The authors provide a set of criteria and procedures for systematically observing and recording collective action across temporary gatherings such as political demonstrations. Their method uses trained observers, distributed across a gathering, who complete a code sheet during time interval samples. The code sheet allows observers to record the extent of participation in 40 or more elementary forms of collective action by members of six actor categories. These elementary forms were inductively generated from extensive prior observations of temporary gatherings. The data collected provide a rich record of collective action across space and time. The method can be used to investigate a number of problems facing students of collective action and social movements.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aveni, Adrian
. 1977. “The Not So Lonely Crowd: Friendship Groups in Collective Behavior.”Sociometry40:96-99.
2.
Berk, Richard
. 1972. “The Controversy Surrounding Analysis of Collective Violence: Some Methodological Notes.” Pp. 112-118 in Collective Violence, edited by J. Short and M. Wolfgang. Chicago: Aldine.
3.
Berk, Richard
. 1974. “A Gaming Approach to Crowd Behavior.”American Sociological Review39:355-373.
4.
Blumer, Herbert
. 1957. “Collective Behavior.” Pp. 127-158 in Review of Sociology: Analysis of a Decade, edited by J. Gittler. New York: John Wiley.
5.
Bolton, Charles D.1962. “For the Strengthening of Collective Behavior Research.”American Sociological Review27:903-905.
6.
Clelland, Donald
, Thomas Hood, C. M. Lipsey, and Ronald Wimberly. 1974. “In the Company of the Converted: Characteristics of a Billy Graham Crusade Audience.”Sociological Analysis86:984-1014.
7.
della Porta, Donatella
and Sidney Tarrow. 1986. “Unwanted Children: Political Violence and the Cycle of Protest in Italy: 1966-1973.”European Journal of Political Research14:607-632.
8.
Edgerton, Robert B.
1979. Alone Together: Social Order on an Urban Beach. University of California Press.
9.
Eisinger, Peter
. 1973. “The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities.”American Political Science Review67:11-28.
10.
Everett, Kevin
. 1992. “Professionalization and Protest: Changes in the Social Movement Sector, 1961-1983.”Social Forces70:957-976.
11.
Fisher, Charles D.
1972. “Observing a Crowd: The Structure and Description of Protest Demonstrations.” Pp. 187-211 in Research on Deviance, edited by Jack Douglas. New York: Random House.
12.
Gurr, Ted R.1968. “A Causal Model of Civil Strife: A Comparative Analysis Using New Indices.”American Political Science Review62:1104-1124.
13.
Heirich, Max
. 1971. The Spiral of Conflict: Berkeley, 1964. New York: Columbia University Press.
14.
Jenkins, Craig
and Charles Perrow. 1977. “Insurgency of the Powerless: Farm Worker Movements (1946-1972).”American Sociological Review42:249-268.
15.
Koopmans, Ruud
. 1993. “Dynamics of Protest Waves: Germany, 1965 to 1989.”American Sociological Review58:637-658.
16.
Kriesi, Hanspieter
, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Dyvendak, and Marco G. Guigni. 1995. New Social Movements in Western Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
17.
Lang, Kurt
and Gladys Engel Lang. 1953. “The Unique Perspective of Television and Its Effect: A Pilot Study.”American Sociological Review18:3-12.
18.
Lin, Nan
. 1975. “The McIntire March: A Study of Recruitment and Commitment.”Public Opinion Quarterly38:562-573.
19.
Lofland, John
. 1985. Protest: Studies of Collective Behavior and Social Movements. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
20.
Lofland, John
and John Fink. 1982. Symbolic Sit-Ins: Protest Occupations at the California Capitol. New York: University Press of America.
21.
MacCannell, Dean
. 1973. Nonviolent Action as Theater. Nonviolent Action Research Project Monograph Series No. 10. Haverford, PA: Haverford College for the Century of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution.
22.
McAdam, Doug
. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23.
McCarthy, John
, Clark McPhail, and Jackie Smith. 1996. “Images of Protest: Dimensions of Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Washington Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991.”American Sociological Review61:478-499.
24.
