Theory Of Collective Behavior Research Articles

Теоретические основания формирования социального недовольства

The article presents a theoretical review of foreign conceptual studies reflecting the search for the causes of the spread of social discontent, which has political consequences. The theory of collective behavior considers social discontent as the basis for spontaneous mass actions. The concept of deprivation sees into the causes of social discontent in the discrepancy between the desired and the actual in the satisfaction of personal needs. The theory of social movements proceeds from the possibility of creating a mass organization with the possession of resources based on the social dissatisfaction of citizens. The theory of social networks considers the channels of distribution and the structure of the organization of social discontent. The combination of theoretical approaches makes it possible to understand the mechanics of the processes of formation and transformation of social discontent.

The Contagion of Misgovernance in Nigeria: Reflections on the Influence of Non-Administrative Criteria

Successive governments in Nigeria have failed to curtail the downward spiral of the sectors of her economy. The deepening socio-economic and political crises are assessed as occasioned by the dysfunctionality of the arms of government that jeopardizes essential service delivery to the detriment of the polity at whose behest they occupy the public offices. Despite the changes and institution of new administrative leadership through democratic processes, the quality of governance continues to dwindle. Poor policy formulation, implementing non-target-specific measures to deal with the malaises bedeviling the economy, and/or outright government inaction define the practical realities of Nigeria’s sociopolitical landscape. These plausible facts have driven wedges between the elected representatives in government and the polity who bear the brunt of the leadership failures in all spheres. The study determined whether a contagion effect birthed by non-administrative criteria underlies the transcendently perpetual misgovernance pervading the sectors of Nigeria’s economy. The study evaluates the influences of these criteria on the individuals, the potency of ‘group’ membership and sentiments, the contexts of leadership, and the implications for the trajectory of governance. With prioritization over the desired state of affairs in the country despite leadership changes and successive governments, these group memberships and sentiments remain inimically parallel to target-specific policy-making and de-emphasize national growth and development. The paper relies on the postulations of the social contagion theory of collective behavior and Riggs' assertions on non-administrative criteria in prismatic societies in assessing the misgovernance in Nigeria. A semi-structured Contagion in Leadership (CiL) e-questionnaire was designed to evaluate the influence of social contagion on the members of the arms of government and, consequently, on the quality of governance and service delivery in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It was disseminated on two social media platforms - WhatsApp and Twitter, for a wider reach. Two hundred ten (210) responses were recorded across an age range of 18 and 65+ years, with a mean age of 42. Strategies for enhancing the quality of governance, including entrenching constitutionalism, and engendering the responsibility of political officeholders toward policy actions, are proffered.

Solving the Cournot Oligopoly Game under Incomplete Information with the Possibility of Cooperative Interaction

The balance of commodity markets is an extremely important and pressing challenge. There is an active development of research aimed at solving such problem. However, well-known theoretical models do not always adequately reflect the desire of agents to make such individual decisions and search for such compromises to ensure the greatest profit and bring the market to equilibrium.
 The article considers the solution of the Cournot oligopoly game under incomplete information for the case of linear demand and linear costs. The approaches of the reflexive games theory and collective behavior theory are the basis for the construction of the decision-making process by agents. The policy of optimal responses of agents to the expected output volumes of the environment under traditional assumptions about the independence of agents may not lead to equilibrium. Therefore, the article considers and proposes non-traditional solutions that allow agents to cooperate. It is shown that it is enough to jointly regulate the process only at initial stage. After that, it should come to equilibrium if, in the future, agents independently adjust their own output, counting on the maximum expected profit. The necessary assertions and their mathematical proofs are given.

