Social Order and Practical Wisdom of Walking in a Crowd
How to Cite
Korbut A.M. Social Order and Practical Wisdom of Walking in a Crowd. Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal = Sociological Journal. 2018. Vol. 24. No. 4. P. 8-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2018.24.4.6095 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The article suggests returning to the “crowd” as an object of sociological analysis. Crowds have attracted early sociologists because crowds were visual embodiments of social forces that surpass individuals and also served as a symbol of the profound social transformations which were taking place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Analyzing crowds allowed for the first sociologists (G. Simmel, R. Park, M. Weber, E. Durkheim) to oppose the psychological interpretation of mass social phenomena with a purely sociological approach. However, in the second half of the 20th century sociologists had lost almost all interest in the crowd, as it did not meet the interests of researchers of “large” social structures, nor the interests of the proponents of interactionist approaches. This article shows that the crowd can again be made interesting for sociology if we were to consider it from the point of view of the everyday practices of the participants. In these everyday practices a specific form of phronesis, i.e. practical wisdom, technical skill coupled with moral judgment about which action is good and which is not, is implemented. It is shown here that the study of the practical wisdom of walking in a crowd requires special concepts and methods that can be found in phenomenology and ethnomethodology. The article suggests using three such concepts for the analysis of crowds: phenomenal field, oriented object, and figuration of details. With the help of these concepts, the methods of the crowd’s situated social order production are analyzed in relation to the management of speed and trajectories of movement, following one another, walkers’ stopping and slowing down, and joining the crowd. This analysis shows that the joint production of the crowd’s social order by its participants is a situated practice, i.e. it consists of making the local scenes of everyday life familiar and accountable, and of assessing the local adequacy of the actions performed.
Keywords:
crowd, social order, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, everyday life, phronesis, practical wisdom, social practices, subway
References
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Park R.E. The Crowd and the Public. The Crowd and the Public and Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. P. 1–81.
Phronesis as Professional Knowledge: Practical Wisdom in the Professions. Ed. by E.A. Kinsella, A. Pitman. Rotter-dam: Sense, 2012. 177 p.
Sandine A. The Taming of the American Crowd: From Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees. N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 2009. 272 p.
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Wright S. Crowds and Riots: A Study in Social Organization. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1978. 207 p.
Bourdieu P. Practical Sense. [Russ. ed.: Prakticheskii smysl. Transl. from French by A.T. Bikbov, K.D. Voznesenskaya, S.N. Zenkin, N.A. Shmatko; Ed. by N.A. Shmatko. St Petersburg: Aleteiya publ., 2001. 563 p.] (In Russ.)
Weber M. Economy and Society. Vol. 1: Sociology. [Russ. ed.: Khozyaistvo i obshchestvo. T. 1: Sotsiologiya. Ed. by L.G. Ionin. Moscow: Izd. dom Vysshei shkoly ekonomiki publ., 2016. 446 p.] (In Russ.)
Husserl E. Logical Investigations. Vol. II (1). [Russ. ed.: Logicheskie issledovaniya. Vol. II (1). Transl. from Germ. by V.I. Molchanov. Moscow: Gnozis, Dom intellektual'noi knigi publ., 2001. 472 p.] (In Russ.)
Gusserl' E. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy. First Book. [Russ. ed.: Idei k chistoi fenomenologii i fenomenologicheskoi filosofii. Kniga pervaya. Transl. from Germ. by A.V. Mikhailov. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt publ., 2009. 490 p.] (In Russ.)
Zimmel G. The Metropolis and Mental Life. Transl. from Germ. by A. Krichevskii. Logos. 2002. No. 3. P. 1–12. (In Russ.)
Lebon G. Psychology of Crowds. Transl. from French by A. Fridman, E. Pimenova. Psychology of Crowds. [Russ. ed.: Psikhologiya tolp. Select. by A.K. Bokovikov. Moscow: KSP+ publ., 1998. P. 13–254.] (In Russ.)
Merlo-Ponti M. The Phenomenology of Perception. [Russ. ed.: Fenomenologiya vospriyatiya. Ed. by I.S. Vdovina, S.L. Fokin. St Petersburg: Yuventa; Nauka, publ., 1999. 608 p.] (In Russ.)
Mikhailovskii N.K. Heroes and the Crowd. Geroi i tolpa: izbrannye trudy po sotsiologii v 2-kh t. Vol. 2. [Heroes and the Crowd: Selected Works in Sociology. Vol. 2.] St Petersburg: Aleteiya publ., 1998. P. 5–92. (In Russ.)
Moskovichi S. The Age of the Crowd: A Historical Treatise on Mass Psychology. [Russ. ed: Vek tolp: istoricheskii traktat po psikhologii mass. Transl. from French. T.P. Emel'yanova. Moscow: KSP+ publ., 1998. 480 p.] (In Russ.)
