Collective Behavior

Abstract

Early theories of collective behavior tended to regard it as negative, associating it with the rise of fascism and communism in Europe during the 1930s. Crowd behavior was seen as irrational and dangerous because it suppressed individual will, and posed a threat to the democratic political order and established ways of life. Other theories have regarded collective movements as meaningful acts striving to affect positive social change. Hence, collective behavior theory has influenced social movement research. For instance, by treating social movements as rational, strategically calculating political phenomena, resource mobilization theory embraces the rationalism implied in the collective behavior perspective. Other scholars, by contrast, focus on the supposedly irrational aspects of social movement activity, such as emotional expression and feelings of anger, injustice, and indignation, which help explain not only why people become involved in collective action in the first place, but also why they continue to participate over time.