action. More commonly known as 'convergence theorists' they claim that people engage in collective behavior because they already possess an inner disposition to engage in norm-breaking episodes. In support of their theory they cite the fact that crowds allow people to engage in behavior not normally accepted in society. They also note that not all people agree to be part of a collective process or eventÉin all instances of violent collective action, there are those who remove themselves from the scene in order to avoid participating.
Convergence theorists argue, therefore, that it is individuals and not social conditions that create collective episodes. While cultural strain may trigger the need for collective action it simply acts as a stimulus that releases an existing need or tendency. Thus, people with certain similar dispositions will gather at events that encourage and facilitate the reactions they have wished to experience.
This individualist explanation accords with the idea that individuals have an emotional repertoire that differentiates them from one another. The degree to which a person feels anger, frustration and anxiety will play an important role in the type of events towards which the individual will be attracted. Gordon Allport, writing in the 1960's, best represents this particular perspective of collective action. He maintains that there is no group behavior that cannot be explained from the point of view of individual character and behavior. Allport suggests that crowds do not form at random; rather, individuals converge onto the potential scene of collective action due to their existing individual preferences. Wilhelm Reich, Arthur Janov, Benet Davetian and Thomas Scheff have made similar observations while studying character structure and human emotional reactions.
Allport's convergence theory is based on the premise that there are two types of behavioral responses: 'avoidance' and 'approach.' Whether a given individual will avoid or approach a collective event is wholly dependent on whether the individual finds the event desirable or undesirable. The degree of involvement will, therefore, depend on the degree of emotional predisposition. Such individual bias, however, remains camouflaged. Those who do engage in violent collective action manage to rationalize to themselves that it is desirable and logical for them to participate in behavior that is normally condemned. Anonymity and the impossibility of punishing all participants, the belief that there is right in numbers, and the conviction that collective action will be of ultimate social benefit helps individuals mask their personal interest while participating in such events.
Other individualist theorists, such as Neil Miller, John Dollard, Michael Hogg and Dominic Abrams, have similarly specified that individual needs play an integral role in collective behavior. The search for personal prestige and collective identity, as well as the excitement that accompanies collective events, account for people's readiness to become part of a crowd. An individual who identifies with his or her group is more open to collective action than one who remains isolated. Thus, conformity to the norms and actions of a group are connected to one's definition of personal identity, a process requiring individual evaluation.
THE PROBLEMATIC
OF THEORIZING ABOUT COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
Theories of collective behavior are vulnerable to the 'either-or' fallacy. Structural theorists argue that structures and not individual predisposition cause collective incidents, while individualist theorists argue that no collective event can occur if there is no preceding individual predisposition. Each perspective seems intent on avoiding the excesses of the other by over-elaborating its case. A workable theory, however, would make use of both schools of thought.
In reality, social conditions, as well as emotional dispositions, act in a circular loop. Not only are individuals affected by the social conditions of their lives in a given moment, they are also affected by the ideologies and emotions that have accumulated due to their experience with other time-frames in their lives. Each person has a history consisting of the present as well as the prototypic reactions exhibited towards that present due to former presents. Equally, every society has a history as well as a present that are in constant mutual interaction. A 'process' view of collective and individual sentiments and actions would recognize that all collective behavior occurs in a 'process field' that is a network of relations between mutually affective agents and structures (Elias, 1978). In fact, it is not very productive to speak of individualist versus structural explanations since the ultimate explanation for collective behavior may lie in an integrative perspective that recognizes the indivisibility of inner and outer conditions. Certainly, such a perspective motivates us to approach the study of collective behavior and social movements from historically, culturally and psychologically relevant frameworks.
What is Nonviolent Conflict?
Nonviolent action is a technique
of socio-political action for applying power in a conflict without the use of
physical violence. Nonviolent action may involve acts of omission — that
is, people may refuse to perform acts that they usually perform, are expected
by custom to perform, or are required by law or regulation to perform; acts of
commission — that is, people may perform acts that they do not usually
perform, are not expected by custom to perform, or are forbidden to perform; or
a combination of the two. As a technique, therefore, nonviolent action is not
passive. It is not inaction. It is action that is nonviolent.
