THEORY OF COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR.Simon & Schuster, 1968 - 436 pages "In all civilizations, men have evinced dramatic collective behavior--the craze, the riot, the revolution. In Theory of Collective Behavior, the author applies the insights of contemporary sociology in the first work to unify the subject of collective behavior under a single, coherent sociological theory. The treatment is new and controversial. It marks a radical departure from the European social-psychological tradition of Le Bon, Trotter, MacDougall, and Freud, as well as from the American tradition of Ross, Park, and Blumer. Smelser explains why collective episodes occur where they do, when they do, and in the ways they do. He discusses the distinctive social conditions that accompany collective seizures. He also studies the kinds of beliefs that spark collective behavior and explores the relations among simple beliefs of hysteria and wish-fulfillment and the more complex beliefs envisioning the reconstruction of social norms and cultural values. The explanations are based on a theoretical scheme that permits classification and analysis of the social strains that underlie collective outbursts--strains such as ambiguity, deprivation, conflicts of norms, and conflicts of values. The greater part of this volume is devoted to empirical and comparative applications of Smelser's theory to several types of collective behavior. Individual chapters treat isolated phenomena such as the panic and the craze (including the financial boom and certain types of religious revivals); in these chapters the author has drawn from the literature of sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology, integrating the provocative but unorganized material hitherto available"--Jacket. |
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Page 13
... remain several kinds and levels of deprivation and several responses besides messianism . This is what we mean when we say that there exists a residue of indeter- minacy in the connections between determinants and outcomes in the field ...
... remain several kinds and levels of deprivation and several responses besides messianism . This is what we mean when we say that there exists a residue of indeter- minacy in the connections between determinants and outcomes in the field ...
Page 15
... remain . We must narrow the range of possibilities . In order to do so , we add several more deter- minants . In this way we make more probable the occurrence of that event ( e.g. , panic ) which is merely possible within the scope of ...
... remain . We must narrow the range of possibilities . In order to do so , we add several more deter- minants . In this way we make more probable the occurrence of that event ( e.g. , panic ) which is merely possible within the scope of ...
Page 210
... remains stagnant ; either it is incor- porated into the occasional habits of many or kept alive in the minds of a few enthusiasts . In favourable circumstances , it may remain to blossom again at some future time , when the immunity has ...
... remains stagnant ; either it is incor- porated into the occasional habits of many or kept alive in the minds of a few enthusiasts . In favourable circumstances , it may remain to blossom again at some future time , when the immunity has ...
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Common terms and phrases
activity agencies of social agitation ambiguity American Journal Anatomy of Revolution anxiety boom chapter Chicago church collective behavior collective outbursts communication components of action components of social conditions of conduciveness conditions of strain craze Crowd cults cultural definition determinants Disaster discussion economic effective Encyclopaedia episodes of collective example fashion Father Divine forces French Revolution History hostile belief hostile outbursts hysteria hysterical belief Ibid individual instance institutionalized involves Journal of Sociology labor leaders leadership Level Magic ment millenarian Mobilization nativistic Negro norm-oriented movement norms organization panic party persons Peyote political precipitating factor protest reform Religion religious responsible revival revolutionary riots role rumor sects social action social control social movements Social Psychology Social Sciences society Sociology South Sea Bubble specific speculative Stage structural conduciveness structural strain Study threat tion Tulip Mania types value-added process value-oriented beliefs value-oriented movement values violence York