Society,
Collective Behavior, Social Change, and Technology
Collective Behavior:
Chapters 22 and 23:
Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2008.
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
Assembling Perspective
- How crowds come together (flash
mobs)
- Periodic and non-periodic assemblies
(word-of-mouth, recruitment)
- Publics
- Panics
- Crazes
- Rumors
- Urban
Legends (see also: snopes.com)
- Fads
- Fashions
- Crowds:
Casual (rubber necking), Conventional (normative behavior), Expressive (seeking
gratification-rock concert, revival), and Acting (riots: aimed at disorder,
powerless ==>Mobs emotionally aroused and intent on violence) (flash
mobs)
- Disasters
- Social Movements (New Social Movements):
- Much more structured.
- Duration.
- Natural History.
- Dramatic Impact.
- Intentional Change
- See also, wikipedia
and wikibooks
- See also, Gary T. Marx: Collective
Behavior and Social Movements
Explanations of Social Movements
- 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).
- Why
do people join social movements?
Theories of Social
Change and Technology
Chapter
23: Sociology, Schaefer, 2003
Evolutionary
Theory: simple to complex, lower to higher. Uni-lineal and Multi-lineal.
Parson's
Equilibrium Model: gradual adjustment and compensation throughout the parts
of the system.
- Differentiation-increasing complexity
(individual-institutional)
- Adaptive upgrading (division of
labor and specialization)
- Inclusion: reduction of inequality
- Value
generalization: broadening and increasing tolerance of acceptable behaviors
and ideals)
Conflict
Theory
Resistance
to Change (Conflict Theory)
Theories of the Relationship
between Society and Technology
Technological Determinism
Social Constructionism
Actor-Network
- "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