Blumer: Collective Bahvior

This week, I have decided to investigate Blumer's theories on collective behavior. 

The idea of collective behavior was established by Robert E Park and was further developed by Talcott Parsons and Herbert Blumer. It is used to refer to social events and processes that do not reflect existing social structures such as institutions or laws and to organize crowd behavior. Collective behavior arises spontaneously and is neither conforming nor deviant. It takes place when norms are irrelevant, unclear or conflicting of each other (McPhail 1991; Eyerman, Jamison 1991).

Blumer sees social actors as being passive, where social forces control them. He also thinks that the majority of routine collective behavior is due to the fact that "people have common understandings and expectations". An actor responds to another actor's behavior based on the interpretation that they have made from that behavior, rather than to the actual behavior itself. The disruption of routine causes individual actors to develop new impulses that the existing social order cannot have capacity for. This encourages erratic and uncoordinated behavior, which Blumer refers to as “restlessness” (McPhail 1991).

Blumer’s perspective was that collective behavior encourages social creativity within forms of symbolic interaction that allow for the breaking down of customary, institutionalized behavior. It develops in five steps, according to Blumer.

·      An exciting event occurs.

o   It draws people’s attention

o  While being preoccupied by the event, people let go of the control that they have over their reaction to the event

·      Milling behavior

o   People stand or walk around, talking about the event

o   People respond to and reproduce other’s behaviors

·      Emergence of a Common Object

o   People experience a collective excitement in reaction to the event

·      Foster of Common Impulses

o   This collective excitement continues

o   Social contagion occurs whereby people mimic other’s behavior in response to the event

·      Elementary collective behavior

As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, I am currently studying abroad in the US. So, whilst trying to study, I am also trying to see as much of the country as possible and experience different cultural events. Obviously, as Thanksgiving was recently, it was only natural for me to go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade gave me a really good insight into American Culture, as we do not celebrate Thanksgiving at home. It also provided me with an insight into society in general. Collectively, people gather along the streets of New York City, hours before the parade starts and stand together, while they wait. This is not something that I would classify as being a normal thing for people to do. Leaving the comfort of your homes, in the early hours of a Fall morning, to stand along a street for what can sometimes be hours, waiting for a parade to start, then spending another two hours standing around, watching the parade. Personally, I see this behavior as being somewhat collective in the way that it does not occur often and the actions and behaviors that are carried out, whilst at this kind of event, is most likely to be spontaneous and neither conforming nor deviant.

In regards to Blumer's five steps:

-       Exciting event

o   Thanksgiving Day Parade

-       Milling behavior

o   People all gather to wait and watch the parade

o   People respond similarly to other crowd member’s behavior

    - Sitting on sidewalks

    - Going for coffee breaks

    - Starting conversations and sing-alongs with the people around them

-       Common Object

o   Whilst the parade is happening, people’s collective excitement over the event starts

-       Common Impulses

o   This collective excitement continues

o   People in the crowd start to mimic other crowd member’s behavior that is in response to the parade

-       Elementary Collective Behavior

o   Collective behavior is achieved

Parades are not the only example of people participating in this form of collective behavior. Sporting events and concerts are also good examples of times that people behave collectively. Although this kind of collective behavior occurs regularly, I still think that it really exemplifies the idea that Blumer had – of spontaneity and non-comforting or deviance, through the way that the behavior that people show in these situations are not of the norm.