Modeling the Dynamics of Collective Behavior in a Reflexive Game with an Arbitrary Number of Leaders

An oligopoly with an arbitrary number of Stackelberg leaders under incomplete, asymmetrical agents' awareness and inadequacy of their predictions of competitors' actions is considered. Models of individual decision-making processes by agents are studied. The reflexive games theory and collective behavior theory are the theoretical basis for construction and analytical study process models. They complement each other in that reflexive games allow using the collective behavior procedures and the results of agents' reflections, leading to a Nash equilibrium. The dynamic decision-making process considered repeated static games on a range of agents' feasible responses to the expected actions of the environment, considering current economic restrictions and competitiveness in each game. Each reflexive agent in each game calculates its current goal position and changes its state, taking steps towards the current position of the goal to obtain positive profit or minimize losses. Sufficient conditions for the convergence of processes in discrete time for the case of linear costs of agents and linear demand is the main result of this work. New analytical expressions for the agents' current steps' ranges guarantee the convergence of the collective behavior models to static Nash equilibrium is obtained. That allows each agent to maximize their profit, assuming common knowledge among the agents. The processes when the agent chooses their best response are also analyzed. The latter may not give converging trajectories. The case of the duopoly in comparison with modern results is discussed in detail. Necessary mathematical lemmas, statements, and their proofs are presented.

Character of Protest Political Mobilization in the Regional Public Space of Volgograd Region

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the protest political mobilization in the regional political space of Volgograd region. Particular attention is paid to the study of the main conditions and causes of protest activity in the context of implementing public policy in Volgograd region. The relevance of the problem field is due to the need for a political analysis of the characteristics of the population mobilization at the regional level, including their comparison with federal trends. Methodology and methods. The authors conceptualize political mobilization on the basis of the theoretical principles of the theory of collective behavior of G. Blumer, E. Hoffer, T. Garr and the rational basis for the mobilization of D. Gupt. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of collective action (Ch. Tilly), on the basis of which it is concluded that political mobilization is defined as a combination of institutional and social conditions that allow actors to rationally evaluate transaction costs and possible gains from mobilization actions. The analysis of the regional public policy system is based on the conclusions contained in the works of Yu.O. Gaivoronsky, S.I. Morozov, S.A. Pankratov. The empirical basis of the study is the public opinion polls of the Levada Center, expert and analytical materials on the state of protest activity of the Institute of Regional Expertise, as well as the results of monitoring data from Internet resources obtained with the direct participation of the authors in March 2020. Analysis. The modern Russian socio-political system is a synthesis of two opposites: a hermetically “closed” institutional political structure, which is determined by the situation of internal uncertainty, and an active social component. At the same time, the specifics of the regional public space of Volgograd Region is a combination of the subject composition of the institutional design of the regional political regime based on copying the features of the federal regime, as well as the diversity of the regional themes of socio-political protest. Based on the results obtained by the case-study method, it was found that the protest dynamics in Volgograd region show a downward trend, however, any manifestations of public protest activity in the region implicitly imply a political nature in direct proportion to the number of participants: the greater the number of participants in the protest stocks, the higher the degree of its politicization. Results. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the protest political mobilization in the public space of Volgograd region is characterized by: firstly, the prevalence of regional problems over federal ones in the protest discourse; secondly, the lack of strong institutional structures that can mobilize material and organizational resources; thirdly, a critically low number of protesters; fourthly, the spontaneous nature of mobilization. A special feature of political mobilization in the regional dimension is the low social potential of the protest and the lack of effective mechanisms for political and communicative interaction between government institutions and the population of Volgograd region on a specific range of problems of a public nature. In order to overcome the shortcomings of dialogue communication, within the framework of representative democracy, the authors propose recommendations for the main actors of the public political space (regional authorities, expert community and civil society institutions).

Reflexion in mathematical models of decision-making

The paper is devoted to a generalization of static and dynamic mathematical models of behavior with explicitly stated reflexive models of agents’ decision-making. Reflexion is considered as agent’s beliefs about nature, opponents’ beliefs and opponents’ decision-making principles in the framework of game theory, collective behavior theory and learning models.

Parsimony versus Reductionism: How Can Crowd Psychology be Introduced into Computer Simulation?

Computer simulations are increasingly being used to monitor and predict the movement behavior of crowds. This can enhance crowd safety at large events and transport hubs, and increase efficiency such as capacity utilization in public transport systems. However, the models used are mainly based on video observations, not an understanding of human decision making. Theories of crowd psychology can elucidate the factors underpinning collective behavior in human crowds. Yet, in contrast to psychology, computer science must rely upon mathematical formulations in order to implement algorithms and keep models manageable. Here, we address the problems and possible solutions encountered when incorporating social psychological theories of collective behavior in computer modeling. We identify that one primary issue is retaining parsimony in a model while avoiding reductionism by excluding necessary aspects of crowd psychology, such as the behavior of groups. We propose cognitive heuristics as a potential avenue to create a parsimonious model that incorporates core concepts of collective behavior derived from empirical research in crowd psychology.

