SOCI 1001H Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Collective Behavior, Social Change, Antifeminism
14 Jun 2018
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Structure/Agency and social change
• Social change transforms social structures
• Through human agency (conscious action), social groups push to alter social structures
in different ways over time
Social Change and Collective Behaviour
• Social change: the alteration, modification, or transformation of public policy, culture or
social institutions over time
• Collective behaviour: involves a relatively large number of people who mutually
transcend, bypass or subvert established institutional patterns, structures and/or norms
Forms of collective Behaviour
• Crowds: temporary groupings of people in close proximity who share a common focus or
interest
• Can be positive or negative
• Can turn into a riot
• Disaster behaviour: decision making is often much more centralized following a disaster
• Disaster: sudden or disruptive event that over-taxes a community’s resources so
that outside aid is necessary
• Traditionally have been natural, but can also be technological
• Fads and Fashions: sudden movements towards acceptance of something, often revolve
around consumption
• Fads: temporary patterns of behaviour involving a large number of people that
tend to spring up independent of any preceding trend and tend to not give rise to
anything like them, generally short-lived
• Fashions: currently valued style that is longer lasting and often more widespread
• Panics and Crazes:
• Panic: fearful arousal or collective flight based on generalized belief which may
or may not be accurate
• People react with strong emotions and often destructive behaviour
• Flights from something
• Craze: an exciting mass involvement which tends to last for a relatively long
period of time
• Movements towards something
• Rumours and Gossip:
• Rumours: unsubstantiated reports on an issue or subject
• Gossip: rumours about personal lives of individuals
• Tended to be spread among small group of individuals who personally
knew the person, but now can also be about people we do not know
• Publics and Public Opinion:
• Publics: least organized form or collective behaviour, a dispersed group of
people who are not necessarily in contact with one another who share an interest
or focus
• Public Opinion or information: expression of attitudes or opinions among these
members of the public
Social Movements
• Social movements cause or prevent social change
• Social movements: refers to an organized group that acts consciously to promote or
resist change through collective action
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