Society,
Collective Behavior, Social Change, and Technology
Collective
Behavior:
Chapters
21 and 21: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2010
Spontaneous and unstructured
behavior (Neil Smelser). Reaction to an ambiguous
situation. An unpredictable source of social change.
Emergent Norm Perspective
Ambiguity of situation
provides open ground for the emergence and redefinition of appropriate behavior.
New norms "emerge"
Value-Added Perspective
Series of structural
and interactional conditions resulting in definite patterns of behavior.
Structural conduciveness
(emergence of conflicting interests), structural strain, belief, precipitating
event, mobilization and failure of social control
Relative Deprivation:
perception of discrepancy between legitimate expectations and objective realities.
Feeling of being deprived of basic right. Lack of faith in conventional means
of change.
Resource Mobilization:
Organizational strategies and leadership required to initiate, recruit and
sustain momentum of movement. Local focus is characteristic of tradition Social
Movements, New Social Movement Theory focuses on global activism and issues
(COYOTE).
"An actor network
is simultaneously an actor whose activity is networking heterogeneous elements
and a network that is able to redefine and transform what it is made of."
An actor-network includes
both human and non-human elements
An actor-network is not
fixed or stable- it is capable of redifining its identity and relationships
in new ways.
(From: Michel Callon,
"Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a tool for Sociological
Analysis" in The Social Construction of Technological Systems)
Critical Theory (Conflict)
Power and Control
Technology as a tool
used to control and maintain differential social relationships
Technological development
guided and controlled by particular group interests
Technological Systems
"Technological systems
contain messy, complex, problem-solving components."
"They are both socially
constructed and society shaping."
They contain: artifacts,
organizations, and institutions
They are shaped by their
components.
They are goal oriented
and evolve over time
from: Thomas P. Hughes,
"The Evolution of Technological Systems" in The Social Construction
of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology,
Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes, and Trevor Pinch, eds., MIT Press, 1987.
Areas and
Directions of Technologically Mediated Change
Bio-Technology: Sex
Selection, Gene Therapy, Agricultural Innovation
