engaging in public sociology

Context: In this final essay, continue to apply your developing sociological imagination to considerations of issues of social justice American society is grappling with today. For this closing essay, you may use the issues you addressed in your previous essays or select another social issue you consider important.

Ferris & Stein (2020) offer several theories of social change sociologists use to explain causes and effects of social movements. Describe one social movement that has occurred anywhere in the world that you feel contributed to meaningful social change in a society. Place this social movement in historical and cultural context and explain which theory or theories would be useful in describing the social phenomenon.

Required reading preparation: Ferris & Stein (2020) chapter 16. Recommended: Ferris & Stein (2020), resources on Moodle.

Format: Typewritten, double-spaced, checked for grammar and spelling. Use APA format for in-text citations and reference page. A separate title page is required.

Chapter 16
Ferris and Stein
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Gustave Le Bon (1896) was one of the first social theorists to focus on the phenomenon of crowd behavior and what he calle Popular mind. He coined the term contagion theory, which suggests that when people come together, they get swept up in a crowd, which develops a mob mentality. Le Bon likened such groups to herd the animals, where individuality and rational thought disappear and the external stimulus of the collective action takes over. So, in the case of rampaging soccer hooligans, contagion theory would argue that these fans have given their rational thought over to a mob impulse and can no longer make independent decisions about their actions.

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.Emergent Norm Theory (Turner and Killian 1087) argues that collective behavior is not as uniform as Le Bon suggested, and that any number of factors can motivate people to participate in crowd activities. The underlying assumption here is that a group is guided by norms ( shared cultural expectations for behavior ) that emerge in interaction as the group responds to a situation and, as a result, the behavior of those in the crowd develops into collective action. An example of emergent norm theory in action is the recent ALS Ice bucket Challenge, where people posted online videos in which they poured a bucket of ice on their heads and challenged other to do the same as fundraising ploy for medical research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
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Floatopia began as a social gathering mostly for college students attending the University of California, Santa Barbara and quickly grew into a popular annual event. The idea wa s for partygoers to bring rafts and othe flotation devices to adjacent beaches for a day(and night) of fun. By 2011 the event was attracting over 10,000 people (thanks to facebook), a number that overwhelmed the scarce facilities, leaving behind a massive amount of trash and human waste sullying shores. As university officials moved to close the beaches, the event relocated to Del Playa, the bluff-top street above the beach. Deltopia, as the event was renamed, grew even bigger, and in 2014, it erupted in violence when partygoers clashed with police trying to control the scene. Fires broke out, cars were demolished, bottles and bricks became weapons. The ensuing melee led to dozens of injuries (both students and police) and over a hundred arrests (Duke 2014). Such collective action can be characterized as a riot: a group of people engaged in disorderly behavior directed toward other people and/ or property results in disturbing the peace. After the riot in 2014,new strategies for crowd control were put into place. Detopia still ranges, but it is a smaller, more orderly event.
On april 12, 2015 three white police officers in Baltimore pursued and apprehended twenty-five-yera-old Freddie Gray after he reportedly made eye contact with the officer. Finding what they deemed an illegal switchblade knife clipped to Gray’s pants, the officers proceeded to arrest Gray.Using her cell phone, a civilian onlooker captured the arrest on video, which showed officers proceeded to arrest on video, which showed officers dragging gray who was screaming in pain, into a police van. Upon arrival at the police station Gray was already in coma, having suffered a severe spinal injury. He died a week later in a local hospital. When news of Garys death became public, Baltimore residents gathered to protest outside the police station. In the days to followed, the protest escalated; what was initially a demonstration against a specific case of alleged police brutality became an expression of frustration about the citys wider set of social problems, including poverty, racism, crime and years of unaddressed complaints about police abuse of communities of color. Eventually a full-scale riot developed, with looters breaking windows and throwing rocks while police and National Guard troops advanced and a state of emergency was declared. The violence lasted for ten days, finally quieting after Grays funeral was held and a curfew was put in place. Citizens awoke to relative quiet on April 29 and began the work of cleaning up their neighborhoods, while still expressing a desire to see justice done in Fressies Grays case. Supporters in cities such as chicago, New York and Philadelphia also held anti-police brutality demonstrations. On May 1, Grays death was ruled a homicide, and charges were file against the three arresting officers, as well as three more officers (all black) who had participated in transporting Gray in the police van. While none of the officers was ultimately convicted, the case led to important policing reforms: Baltimore police now wear body cameras and their vehicles are equipped with cameras as well.
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The tragedy of commons applies to recent history as well. Our natural resources, such as water, air, fossil fuels, forests, plants and animals, might all be considered similar to a commons. In the case of the U.S. fishing trade, especially, we have seen how, Hardin put it, freedom in a commons brings ruin to all (1968, p1244). for example . Dr Stein remembers living in Santa Barbara in the late 1970 s when local abalones were plentiful. Drivers off the california coast and around Channel islands could make goodliving harvesting these mollusks along rocky shorelines. Any Good seafood restaurant regularly offered abalone steaks on its menu, and a causal beachgoers might find abalone shells strewn along the sand. By 1990, however, abalones had all but disappeared. As each diver reached the same conclusion – that catching as many abalones as possible would increase his own profits – and more divers moved into the same fishing territory, the abalones were no longer able to regenerate their stocks and were eventually depleted to near extinction. A partial solution is now in place with the designation of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, a federally protected area where commercial fishing is prohibited.

References required: Ferris & Stein (2020) textbook, reliable media sources (optional).

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