Chapter 16
Collective Action and
Social Movements
Chapter Outline
•How to Spark a Riot
•Nonroutine Collective Action
•Social Movements
•Framing Discontent
•The Future of Social Movements
Collective Action
•Occurs when people act in unison to bringabout or resist social, political, and economicchange.
•Routine collective actions typically followestablished patterns of behavior in existingsocial structures.
•Nonroutine collective actions take placewhen usual conventions cease to guide socialaction and people, bypass, or subvertestablished structures.
Frequency of Lynching,United States, 1882–1935
Breakdown Theory ofNonroutine Collective Action
Three Factors:
•A group of people must be economicallydeprived or socially rootless.
•Their norms must be strained or disrupted.
•They must lose the capacity to act rationallyby getting caught up in the madness ofcrowds.
Polling Question
•Civil disobedience is better to use thanmilitant activity for groups to get their pointacross for social change.
A.Strongly agree
B.Agree somewhat
C.Unsure
D.Disagree somewhat
E.Strongly disagree
Deprivation, Crowds, andthe Breakdown of Norms
Most pre-1970 sociologists would have saidlynchings were caused by:
1.Background of economic deprivationexperienced by impoverished andmarginal members of the community.
2.The inherent irrationality of crowdbehavior.
3.The serious violation of norms.
Assessing BreakdownTheory: Lynchings
•Deprivation
–Research shows no association betweenfluctuations in economic well-being andlynchings that took place between the1880s and the 1930s.
•Contagion
–Many lynchings were neitherspontaneous or unorganized.
Assessing BreakdownTheory: Lynchings
•Strain
–Lynching was a means by which blackfarm workers were kept tied to thesouthern cotton industry after theabolition of slavery threatened to disruptthe industry’s traditional, captive laborsupply.
Social Disorganization andCollective Action: Prison Riots
•Prison riots tend to occur under certaincircumstances:
1.Government officials make newdemands of prison administratorswithout providing resources.
2.Corrections staff oppose thereforms.
Social Disorganization andCollective Action: Prison Riots
•Prison riots tend to occur under certaincircumstances:
3.Prison administrators take actions thatinmates perceive as unjust.
4.Inmates decide that living conditionsshould be better and that rioting will drawattention to those conditions.
The Social Determinantsof Rumors
Solidarity Theory
•Holds that social movements are socialorganizations that emerge whenpotential members:
–mobilize resources
–take advantage of new politicalopportunities
–avoid high levels of social control byauthorities.
Polling Question
•Have you ever participated in anorganized protest?
A.Yes
B.No
Frequency of Strikes with1000+ Workers
Unemployment andFrequency of Big Strikes,1948–2003
Framing Discontent
•Frame alignment is the process bywhich social-movement leaders maketheir activities, ideas, and goalscongruent with the interests, beliefs,and values of potential new recruits totheir movement - or fail to do so.
Encouraging FrameAlignment
1.Social-movement leaders can reach out toother organizations that contain people whosympathetic to the cause.
2.Movement activists can stress popularvalues that have not been prominent in thethinking of potential recruits.
3.Social movements can stretch theirobjectives to win recruits who aren’t initiallysympathetic to the movement’s aims.
Determinants of Collective Actionand Social Movement Formation
History of SocialMovements
•1700 - social movements were small,localized, and violent.
•Mid-20th century - social movements werelarge, national, and less violent.
•Late 20th century - social movementsdeveloped broader goals, recruited highlyeducated people, and developed globalpotential for growth.
Quick Quiz
1. Forms of collective action that areusually nonviolent and followestablished patterns of behavior inbureaucratic social structures arecalled:
a. social movements
b. routine
c. petition drives
d. lobby formation
e. party formation
Answer: b
•Forms of collective action that areusually nonviolent and followestablished patterns of behavior inbureaucratic social structures are calledroutine.
2. _________________ occurs whenpeople act in unison to bring about orresist social, political, and economicchange.
Answer: collective action
1.Collective action occurs when peopleact in unison to bring about or resistsocial, political, and economic change.
3. A(n) _________________ is anenduring collective attempt to change allor part of the social order.
Answer: social movement
•A social movement is an enduringcollective attempt to change all or partof the social order.
4. According to breakdown theory, collectiveaction and social movements result from:
a. economic deprivation
b.the irrationality of crowd behavior
c.instigation on the part of political leaders
d.all of these choices
e.economic deprivation and the irrationalityof crowd behavior
Answer: e
•According to breakdown theory,collective action and social movementsresult from economic deprivation andthe irrationality of crowd behavior.
5. According to the textbook, breakdowntheory largely explains annualfluctuations in the rate of lynching.
a.True
b.False
Answer: b
•According to the textbook, breakdowntheory does not explain annualfluctuations in the rate of lynching.
6. Frame alignment is the process bywhich individual interests, beliefs, andvalues either become congruent withthe activities, ideas, and goals of themovement or fail to do so.
a.True
b.False
Answer: a
•Frame alignment is the process bywhich individual interests, beliefs,and values either become congruentwith the activities, ideas, and goalsof the movement or fail to do so.
7. Around 1700 in Europe and North America,social movements were typically:
a.large, national in scope, and non-violent
b.large, local in scope, and violent
c.small, local in scope, and violent
d.small, local in scope, and non-violent
e.small, national in scope, and non-violent
Answer: c
•Around 1700 in Europe and NorthAmerica, social movements weretypically small, local in scope, andviolent.