These acts comprise a multitude of
specific methods of action or "nonviolent weapons." Nearly two
hundred have been identified to date, and without doubt, scores more already
exist or will emerge in future conflicts. Three broad classes of nonviolent
methods exist: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation,
and nonviolent intervention.
Nonviolent action provides a way
to wield power in order to achieve objectives and to sanction opponents without
the use of physical violence. Overwhelmingly, nonviolent action is group or
mass action. While certain forms of this technique, especially the symbolic
methods, may be regarded as efforts to persuade by action, the other forms,
especially those of noncooperation, may, if practiced by large numbers, coerce
opponents.
Whatever the issue and scale of
the conflict, nonviolent action is a technique by which people who reject
passivity and submission, and who see struggle as essential, can wage their
conflict without violence. Nonviolent action is not an attempt to avoid
conflict. It is one response to the problem of how to wield power effectively.
What nonviolent action isnÕt
1. Nonviolent
action has nothing to do with passivity, submissiveness, and cowardice; just as
in violent action, these must first be rejected and overcome.
2. Nonviolent
action is not to be equated with verbal or purely psychological persuasion, although
it may use action to induce psychological pressures for attitude change;
nonviolent action, instead of words, is a sanction and a technique of struggle
involving the use of social, economic, and political power, and the matching of
forces in conflict.
3. Nonviolent
action does not depend on the assumption that people are inherently
"good"; the potentialities of people for both "good" and
"evil" are recognized, including the extremes of cruelty and
inhumanity.
4. People
using nonviolent action do not have to be pacifists or saints; nonviolent
action has been predominantly and successfully practiced by
"ordinary" people.
5. Success
with nonviolent action does not require (though it may be helped by) shared
standards and principles, a high degree of community of interest, or a high
degree of psychological closeness between the contending groups; this is
because when efforts to produce voluntary change fail, coercive nonviolent
measures may be employed.
6. Nonviolent
action is at least as much of a Western phenomenon as an Eastern one; indeed,
it is probably more Western, if one takes into account the widespread use of
strikes and boycotts in the labor movement and the noncooperation struggles of
subordinated nationalities.
7. In
nonviolent action there is no assumption that the opponent will refrain from
using violence against nonviolent actionists; the technique is designed to
operate against violence when necessary.
8. There
is nothing in nonviolent action to prevent it from being used for both
"good" and "bad" causes, although the social consequences
of its use for a "bad" cause may differ considerably from the
consequences of violence used for the same cause.
9. Nonviolent
action is not limited to domestic conflicts within a democratic system; it has
been widely used against dictatorial regimes, foreign occupations, and even
against totalitarian systems.
10. Nonviolent action does not
always take longer to produce victory than violent struggle would. In a variety
of cases nonviolent struggle has won objectives in a very short time — in
as little as a few days. The time taken to achieve victory depends on diverse
factors — primarily on the strength of the nonviolent actionists.
Source: Sharp, Gene. The
Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 Vols.),
Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973. Provided courtesy of the Albert Einstein
Institution.
Taken from
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/background/whatis.html
Methods of Nonviolent Conflict
Practitioners of nonviolent
struggle have an entire arsenal of "nonviolent weapons" at their
disposal. Listed below are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories:
nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and
political), and nonviolent intervention. A description and historical examples of
each can be found in volume two of The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp.