Field of safe travel in swarm

Animals in a group have been considered to have a field or zone to avoid a collision among individuals. The repulsive zone was formalized as a symmetry zone, i.e., a circle in the theories of collective behavior. The present study challenged the theories, since animals would avoid the collision in anticipation that cannot be derived from the symmetry interaction. This study investigated a discrete model consisting of velocity-based "oval" repulsive and long-range attractive zones. This model exhibited highly coherent behavior without explicit alignment force due to asymmetric interaction upon the oval potential. The results would be contributed to future researches in collective behavior and robotics.

Social Movements and Futures Research

This article discusses sociological approaches to the study of social movements and assesses their relevance for futures research. Older theories of collective behavior viewed mass protest as result of structural strains or collapse of order. Revolutions were seen as an inevitable result of social disenfranchisement. More recent theories argued that deprivation exists often without the occurrence of any upheavals and stressed the importance of resource mobilization, political opportunities, collective identity, common goals, and transhistorical struggle for recognition. Although each of the different approaches has its problems, combined they are providing a valuable resource for a reconceptualization of futures research.

The Role of Financial Panics in Early And Not so Early Theories of Financial Crises

Financial panics appear as the reactions to a fear of capital losses that cause a dumping of assets by investors and the collapse of a financial institution or market. Where social psychologist Gustave Le Bon (1995 [1895]) in his theory of crowd psychology argued that a distinct and distinctly irrational collective mind forms through the contagious transformation of the individual into a member of the “herd,” Floyd Allport (1924) suggests that the crowd mind is simply the aggregated feelings of individuals reacting to the same external stimulant. More recently, theories of collective behavior explore the sociality of human cognition. This paper examines the semantic and theoretical roles for “panic” in select treatments of financial crises and the extent to which any underlying collective behavior may be contagious, convergent, or emerging from the social interactions that shape a crowd mind.

Abolitionists and the Eloquence of Abuse: Revisiting Status and Rhetoric in Social Movements

Current discussions of contentious performances profitably draw upon a revival of theories of culture, emotion, and performance. Yet status theory and status claims-making continue to be neglected in the mix because of their received associations with classical tension theory and unpopular functionalist models of collective behavior. Because most social movement participants are outsiders to the ‘halls of power,’ their dependence upon the rhetoric of status in cultivating moral influence is much more fundamental than previously acknowledged, although this relation is hinted at in Tilly's notion of contentious performances. Efforts to recover status theory navigate between two major mistakes in past theories of collective behavior: the voluntaristic overemphasis of affective manipulation by charismatic leaders, and the deterministic conflation of status with large reified social structures. The concept of reception fields is proposed to refer to the relational, fluid, social–psychological status dynamics between movement leaders and audiences during contentious performances, in which distinction and rhetoric are mutually constitutive. The article situates eloquence or the emotional energy of protest rhetoric in the dramaturgical performance of status dynamics within the immediate reception field. The utility of this approach to status rhetoric is illustrated with respect to American antislavery abolitionism.

Football Fandom, Mobilization and Herbert Blumer: A Social Movement Analysis of F.C. United of Manchester

This article explores the establishment and development of fan-owned association football club, F.C. United of Manchester. It does this by drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews, observations and an analysis of multiple texts, such as fanzines, web-based and media reports materials and discusses this using Herbert Blumer’s theory of collective behavior. As such, the article addresses two research questions: first, what the empirical case example of F.C. United of Manchester offers to the critical understanding of Blumer’s theory and second, what the theory can give to the understanding of twenty-first century protests in popular culture. Therefore this article contributes to contemporary debates on association football fandom, social movements and the theories of Herbert Blumer.

