The Dynamic Context of Transformations through Crowds and Collective Action

Vestergren, Sara; Acar, Yasemin Gulsum

Abstract

Historically, social psychologists have conceptualized the crowd and its members as mindless and irrational. More recent research has emphasized the crowd as an agentic space that offers both emergence and endurance of psychological transformations, as related to social identity. Using a social identity approach, models have taken the social context (inter- and intragroup interaction) into account to explain transformations through crowd participation. We argue for the need to include wider contextual dimensions (including physical, political, and economic) to understand crowd participation and transformative dynamics through collective action across geographical, ideological, and state contexts.

Citation

Vestergren, S., & Acar, Y. G. (2023). The Dynamic Context of Transformations through Crowds and Collective Action. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 90(2), 271-292. https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2023.a901705

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2023
• Publication Date: Jul 12, 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 25, 2023
• Journal: SOCIAL RESEARCH
• Print ISSN: 0037-783X
• Electronic ISSN: 1944-768X
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 90
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 271-292
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2023.a901705