The Methods of Nonviolent
Protest and Persuasion
Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or
support
3. Declarations by organizations
and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and
intention
6. Group or mass petitions
Communications with a Wider
Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and
symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed
communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting
Group Representations
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections
Symbolic Public Acts
18. Displays of flags and symbolic
colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures
Pressures on Individuals
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
Drama and Music
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and
music
37. Singing
Processions
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades
Honoring the Dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places
Public Assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or
support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of
protest
50. Teach-ins
Withdrawal and Renunciation
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors
54. Turning oneÕs back
The Methods of Social
Noncooperation
Ostracism of Persons
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict
Noncooperation with Social
Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and
sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social
institutions
Withdrawal from the Social
System
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. "Flight" of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)
The Methods of Economic
Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts
Actions by Consumers
71. ConsumersÕ boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted
goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumersÕ boycott
77. International consumersÕ
boycott
Action by Workers and Producers
78. WorkmenÕs boycott
79. ProducersÕ boycott
Action by Middlemen
80. SuppliersÕ and handlersÕ
boycott
Action by Owners and Management
81. TradersÕ boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell
property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. MerchantsÕ "general
strike"
Action by Holders of Financial
Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and
assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or
interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a governmentÕs
money
Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellersÕ embargo
95. International buyersÕ embargo
96. International trade embargo
The Methods of Economic
Noncooperation: The Strike
Symbolic Strikes
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning
strike)
Agricultural Strikes
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm WorkersÕ strike
Strikes by Special Groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. PrisonersÕ strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike
Ordinary Industrial Strikes
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathetic strike
Restricted Strikes
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting "sick"
(sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike
Multi-Industry Strikes
116. Generalized strike
117. General strike
Combination of Strikes and
Economic Closures
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown
The Methods of Political
Noncooperation
Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of
allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches
advocating resistance
CitizensÕ Noncooperation with
Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government
employment and positions
126. Boycott of government
departments, agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from government
educational institutions
128. Boycott of
government-supported organizations
129. Refusal of assistance to
enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and
placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed
officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing
institutions
CitizensÕ Alternatives to
Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of
direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or
meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with
conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false
identities
141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate"
laws
Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of
assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command
and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative
noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and
selective noncooperation by
enforcement agents
148. Mutiny
Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and
delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent
governmental units
International Governmental
Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and
other representations
152. Delay and cancellation of
diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic
recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic
relations
155. Withdrawal from international
organizations
156. Refusal of membership in
international bodies
157. Expulsion from international
organizations
The Methods of Nonviolent
Intervention
Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment
Physical Intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation
Social Intervention
174. Establishing new social
patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social
institutions
180. Alternative communication system
Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated
counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation
systems
192. Alternative economic
institutions
Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative
systems
194. Disclosing identities of
secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of
"neutral" laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel
government
Source: Sharp, Gene. The
Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 Vols.),
Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973. Provided courtesy of the Albert Einstein
Institution.
Taken from
http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/background/methods.html
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
Summarized from Roberta Garner, 'Concepts and
Definitions.'
WHAT IS A MOVEMENT?
"A movement is constituted by human beings engaged in discourses and practices designed to challenge and change society as they define it. It is formed by people who, over the course of time, are involved in non-institutionalized discourses and practices of change."
PRACTICES: acts,
action; talking, writing, physical violence, non-violent action.
DISCOURSES: saying somethingÉ.written, spoken, electronic. A cluster of statements that put together a sense of existing or desired results. So a discourse can maintain the status quo or call for change.
Practices can be institutionalized (formal) or non-institutionalized (grass-roots).
SOCIAL CONTROL AGENTS: those representing formal institutions who respond to social action, facilitating it or inhibiting it.
IDEOLOGY: the discourses of a movement. What people think and say. The ideology is the ideas held by people who see themselves as connected to the movement. It is the set of ideas expressed by the most active participants.
A discourse identifies a present situation, what is wrong with it and what needs changing.
SOCIAL TENSION: tension between competing discourses.
DISCOURSES INCLUDE SYMBOLS:
1) CONDENSATION SYMBOLS: i.e. personalities such as Martin Luther King, Jr. who represent the 'sentiments' of a movement. Personality cult.
2) NEGATIVE SCAPEGOAT SYMBOLS: identify groups considered a threat to the discourse or the movement.
DISCOURSES AND SYMBOLS CHANGE TO ACCOMMODATE: 1) Changing social conditions, 2) Changing awareness, and 3) Changing opportunities.
IDEOLOGIES CAN BECOME UNIVERSALIZING SYMBOLS: As support grows, the ideology is broadened (universalized). I.e. women's rights, rights of children, rights of political prisoners.
TWO TYPES OF MOVEMENTS:
1)
REFORM (seek to reform existing
institutions.
2) REVOLUTIONARY (seek to overthrow existing institutions.
THE SUPPORT BASE OF A MOVEMENT is the categories of people who are likely to agree with the social movement's ideology and practices. Various levels of support: 1) Direct support, 2) Sympathetic support, 3) Associational support.
THE STAKEHOLDERS OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT:
Intellectuals: skillful in inventing discourses. They are part of movements and countermovements.
Specialists in violence: Armed movements have specialists in violence. Special recruitement methods are used to acquire them. (More on this later).
