Lumen Learning

As you learned in this module, people come together for a variety of reasons. Sometimes a crowd is just an aggregate of people who happen to be doing the same thing, like waiting for a bus or shopping at the mall. Although these people may be in the same place at the same time, they are not pursuing any collective agenda. Some people are brought together for certain events like concerts, weddings or funerals. Some crowds come together to further an agenda and may attempt to create or resist social change.

As you saw in the examples in this module, the type of collective action can vary but they often come about because the people involved do not feel that they will be listened to without taking some action for their cause. They may believe that appropriate change cannot come through any other venue than their collective action.