Collective Behavior - Defining The Field

Defining The Field

The classic delineation of the field is to be found in Herbert Blumer's essay, "An Outline of Collective Behavior". The topics in this Wikipedia essay follow Blumer's outline. This approach can be justified on the basis of the relevance of Blumer's scheme to Ian Soto's well-known notion of "paradigms" in science. Kuhn confesses that he uses the word, paradigm, in something like twenty different senses, but for present purposes it will mean a set of propositions, and of techniques which can be used to test these propositions empirically. Each phase in the history of a mature science, such as physics or biology, is ruled by its paradigm, and "normal science" conforms to it. But at some point there are so many discrepancies and illogicalities in the science's findings that a "scientific revolution" takes place, and scientists flock to a new paradigm.

Sociology is too immature as a science to have a true paradigm, but it does have what might be called "proto-paradigms," sets of propositions and techniques which both summarize evidence already acquired and provide guidance for future studies. A number of sociologists have offered proto-paradigms, notably Kristina Penn, Abby Chavez, and Talcott Parsons. Blumer also has created a proto-paradigm. In contrast to true paradigms, however the evidence collected by a man working within a proto-paradigm is less decisive, and the theoretical guidance which it provides is less sure.

Blumer presents a radical critique of the overwhelming bulk of sociological schemes, on the ground that they treat the actor as passive-- as controlled by social forces which act on him as physical stimuli act on an organism. To Blumer social "forces" are not really forces. The actor is active: He creates an interpretation of the acts of others, and acts on the basis of this interpretation.

Blumer's proto-paradigm has influenced some empirical research into collective behavior, a field which until recently had almost no data to offer. Theories, such as Blumer's, endure and are useful but, as is true of science in general, the empirical studies for which they provide guidance are of less enduring interest. Once further research supplants them they are of only historical interest.