Mobilization: Degree of mobilization depends on the degree of desired size of institution.
ORGANIZATION STRATEGIES AND TACTICS:
ORGANIZATION: a stable patterning of relationships between individuals and movements. Each organization has an internal division of labor. Re-organizing a social practice requires considerable organizational work!
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS: Various strategies exist to launch a movement or countermovement. They include: destabilizing existing practices and institutions, clandestine (secret) operations, parties and pressure groups (lobbying), protests, violent actions, use of media for 'framing' to get publicity for the cause. The tactics used will depend on the type and size of organization and the alliances existing with other organizations.
TRANSNATIONAL MOVEMENTS: movements that cross national boundaries. One nation can support a
Social Movement in another state (i.e. U.S. support of Anti-Taliban movement in
Afghanistan). One state can impose sanctions on another state to support an
on-going social movement there (i.e. sanctions imposed on S. Africa for its
discrimination against blacks).
HISTORICAL CONJUNCTION: When various conditions come together to favor the sudden success of a social movement.
SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORIES
Important Note: It is important that you literally
memorize these ways of analyzing social movements since we will be applying
them to the study of the videos we will be viewing. It is important that you be
able to view each video while keeping in mind the various ways of analyzing
what you are watching.
What is a theory? An attempt to understand the causes of happenings or relationships between happenings. A fundamental question with which we start a theory is the question: Why? New theories emerge to fill gaps left by previous theories and to respond to emerging realities. At the same time, different theories can be competing ways of observing reality and can be ideologically and politically motivated.
Questions we ask in the study of social movements: Why are people dissatisfied? Why do they come together to organize a movement? Why do some people join movements while others don't? Why do movements occurring in the same country differ ideologically? What determines the success or failure of a movement?
(A) MACROHISTORICAL AND SOCIOHISTORICAL THEORIES ARE VERY
BROAD THEORIES THAT EXAMINE SOCIAL CHANGE OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME. These are
'macro' (large-scale) theories.
1) MARXIST THEORIES: Global capitalism and exploitation of workers by those who own the means of production (capital) lead to the emergence of social and class movements to counteract the abuses of capitalism. Social movements are, therefore, governed by the means and modes of economic production.
2) MASS/MODERN SOCIETY THEORIES. Examine social change from a global point of view and over a long time frame. They consider a variety of related processes, including: Communications that cross national borders (satellite TV, internet), shared technologies, growing secularization, the spread of democracies, spread of common social problems (i.e. drug use, addiction to pornography, high divorce rates, etcÉ.). These theories are based on the idea that the experiencing of stress and rapid change on a global basis crates a sense of dissatisfaction leading to anomie leading to social movements and collective action. Tradition no longer is sufficient; instead, populations search for new ways of maintaining solidarity. New issues emerge including: gender, nationalism, class, raceÉ
3) POST-MODERN SOCIETY THEORIES: Post-industrial society is causing a blurring between class boundaries and between what is considered 'normal.' Post-modern theories suggest that many previous social viewpoints were Euro-Centric. These theories offer new explanations that are inclusive of various previously-neglected groups and challenge our notions of truth and tradition.
_______________________________________________________________________
(B) MID-RANGE THEORIES: Rather than seek macrological
explanations, mid-range theories ask: Why has a given movement emerged in a
particular place at a particular time?
There are three main mid-range theories and they are very
important to our study.
1) Structural Strain Theory; 2) Resource Mobilization
Theory; Political Opportunity Structure Theory, 4) Conjunctural Theories, 5)
Value Added Theory: a synthesis of movement theories, 6) Emotion Theory, 7) New
Social Movements Theory.
1) STRUCTURAL STRAIN THEORY
When social change is required, individuals feel a 'STRAIN.' They will put up with the strain as long as they feel they can't do anything about it. But once they feel that there is a way of changing circumstances they will come together to form movements and, in certain cases, revolutions.
Strain represents a 'disequilibrium' in societyÉ.there are tensions between parts of the social system (i.e. economic vs. cultural values).
