York University
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies
AP/SOCI 3110A Collective Behaviour
Fall 2016

Lecture Schedule and Readings:

The Field of Collective Behaviour (pdf)
Capitalist Resistance to the Organization of Labor Before the New Deal (pdf)
Relative Deprivation and Social Movements (pdf)

Week One (Sept 8 ):  Defining Collective Behaviour

Readings:    E. Durkheim,  Collective Conscience see   A. Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory    and E. Durheim,  The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Curtis and Aguirre, Part One Article 2

Suggested:  Perry and Pugh, Chapter 1.
Bash, Harry. Social Problems and Social Movements Chapter One

Class Question:  What are some examples from everyday life that might be classified as collective behaviour or social movements?

Week Two (Sept 15):   The Influence of the Collective upon the Individual

Readings:    B.H Raven and J.Z Ruben, Social Psychology 2nd edition (John Riley and Sons: Toronto)

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter 3
Bash, Chapter Two

Class Question: Is there such a thing as ‘Group mind” or is this merely academic speculation?

Week  Three (Sept 22):   The Field of Collective Behaviour

Readings: Curtis and Aguirre,  Part One, Article 1

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter 2
Bash Chapter 4

Class Question: How does ethnomethodology help us to understand collective behaviour?

Week Four (Sept 29):  Collective Behaviour as Research

Readings:  Curtis and Aguirre: Part One Articles 4, 5, 6, 7

Suggested:  Perry and Pugh, Chapters 4, 5, 6.
Bash Chapter 3

Class Question: How can we classify research into collective behaviour in terms of structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism and post-modernism?

Week Five (Oct 6):   Precipitation:  Capitalism and Politics

Readings:  Curtis and Aguirre  Articles 8, 9
Donald Warren, “Depression Era.  Fascism and Nazism in the United States and Canada: Threat to Democracy or Theatre of the Absurd?”   (on reserve) in S. Larsen ed. Fascism Outside Europe (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001)

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter VII, Chapter X.
XX(1962234.1)
Sociology for changing the world : social movements/social research / edited by Caelie Frampton ... [et al.]Frampton, Caelie.

Class Question: How can the precipitating social conditions (political, economic or otherwise) be utilized as barometers for predicting collective behaviour or the beginnings of a social movement?

Week Six (Oct 13):  Precipitation: Fear and Panic

Readings:   Curtis and Aguirre  Articles 10, 13
Joe Ambrose, The Violent World of Moshpit Culture (Omnibus Press, 2001)

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter VII
Bash Chapter 2

Class Question: What is the nature of moshpits?  Do they tell us anything about collective behaviour and social movements?

Week Seven (Oct 20):  Early Mobilization

Readings:  Curtis and Aguirre  Part Three (*exclude article 14)
 Bill Murray, “Sectarianism, Sport, and Society in Scotland”  in The Old Firm (London: John Donald Publishers, 1984)

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter VI
Bash Chapter 5

Class Question: Are soccer riots merely random events or is there a pattern that might be an indicator of the beginning of a social movement?

Week Eight (Nov 3):   The Organizational Arrangement of Collective Behaviour and Social Movements

Readings:  T.G. Fraser, The Irish Parading Tradition
McCauley, “Nativism and Social Closure”   (on reserve)
Choose Three Case Studies from Curtis and Aguirre, Part Four
Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter XI Chapter VII.
Bash Chapter 8

What is the nature of gangs?   Are they the beginnings of social movements?

Week Nine (Nov 10): Movement Environments and Responses

Readings: Curtis and Aguirre, Part Five

Class Question: How does the state and `the upstanding citizen’ deal with upheaval?

Week Ten (Nov 17):  Outcomes/ Future Research Collective Behaviour and Social Movements

Readings: Curtis and Aguirre, Part Six

Suggested: Perry and Pugh, Chapter IX, Chapter XII.
Bash Chapter 7

Class Question: What are some of the coping strategies utilized to deal with rapid social change?

November 24th FINAL EXAM IN CLASS