Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM) is a section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) composed of sociologists who focus on the study of emerging and extra-institutional group phenomena. These include the behaviors associated with crowds, disasters, fads, revolutionary movements, riots, and social movements. [1] The purpose of the section is to foster the study of these topics, [2] which is done so by communicating through its newsletter Critical Mass, organizing research-related participation, and sponsoring workshops. [3]
Within the larger ASA, there are constituent parts known as sections. In the 1970s, there was a desire among some members of the ASA to establish a group that would study collective behavior and social movements as a fused topic. Since the ASA section on social psychology had, at the time, just been reorganized, one proposal was to establish a collective behavior-social movement group as a subsection of the newly reconstituted social psychology section. In response to this idea, sociologists Enrico Quarantelli and Jack Weller conducted a survey, whose results indicated that some social movement academics felt that a collective behavior-social movement group would be misplaced as a subsection within social psychology. In order to communicate about this controversy, a newsletter was created: Critical Mass. [4]
The first issue of Critical Mass, published in October 1973, was written by sociologist Thelma McCormack. McCormack suggested that the name “Social Organization” would be appropriate for a new section interested in collective behavior and social movements. However, John Lofland, who was central in the effort to establish an entirely separate section within the ASA for this cause, responded adamantly that the title should pay homage to the traditional link between collective behavior and social movements. The bond between collective behavior and social movements had formed earlier in the twentieth century through the work of Robert Ezra Park and Herbert Blumer. Since then, American sociological tradition had maintained that link. Thus, in 1978, a formal petition was circulated to create a new section, which would be called Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM). [5] CBSM was officially made a section of the ASA in 1980, [6] and is now one of the largest and most active sections of the ASA. [7] [8]
In recent years, the relevance of "CB" (Collective Behavior) in "CBSM" has been questioned. For some, the CB in CBSM has been replaced by CA (Collective Action). This has created the potential for a chasm between the two orientations. Additionally, as the section gains more international attendance, the link between collective behavior and social movements has become more obscure, given that the traditional American sociological link between the two areas is tenuous for non-US academics. [9]
The newsletter of the CBSM section is Critical Mass. In the areas of physics and chemistry, critical mass refers to the amount of fissile material needed for nuclear fission. Drawing upon this meaning, social movement scholars and activists use the term critical mass in reference to the idea that some threshold of participants or action must be crossed in order for a social movement to burst into existence. [10] Fittingly, the newsletter and its title pre-dated the formation of the CBSM section, which was itself borne out of action and movement.
The CBSM section of the ASA gives the following awards: [11]
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out, resist or undo a social change. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations or both. Definitions of the term are slightly varied. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations.
The expression collective behavior was first used by Franklin Henry Giddings and employed later by Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, Herbert Blumer, Ralph H. Turner and Lewis Killian, and Neil Smelser to refer to social processes and events which do not reflect existing social structure, but which emerge in a "spontaneous" way. Use of the term has been expanded to include reference to cells, social animals like birds and fish, and insects including ants. Collective behavior takes many forms but generally violates societal norms. Collective behavior can be tremendously destructive, as with riots or mob violence, silly, as with fads, or anywhere in between. Collective behavior is always driven by group dynamics, encouraging people to engage in acts they might consider unthinkable under typical social circumstances.
The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fifty people, the first president of the association would be Lester Frank Ward. Today, most of its members work in academia, while around 20 percent of them work in government, business, or non-profit organizations.
Social movement theory is an interdisciplinary study within the social sciences that generally seeks to explain why social mobilization occurs, the forms under which it manifests, as well as potential social, cultural, and political consequences, such as the creation and functioning of social movements.
Mayer Nathan Zald was an American sociologist. He was a professor of sociology, social work and business administration at the University of Michigan, noted for contributions to the sociology of organizations and social movements.
Mobilization is an academic journal that publishes original research and academic reviews of books concerned mainly with sociological research on protests, social movements, and collective behavior.
Daniel J. Myers is the President of Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania and a professor of Sociology. His best known research is on the urban unrest of the 1960s and the media coverage of those riots, specializing in identifying the patterns of unrest diffusion. He has written several books and articles, and is co-author of the best-selling sociological social psychology textbook, Social Psychology.
Steven Barkan, an American sociologist, is Professor and chairperson of the Sociology department at the University of Maine.
Kim Voss is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley whose main field of research is social movements and the American labor movement.
William Anthony Gamson was a professor of Sociology at Boston College, where he was also the co-director of the Media Research and Action Project (MRAP). He is the author of numerous books and articles on political discourse, the mass-media and social movements from as early as the 1960s. His influential works include Power and Discontent (1968), The Strategy of Social Protest (1975), Encounters with Unjust Authority (1982) and Talking Politics (2002), as well as numerous editions of SIMSOC.
Jackie Smith is an American sociologist. She specializes in Political economy and Transnational organization social movements. Since 2011, she has been Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Smith currently serves as editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research, an official journal of the American Sociological Association and published by the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. She is an advocate for the Open Access movement, arguing that scholarly societies should consider publishing options beyond those of major publishers. She is a leading advocate for building the Human Rights City worldwide movement.
Drew Halfmann is an American sociologist best known for his research on social policy in the United States.
The Charles Tilly Award for Best Book is given by the Collective Behavior and Social Movements section of the American Sociological Association in recognition of a significant contribution to the field. Nominees of the award are regarded as being representative of the "best new books in the field of social movements." The award was established in 1986 and is named after sociologist Charles Tilly.
Edwin Amenta is an American sociologist best known for his study of social policy, social movements, and the New Deal.
Humanity & Society is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Sage Publications, and is the official journal of the Association for Humanist Sociology (AHS). Established in 1977, the journal covers all aspects of sociology while focusing on issues of injustice, human suffering and social activism from a humanist point of view. The editor-in-chief is Diana Harvey.
Damon Centola is a sociologist and the Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
David Cunningham is a Professor and Chair of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis and nationally recognized scholar on social conflict, race-based hate groups, and social movements.
Pamela E. Oliver is an American sociologist most well-known for her contributions to theories of social action and her studies of racial injustice in the legal system. She is a Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Ralph Herbert Turner was an American sociologist who researched collective behavior and social movements. He served as president of the American Sociological Association and editor of Sociometry and the Annual Review of Sociology. He was the recipient of both a Fulbright grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