TARGET CHOICE DURING EXTREME EVENTS: A DISCRETE SPATIAL CHOICE MODEL OF THE 2011 LONDON RIOTS

Riots are extreme events, and much of the early research on rioting suggested that the decision making of rioters was far from rational and could only be understood from the perspective of a collective mind. In the current study, we derive and test a set of expectations regarding rioter spatial decision making developed from theories originally intended to explain patterns of urban crime when law and order prevail—crime pattern and social disorganization theory—and consider theories of collective behavior and contagion. To do this, we use data for all riot‐related incidents that occurred in London in August 2011 that were detected by the police. Unlike most studies of victimization, we use a random utility model to examine simultaneously how the features of the destinations selected by rioters, the origins of their journeys, and the characteristics of the offenders influence offender spatial decision making. The results demonstrate that rioter target choices were far from random and provide support for all three types of theory, but for crime pattern theory in particular. For example, rioters were more likely to engage in the disorder close to their home location and to select areas that contained routine activity nodes and transport hubs, and they were less likely to cross the Thames River. In terms of contagion, rioters were found to be more likely to target areas that had experienced rioting in the previous 24 hours. From a policy perspective, the findings provide insight into the types of areas that may be most vulnerable during riots and why this is the case, and when particular areas are likely to be at an elevated risk of this type of disorder.

The Science of Goal Setting

Goal setting within social marketing campaigns is art and science. An analysis of Rare Pride conservation campaigns shows the quantitative, replicable relationship among the impact of these conservation campaigns with diffusion of innovation theory, and collective behavior theory that can guide marketers to set better goals. Rare is an environmental conservation organization that focuses on reducing community-based threats to biodiversity through a social marketing campaign called Pride. Pride campaigns work by removing barriers to change (whether they are technical, social, and political or something else) and inspiring people to make change happen. Based on the analysis of historical Pride campaign survey data, we found that the starting percentage of engagement has a great influence on the percentage change at the end of the campaign: The higher the initial adoption level of knowledge, attitude, and behavior change, the easier these measures are to improve. The result also suggests a difference in the potential of change with different audience segments: It is easiest to change influencer, then general public, and finally resource user who are the target of the social marketing campaign. In this article, we will analyze how to use diffusion of innovation and collective behavior theories to explain the impact of campaigns, as well as how to set more attainable goals. This article is consistent with similar research in the field of public health, which should help marketers set goals more tightly, allocate resources more effectively, and better manage donor expectations.

Looking at Smelser’s Theory of Collective Behavior After Almost 50 Years: A Review and Appreciation

A half century has gone by since the publication of Neil Smelser’s classic book on the Theory of Collective Behavior. The re-issue of the book triggered these observations in which I reflect on the fate of old books; trace a bit of the book’s genealogy; note changes in the field; and argue that Smelser’s book is really four books in one with varying impact over the decades and likely to be of varying interest to current scholars—an application of Parsonian theory to conflict and change; an elaboration of key concepts found with collective behavior which involves “uninstitutionalized mobilization to reconstitute components of social action on the basis of a generalized belief”; an elaboration of variables such as objective conditions of the social order, perceptions and belief systems required to understand the topic; and a comprehensive summary and critique of relevant empirical and theoretical work on collective behavior through the 1950s. Based on criticisms of the book, I suggest some areas that should be addressed were the book to be revised.

Social action in response to terrorism: Understanding xenophobic violence from a value-added perspective

This paper explores waves of xenophobic violence that have followed terrorist attacks in the United States from a value-added perspective. This work explores the applicability of Smelser's (1962) theory of collective behavior to these incidences of postattack violence, collectively characterizing these events as hostile outbursts. The history of postterrorism violence in the U.S. is detailed in this work, including a review of the first World Trade Center attack (1993), and the Oklahoma City bombing (1995). Special focus is placed on the immediate American response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. This paper culminates with a discussion of future research directions and the benefits that may result from conceptualizing postterrorism xenophobic violence as a hostile outburst in terms of preventing unnecessary bloodshed in the wake of terrorist activity.

Models of strategic behavior

The paper surveys the main theoretical and experimental approaches to modeling and research of strategic behavior in the game theory and the theory of collective behavior.

Life experience and the value‐free foundations of Blumer's collective behavior theory

Herbert Blumer stated throughout his long career that his ideas regarding collective behavior originated with his introduction to pragmatist philosophy under the auspices of G. H. Mead at the University of Chicago. Blumer's biography, however, presents a different picture. Firsthand experiences with mob behavior, collective outrage, and the fallout associated with Blumer's public utterances early in his career may have had significant impact on the eventual corpus of collective behavior.

