Crowd

Category: Fields of research

Crowd refers to a gathering of a large number of individuals at the same place and time. Examples of crowds are: demonstrations and riots, celebrations, political rallies, masses of sports fans at games and matches, large religious gatherings for sacred events, etc. Crowds can be divided into those that are organized and planned and those that are unorganized and unplanned (e.g. long lines of people who are waiting for something). Gustave Le Bon, in his The Crowd (1895 ), argued that non-rational behavior dominates in all crowds and that it is the product of collective consciousness. He saw modern industrial society as an “era of crowds.”

David Riesman is best known for his book A Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (1950), co-authored with Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney. Social character is a psychological feature that is common to all members of society and is a consequence of living in similar social and material circumstances. Riesman's conception of the social character was greatly influenced by the social psychology of Erich Fromm. Social character is the basis for adapting individuals to society and each other. Riesman concluded that throughout history, three different social characters have developed: 1) „tradition directed“, 2) „inner directed“ and 3) „other directed“. With the stabilization of population growth and the beginning of the bureaucratization of work, came the emergence of the other-directed social character, which first developed among members of the "new middle class" of bureaucrats and professionals. This character adapts to the attitudes and behavior of other people, and the goal is to be conformist and live in harmony with others. This kind of person is very socialized but is not stable, because it changes following the changes in social trends. Riesman believes that an other-directed person is, in fact, a lonely person who strives to overcome loneliness by joining a group and adopting a group mentality. However, this person cannot overcome the loneliness within the crowd, because he did not build his autonomy.

References:

Fromm. Escape from Freedom (1941);

Gramsci. The Concept of ‘Hegemony’ (2014);

Hobson. Imperialism: A Study (1902);

Horkheimer. Dialectics of the Enlightenment (1972, in German 1947),

Marcuse. One-Dimensional Man (1964);

Michels. Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy (2016, in Italian 1911);

Mosca. The Ruling Class (2018, in Italian 1896, 1923);

Ortega y Gasset. The Revolt of the Masses (1994, in Spanish 1929);

Pareto. The Mind and Society (1935, in Italian 1916);

Riesman. A Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (1950);

Spengler. The Decline of the West (2021, in German 1918, 1922);