The Dawn of Collective Behavior Theory and Beyond: The Influence of the Chicago School on Contemporary Research

The idea that research cannot be carried out without a conceptual framework of reference and a systematic classification of the social phenomenon to be studied clearly emerges from the first sentences of Chapter XIII of Introduction to the Science of Sociology on Collective Behavior. From its opening words, which highlight: “A collection of individuals is not always, and by the mere fact of its collectivity, a society,” the need is clearly stated for the conceptualization and classification of the object of investigation in operational terms in order to treat collective behavior as a problem, thus focusing on a systematic analysis of it. The theme of collective behavior is central to Park’s theory, in which sociology, defined as the “science of collective behavior,” represents the point of view and the method that investigates the cooperation processes of individuals who form a society. There are two key points: the fundamental equivalence of the concepts of society and collective behavior, and the identification of the social process as a mechanism for the functioning of the forms of collective behavior; these two points are sometimes in direct opposition. Park’s theory gives driving force and foundation to further contributions on collective behavior and social movements anticipating, albeit at an embryonic level, subsequent systematizations also of the contemporary era, but above all it counters a hypostatized conceptualization of collective action that this contribution aims to analyze in parallel.