Talk:Collective behavior

collective behavior in artificial agents / robotics

The current article is concentrated on human collective behaviour. Apart from not being the only animals which show collective behaviour, there is also a big area of research in artificial intelligence. This is not present in the current version of the article. It would be interesting to have a mention of these other areas.

This comment ignores the definition of collective behavior presented in the article, which is also the meaning of the term among sociologists generally. Blumer did write that crowd behavior involves "milling," a physical process which occurs among stampeding cattle and other animal species. Apart from this, collective behavior, like conformity and deviance, presupposes language; since other species do not possess language, they do not engage in collective behavior.

Artificial intelligence, so far as I am aware, has no relation to collective behavior as it is defined in the article.

Collective behaviour is also known in Animal Behaviour, e.g. in apparently co-ordinated shoals of fish and flocks of starlings. I propose a section on Collective behaviours in other areas of research be added, such as the afore mentioned robotics, not just 'sociology'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wheezybabs (talk • contribs) 18:32, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

"Collective behavior" and "collective action"

What's the difference between Collective behavior and Collective action? This should be clearly explained, or the articlesjkowqejfowfqlmlmfwjqeofjwejjfojewofjowejfoewjfoweofjowejfooewfjojoepwf8437878tyfdihfkkdhfkdhfklhfkdhsfhkdhdhfdhdfhklfdhkdflkhdfhdfhdfshdfhdfshdhkldfhfawhjioefhdnhi34y8fy8ieiodhvrkbhrbvhshlijh may need to be merged.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 22:36, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Collective behavior, in the sense of what's written in the wiki, appears to have to do with emergent norms in a collective, such as that of a crowd. On the other hand, collective action (again in terms of its wiki) seems to have to do with economic actors who are cooperating in order to achieve market goals. I won't try to justify the use of vague language to label both wikis, except to say that a description of a "behavior" leaves more open to emphasize the causes of said behaviors, and does not seem to presume agency and volition; while a description of an "action" lends more emphasis to the possibility of the effects of some behavior, and presupposes some notion of (rational) agency; and if so, then both lend themselves to the way they're being used in each respective wiki. But maybe that's just me. Lucidish 00:49, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation, Lucidish. Do you know if the usage of those terms on wiki corresponds to their usage in the academic literature?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 02:39, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid my competence is limited to sociology and social psychology, not economics. I would not at all be surprised that these near-synonymous terms are being in somewhat divergent ways; sociologists don't seem to like to talk to economists, and vice-versa. But my sociology text (Introduction to Sociology: A Canadian Focus) does have a listing for both terms.

• Collective behavior: "activity in which a large number of people reject and/or do not conform to conventional ways of acting. Behavior of this kind is often described as less "institutionalized" than ordinary behavior." More or less what the wiki says.
• Collective action: "the pursuit of goals by more than one person. As an explanation of social movements, this perspective looks at integration and cleavage factors and seeks to explain what is dissimilar about collective action at different times and in different places". This seems compatible, though different, from the present wiki. But I don't think that's a difference in underlying meaning, but a difference in usage relative to disciplines. Nevertheless, the sociological use doesn't seem to make an appearance in the present wiki. That may be a problem. Lucidish 03:15, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

In that case I think it would be beneficial to add the sociological definitions to the articles. I wonder if we would need to split them into 'usage in economics'/'usage in sociology' sections - they don't seem to be so diverse.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 17:47, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Done Lucidish 23:31, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

"punctuated by the gestures of the all-American athlete he had been--"?

Blumer has expressed this view in a very small number of essays. His teaching, in which he expressed very few ideas in a very slow way, were punctuated by the gestures of the all-American athlete which he had been. He continued acting this way over a number of decades.

What on Earth does that mean? Please clarify or take it out! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.203.221.36 (talk) 01:18, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

The comments refer to Blumer's distinctive lecture style, as his students at Chicago and Berkeley could attest. But you are right: It would be obscure to many readers, and I have changed it.

The section on Theories to Explain Crowd Behavior is partly out of date, and the rest of it should be incorporated into the section above on The Crowd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.245.247.201 (talk) 04:50, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

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