Reinhold G. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. [Russ. ed.: Umnaya tolpa: novaya sotsial'naya revolyutsiya. Transl. from Eng. by A. Gar'kavyi. Moscow: FAIR-PRESS publ., 2000. 515 p.] (In Russ.)
Sigele S. The Criminal Crowd: An Essay in Collective Psychology. Transl. from French by A.P. Afanas'ev. The Criminal Crowd. [Russ. ed.: Prestupnaya tolpa. Select. by A.K. Bokovikov. Moscow: KSP+ publ., 1999. P. 13–199.] (In Russ.)
Tarde G. Opinion and the Crowd. Ed. by P.S. Kogan. Psychology of Crowds. [Russ. ed.: Psikhologiya tolp. Psychology of Crowds. Select. by A. K. Bokovikov. Moscow: KSP+ publ., 1998. P. 255–408.] (In Russ.)
Tönnies F. Community and Civil Society: Fundamental Concepts in Pure Sociology. [Russ. ed.: Obshchnost' i ob-shchestvo: osnovnye ponyatiya chistoi sotsiologii. Transl. from Germ. by. D.V. Sklyadnev. St Petersburg: Vladimir Dal' publ., 2002. 452 p.] (In Russ.)
Borch Ch. The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology. N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 338 p. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511842160
Collins R. Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. 563 p.
Crowds. Ed. by J.Th. Schnapp, M. Tiews. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. 439 p.
Drury J., Stott C.J.T. Crowds in the 21st Century: Perspectives from Contemporary Social Science. N.Y.: Routledge, 2013. 196 p.
Dunne J. Back to the Rough Ground: Practical Judgment and the Lure of Technique. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. 492 p.
Easley D., Kleinberg J. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World. N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 727 p. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511761942
Flyvbjerg B. Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again. Oxford: Cam-bridge University Press, 2001. 204 p. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511810503
Garfinkel H. Ethnomethodology’s Program: Working Out Durkheim’s Aphorism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. 299 p.
Garfinkel H. Lebenswelt Origins of the Sciences: Working out Durkheim’s Aphorism — Book Two: Workplace and Documentary Diversity of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Sciences by Ethnomethodology’s Authors: What Did We Do? What Did We Learn? Human Studies. 2007. Vol. 30. No. 1. P. 9–56. DOI: 10.1007/s10746-007-9046-9
Goffman E. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. N.Y.: Basic Books, 1971. 396 p.
Helbing D., Buzna L., Johansson A., Werner T. Self-Organized Pedestrian Crowd Dynamics: Experiments, Simulations, and Design Solutions. Transportation Science. 2005. Vol. 39. No. 1. P. 1–24. DOI: 10.1287/trsc.1040.0108
Hughes H. Crowd and Mass Behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1972. 227 p.
Lofland L.H. The Public Realm: Quintessential City Life. N.Y.: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. 305 p.
Lynch M. Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of Science. N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 333 p.
McPhail C. The Myth of the Madding Crowd. N.Y.: de Gruyter, 1991. 265 p.
McPhail C. The Crowd and Collective Behavior: Bringing Symbolic Interaction Back In. Symbolic Interaction. 2006. Vol. 29. No. 4. P. 433–464. DOI: 10.1525/si.2006.29.4.433
McPhail C., Wohlstein R.T. Individual and Collective Behaviors within Gatherings, Demonstrations, and Riots. Annual Review of Sociology. 1983. Vol. 9. P. 579–600. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.so.09.080183.003051
McPhail C., Wohlstein R.T. Collective Locomotion as Collective Behavior. American Sociological Review. 1986. Vol. 51. No. 4. P. 447–463. DOI: 10.2307/2095580
Park R.E. The Crowd and the Public. The Crowd and the Public and Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. P. 1–81.
Phronesis as Professional Knowledge: Practical Wisdom in the Professions. Ed. by E.A. Kinsella, A. Pitman. Rotter-dam: Sense, 2012. 177 p.
Sandine A. The Taming of the American Crowd: From Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees. N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 2009. 272 p.
Schweingruber D.S., McPhail C. A Method for Systematically Observing and Recording Collective Action. Sociological Methods and Research. 1999. Vol. 27. No. 4. P. 451–498. DOI: 10.1177/0049124199027004001
Simmel G. Fundamental Problems of Sociology (Individual and Society). The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Ed. by K.H. Wolff. N.Y.: Free Press, 1950. P. 1–84.
Torres E.C. Durkheim’s Concealed Sociology of the Crowd. Durkheimian Studies. 2014. Vol. 20. P. 89–114.
Wright S. Crowds and Riots: A Study in Social Organization. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1978. 207 p.
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[1]
Korbut, A.M. 2018. Social Order and Practical Wisdom of Walking in a Crowd. Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal = Sociological Journal. 24, 4 (Dec. 2018), 8-29. DOI:https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2018.24.4.6095.
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THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
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