Crowd Activity Research Articles

Price rises for flame retardants, antioxidants and pigments

With a history spanning thousands of years, the water system of Suzhou is an indispensable carrier of urban space and civil culture. Quantificational model analysis of the waterfront in the ancient city of Suzhou has significant implications for the future design of waterfront space and the establishment of an evaluation method to determine the vitality of such space. In this study, a vitality evaluation model was first constructed using river attributes, the spatial type of waterfront areas, vision accessibility, transportation accessibility, and combined new data extracted using spatial factor analysis. Second, a vitality evaluation matrix was established using the analytic hierarchy process to simulate the vitality of waterfront spaces. Third, a hash algorithm was employed to determine the fitting degree between the vitality model of Suzhou's waterfront space and crowd activity. The different areas between them were found and then the factor evaluation process was adjusted on this basis of analyzing the causes. Thus, this study identified the factors influencing the vitality of Suzhou's waterfront. Furthermore, this research constructed a model for evaluating the vitality of waterfront spaces. Finally, some guidelines were presented regarding the design and implementation of waterfront spaces in urban design.

Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier

In this revisionary look at the eighteenth-century frontier, Michael A. Bellesiles shows us that more than a legendary Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Allen was the leader of a group of frontier subsistence farmers united in their opposition to New York elites and land speculators; the independence Allen and his followers fought for was as much from eastern elites as it was from the British crown. But what makes the story of the Green Mountain frontier so remarkable is that the settlers won. Revolutionary Outlaws is both a biography of Ethan Allen and a social history of the conflict between agrarian commoners and their wealthy adversaries. It explores the roots of popular political commitment to the patriot cause, the significance of rural crowd activity, the character of popular religious culture and dissent, and the origins and structures of an emerging democratic polity.

Guidelines to Minimize Floor Vibrations from Building Occupants

One major serviceability consideration in modern buildings is excessive floor vibrations due to occupant activities. Floor vibrations are becoming a more important design consideration with the use of high-strength, light-weight materials in building structures, longer floor spans, and more flexible framing systems. Floor systems in shopping malls, pedestrian walkways and concourses, and gymnasiums are relatively light and susceptible to vibration problems. Methods for accurate prediction of these vibrations and evalution of floor systems are not readily available to the design community. An investigation is made into the characteristics of crowd-induced loads. These characteristics include the density of the crowd, randomness of crowd movement, crowd activity, and temporal interaction between individuals. Analytical procedures are developed to determine the influence of each load characteristic on the dynamic response of floor systems. Design guidelines are developed for floors in malls, gymnasiums, and walkways subjected to crowd-induced loads.

Social Influence Perspective on Crowd Behavior

Research guided by a social influence perspective on crowd behavior is considered under three categories: leader to crowd; crowd to members; crowd to outsiders. It is argued that a single model of crowd influence which relies on a single process is inadequate. It is found that several social influene proceases affect the attitudes and actions of crowd members-social facilitation, modelling and imitation, conformity to group norms, group discussion and persuasive appeals. The operation of these social influence processes is examined for a variety of crowd forms including crusade rallies (Newton & Mann, 1980), crazy auctions (Mann, 1975), spectators to a dispute (Mann, Paleg & Hawkins, 1978), baiting crowds (Mann, 1982) and queues (Mann, 1970, 1977). The size of the crowd is shown to be an important factor mediating the probability that people will be drawn to the crowd, induced to join, and become influenced by the leader's persuasive message. It is suggested that cultural differences in such factors as conformity pressures are linked to the incidence of crowd activity and the likelihood of social influence occurring in crowds in various countries. Future research should investigate the comparative vulnerability to influence of strangers and groups of friends in crowds, individual differences in susceptibility to crowd influence and discontinuities in individual behavior associated with changes in crowd size and proportion of crowd members already responding.

The Problem of the Early American Crowd

Some six years ago Gordon Wood closed a brief discussion of mobs in the American Revolution by asking whether, if the mob was no less a mob than its European counterpart, the revolution was any less a revolution. Three recent full-length studies, Pauline Maier's From Resistance to Revolution, Richard D. Brown's Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts and Patricia U. Bonomi's A Factious People, deal in significant part with mob, or, as I will call it, crowd activity in early America, although in none of them does it form the main subject. The approach to it of all three is fresh and sophisticated but, as the cliché goes, they raise as many questions as they answer. This essay will look first at the questions they answer and then go on to the ones they raise.

The Real Revolution in Italy

The course of revolution in Italy illustrates the fact that political upheavals may be but overt manifestations of underlying social changes. Sentimental and habitual support for the agrarian and industrial as well as the political structures of the Italian social organization has been undermined. The disorganization appeared first a half-century ago as a general discontent, apparently undirected and unreasoning. Later it was articulated and expressed itself in various types of crowd activity, finally emerging in several mass movements. At the time of the opening of the World War drastic changes seemed imminent. The war and the rise of Fascism have temporarily aborted the concerted movement and delayed the changes.