The sociobiology of biofilms

Biofilms are densely packed communities of microbial cells that grow on surfaces and surround themselves with secreted polymers. Many bacterial species form biofilms, and their study has revealed them to be complex and diverse. The structural and physiological complexity of biofilms has led to the idea that they are coordinated and cooperative groups, analogous to multicellular organisms. We evaluate this idea by addressing the findings of microbiologists from the perspective of sociobiology, including theories of collective behavior (self-organization) and social evolution. This yields two main conclusions. First, the appearance of organization in biofilms can emerge without active coordination. That is, biofilm properties such as phenotypic differentiation, species stratification and channel formation do not necessarily require that cells communicate with one another using specialized signaling molecules. Second, while local cooperation among bacteria may often occur, the evolution of cooperation among all cells is unlikely for most biofilms. Strong conflict can arise among multiple species and strains in a biofilm, and spontaneous mutation can generate conflict even within biofilms initiated by genetically identical cells. Biofilms will typically result from a balance between competition and cooperation, and we argue that understanding this balance is central to building a complete and predictive model of biofilm formation.

Subramanian Raman

Subramanian Raman, a senior staff member in the physics division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), died 8 April 2003 at his home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, of complications following heart surgery.Born 2 April 1938 in Kollengode, a small town in southwestern India, Raman, often called “Ram” by his friends and colleagues, received his BE in 1959 from the University of Madras. After failing the eye examination required for employment by the India Railway Co, he decided to apply for a Bank of India study-abroad program. Raman came to the US in 1959 and enrolled in the graduate program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he received his MS in electrical engineering in 1961. He did his doctoral work at Pennsylvania State University under the supervision of William Pratt. In 1966, he earned his PhD in physics for his thesis “Energy Levels of 82Kr Populated by 82Br Decay.”In June 1966, Raman joined ORNL to work on the nuclear data project directed by Kay Way. That work provided him insights—into both nuclear structure physics and the power of “horizontal” compilations of properties across a broad range of nuclei—that would guide his research interests throughout his 36-year career at ORNL.Raman established definitive decay schemes for about 35 radionuclides, most of them for the first time, and discovered two new isotopes, potassium-48 and argon-45. In the early 1970s, he made a series of careful measurements to establish reliably the lowest log ft value for a β transition of a particular forbidden type. That work resulted in his landmark paper entitled “Rules for Spin Parity Assignments Based on Log ft Values,” published in Physical Review in 1973. His interest in β decay led to two additional compilations, one on superallowed 0+ → 0+ and isospin-forbidden Fermi transitions and another on mixed Fermi and Gamow–Teller β transitions and isoscalar magnetic moments. He pursued the experimental study of superallowed 0+ → 0+ transitions and studied in detail four of the dozen cases that are presently well established.In the late 1970s, Raman initiated a program of neutron-capture gamma-ray spectroscopy that would significantly influence an entire subfield of nuclear physics. He carried out precise measurements (at both ORNL and Los Alamos) on a large number of nuclei and developed an advanced theory of direct capture for interpreting the observations. His work on the 1+ states in lead-208 was particularly significant. He carried out much of the ORNL work at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator, where he was scientific director at the time of his death.During the 1970s, Raman also undertook the measurement of fission cross sections for the higher actinides. That work led to the establishment of the US–UK actinides program (1979–92) and the Japan–US actinides program (1988 to present); he served as a lead US participant in both programs.In his last 15 years, Raman became particularly interested in the system-atics of quadrupole distortions in nuclei. He initially compiled B(E2) values for all even–even nuclei and then published a series of papers in which he developed the systematics and theory of collective behavior in those nuclei.Raman’s outgoing and friendly demeanor was apparent to hundreds of visitors to the ORNL physics division over the years. He organized the weekly technical seminars and served as de facto host for many of them. His ready camera also served to document the division’s social activities.His friends and colleagues will remember Raman for the breadth of his work in nuclear structure physics and his significant contributions to allied fields. We will remember his enthusiastic enjoyment of life in general and science in particular, his interest and concern for friends and colleagues, and his deep love and devotion to his family.Subramanian RamanPPT|High resolution© 2004 American Institute of Physics.