What makes strained people come together?
a) RELATIVE DEPRIVATION, b) J-CURVE
a) Relative Deprivation Theory: we compare ourselves to a 'reference group' and experience strain or dissatisfaction because we consider that group's situation better than ours. (i.e. Civil Rights Movement took on steam after the Blacks visited the North and saw that Blacks in the North had better lives than they did in the SouthÉ.same may be happening through satellite TV as third world countries see that life in the West is much richer and sometimes much freer).
b) J-Curve Theory: An intolerant situation improves but threatens to revert to its original state. People, noticing this, organize themselves to prevent this reversion from happening. When hopes are raised, expectations are raised. Revolutions often occur after there have been some liberalizing reforms (i.e. French revolution occurred after the monarchy made some concessions).
2) RESOURCE MOBILIZATION THEORY
Less emphasis on strain. More emphasis on how individuals create the opportunities required for social change. How does a collective form?
Main theorists: Mayer Zald and John McCarthy (1979) and Anthony Oberschall (1973)
Strong emphasis is placed on the organization of a movement.
RMT (Resource Mobilization Theory) sees movement organizations as rational entities even if movement is irrational.
The organization of a movement reaches out to existing and new supporters to build coalitions with other institutions and movementsÉ.this helps expand activities and power of the movement. So a movement turns from opinion to organization.
3) POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE THEORY
Emphasize the political institution as the key to whether structural problems can be successfully challenged and altered.
When a political system weakens or opens up it gives individuals the opportunity to organizer social movements. Defection of elites and changes in legislation can produce opportunities for change (i.e. in the 1960's John F. Kennedy created favorable conditions for Civil Rights movements; in the 1960's and 1970's Pierre Elliot Trudeau created favorable conditions for the establishment of a broader bilingualism movement in Canada; both the Russian and Chinese revolutions occurred because the elites weakened; American revolution occurred because the British experienced fiscal problems).
Effect of Political structure on organization and
strategies of a social movement:
Various factors determine the political opportunity structure: level and force of repression, the state's willingness or unwillingness to use force, ability to form parties in a democratic setting, degree of centralization, power of different government branches.
See: Theda Skocpol's Analysis of Revolution (1979), Charles Tilly's work on modern Europe (1978), Sidney Tarrow's work on the Italian Communist Left (1999); Jenkins and Perrons' Farmworker's Movement in the U.S.A. (1973).
4) CONJUNCTURAL THEORIES:
A given period of history triggers collective action and social movements.
Special conditions are created for the formation, successful organization or failure of social movements due to historical and social conditions. These conditions create strain, open or close opportunities, and influence levels of resources. This is why a period in which social movements are very powerful (i.e. 1960's) can be followed by a relatively quiet period.
5) VALUE ADDED THEORY (Neil Smelzer)
Social movements involve 6 contributing factors:
1) Structural conduciveness - state of society, political system, channels of communication.
2) Structural strain - persistence of strain.
3) Generalized Belief - generalized belief that there is strain.
4) Precipitating events - something happens to trigger action
5) Leadership-communication - leaders exist to communicate the ideology
6) Response of social control agents - degree to which movement is allowed or blocked by social control agent response.
SMELZER explains: "Each stage or element is a condition for the following one." All elements must be present for a Social Movement (SM) to emerge as a major or social political force.
6) EMOTION THEORY (Davetian, Scheff)
Social movements depend on the emotional activation of participants. Two factors affect a social movement's rise: a) The emotional dissatisfaction of people with their own biographies, b) Additional strains in the present. The two factors end up having a compounding effect on one another. So a culture of dissatisfied individuals will be more prone to respond to social movements.
7) NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THEORY:
Contingency of modernity and rising expectations for emotional and ethical fulfillment have created New Social Movements that are no longer based on the competition for economic resources but based on the search for identity and rights.
MOVEMENTS, SOCIETIES AND STATES
The study of social movements involve the study of the relationships between:
1) Economy or mode of production, 2) Political system or state, 3) Cultural sphere (including religion), 4) Social reproduction (gender, sex, physical reproduction).
What is a movement ideology? It is a discourse about the way a society should be put together. What form should each of the above four spheres take? How should the whole be managed?
LIBERALS believe the spheres should be kept separate. Make sure that the state does not become coercive. Assure individuals are given liberty of speech and action.
CONSERVATIVES: denies the usefulness of movements that seek to provide full liberty; change must be left to occur on its own, gradually, incrementally. Based on the view that society is an 'organ'Ésudden and large change upsets the health of the organism. Favors th status quo.