McCarthy, John
, Clark McPhail, Jackie Smith, and Louis Crishock. 1998. “Electronic and Print Media Representations of Washington, D.C. Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991: A Demography of Description Bias.” Pp. 113-130 in Acts of Dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest, edited by D. Rucht, R. Koopmans, and F. Neidhardt. Berlin: Sigma.
25.
McPhail, Clark
. 1969. “Training for Collective Behavior Sequence Recording.” NIMH Grant #16696-01, Bethesda, MD.
26.
McPhail, Clark
. 1972. “Theoretical and Methodological Strategies for the Study of Individual and Collective Behavior Sequences.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August, New Orleans, LA.
27.
McPhail, Clark
. 1991. The Myth of the Madding Crowd. New York: Aldine.
28.
McPhail, Clark
. 1994. “From Clusters to Arcs and Rings: Elementary Forms of Sociation in Temporary Gatherings.” Pp. 35-57 in The Community of the Streets, edited by S. Cahill and L. Lofland. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
29.
McPhail, Clark
and David Miller. 1973. “The Assembling Process: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination.”American Sociological Review38:721-735.
30.
McPhail, Clark
and Robert Pickens. 1975. “The Explananda of Collective Behavior.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August, Denver, CO.
31.
McPhail, Clark
, David Schweingruber, and Nancy Berns. 1997. Collective Action Observation Primer. Urbana: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
32.
Morris, Desmond
. 1985. Body Watching. London: Equinox.
33.
Olzak, Susan
. 1992. The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
34.
Pickens, Robert G. 1975. “The Explananda of Collective Behavior.” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
35.
Quarantelli, E.
and J. Hundley. 1969. “A Test of Some Propositions About Crowd Formation and Behavior.” Pp. 538-554 in Readings in Collective Behavior, edited by Robert Evans. Chicago: Rand-McNally.
36.
Rucht, Dieter
. 1990. “Campaigns, Skirmishes and Battles: Anti-Nuclear Movements in the USA, France and West Germany.”Industrial Crisis Quarterly4:193-222.
37.
Seidler, John
, Katherine Meyer, and Lois MacGillivray. 1977. “Collecting Data on Crowds and Rallies: A New Method of Stationary Sampling.”Social Forces55:507-518.
38.
Shorter, Edward
and Charles Tilly. 1974. Strikes in France, 1830-1968. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Smith, Michael
. 1983. Violence and Sport. Toronto: Butterworth.
40.
Strauss, Anselm
. 1947. “Research in Collective Behavior: Neglect and Need.”American Sociological Review12:352-354.
41.
Tarrow, Sidney
. 1989. Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy, 1965-1975. New York: Oxford University Press.
42.
Tilly, Charles
. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
43.
Tilly, Charles
. 1979. “Repertoires of Contention in America and Britain: 1750-1820.” Pp. 126-155 in The Dynamics of Social Movements, edited by M. Zald and J. McCarthy. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
44.
Tilly, Charles
. 1986. The Contentious French. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
45.
Tilly, Charles
. 1994. “Social Movements as Historically Specific Clusters of Performances.”Berkeley Journal of Sociology38:1-30.
46.
Tilly, Charles
. 1995. Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
Tilly, Charles
, Louise Tilly, and Richard Tilly. 1975. The Rebellious Century: 1830-1930. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
48.
Turner, Ralph H.1958. “Needed Research in Collective Behavior.”Sociology and Social Research42:461-465.
49.
Turner, Ralph H.
1964. “Collective Behavior.” Pp. 382-425 in Handbook of Modern Sociology, edited by R.E.L. Faris. Chicago: Rand-McNally.
50.
Wallace, Walter
. 1969. Sociological Theory. Chicago: Aldine.
51.
Wohlstein, Ronald T. 1977a. “The Theoretical and Methodological Specification and Description of Collective Locomotion.” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
52.
Wohlstein, Ronald T.1977b. “Filming Collective Behavior and the Problem of Foreshortened Perspective: A Corrective Method.”Studies in Visual Communication4:81-85.
53.
Wohlstein, Ronald T.
and Clark McPhail. 1979. “Judging the Presence and Extent of Collective Behavior From Film Records.”Social Psychology Quarterly42:76-81.
54.
Wright, Sam
. 1978. Crowds and Riots: A Study in Social Organization. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