SOCIALISTS believe that the state should be given power of controlling the whole so that capitalism does not abuse the system. State is the only agency large and powerful enough to bring about social change, so it should be used. SM (social movements) should use the state to transform private ownership and its social ills.
MOVEMENTS OF FAITH: religious movements frame discourses in religious termsÉ.religious values must predominate. Religion should not be separated from other spheres of society. It should be part of civic life. Faith movements believe that religion should be replaced or made concrete by 'faith,.' The state should promote the values of the religion and integrate teachings of the faith in the educational system and the legal system. SM of faith link all spheres together.
FEMINISM AND MOVEMENTS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Focus on gender as a source of inequality. Gay and feminist movements point to the 'violence' needed to maintain homosexuality and bring attention to the fact that throughout history these groups have been suppressed. They tend to remain suspicious of the state because they consider it a structure of heterosexual or patriarchal society.
FASCISM AND NATIONALISM MOVEMENTS: Focus on maintaining social boundaries. Strong focus on maintaining ethnic unity and homogeneity. They claim that homogeneity will solve issues related to injustice. 'Ethnoracist' movements believe that eliminating foreigners will resolve problemsÉ.they sometimes lead to genocides and ethnic cleansing. They count very much on the state to accomplish all this.
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS: expand the circle of discourse by including all of 'nature.' We have to recognize interdependence and need to eliminate the boundary between 'humanity' and 'nature.'
MOVEMENTS AS DISCOURSES:
Many questions are embedded in the discourses of SM's.
What is the good society?
What's wrong with current society?
What sort of social practices should be at the core of society?
Which sphere, if any, most shapes a society?
What must we do to change this sphere and its relationship to other spheres?
How can we achieve our vision of the good society? What role should be played by the state?
When a SM uses the state to achieve its goals, it expands the state and gives it additional power.
When a SM develops it becomes prone to inertia from within an dopposition from outside. A successful SM guards against both and adjusts its tactics:
CLASS NOTES:
THE RISE OF THE NEW LEFT
The New Left political movement emerged from the late
1950'S to 1970's to challenge the "system" in Western democracies,
particularly in America, Canada and England.
The Ideology: People have a right to make decisions for their own life.
Radical Democracy
Community Organizing
Anticapitalist World View
EMERGENCE: from the Baby Boom generation.
Peace movement
Anti-nuclear movement
Decentralized, youth-oriented
First time in history: sizeable numbers enter university
Marxism revival
Sexual liberation
NEW FORMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Changes in lifestyles promoted
Marketers adopts lifestyle promotion
See The Therapeutic Movement: Davetian and Web readings on the 1960's
Utopian socialism, anarchism, populism, democratic participation, opposition to hierarchy and bureaucracy, decentralization, negation of vertical associations (respect for authority).
Local chapters of organizations, collectives, cooperatives, communesÉnetworking.
STRONG IDEALISM
Personal experimentation vs. convention and fashion.
WORKER-STUDENT ALLIANCES
France
May Day in 1968 Italy 1968,
1969
THE HIPPIES
Anti0pauthoritarian, anti-repressive
THE ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN LEGACY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
The
60's were a prototype for late-modern social movements
Characteristics:
decentralized, loosely networked, media-oriented,
self-aware
with a touch of irony, eclectic in choice of ideologies,
With
local and global influence.
PLEASE SEE the article by Buechler, New Social Movements.
Benet Davetian
THE RISE OF THE
OPPOSITIONAL SELF
AND THE NEW THERAPEUTIC SOCIETY
Chapter 8 from
CIVILITY: A CULTURAL HISTORY
î2005 Al rights reserved
And as I sat there
brooding on the old, unknown world, I
thought of
Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green
light at the end
of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to
this blue lawn,
and his dream must have seemed so close that
he could hardly
fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was
already behind
him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity
beyond the city,
where the dark fields of the republic
rolled on under
the night.
---F. Scott
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Our desire becomes an oracle we consult. It is now the last word,
while in the past it was the questionable and dangerous part of us.
---Harold Bloom,
The Closing of the American Mind (1987)
Today everyone is in the know, and no one has the
faintest clue.
---Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Love (2003)
In Part I of this book an attempt has been made to present a comparative study of civility standards prior t