Mass action (sociology)

For other uses, see Mass action (disambiguation).

Mass action in sociology refers to the situations where a large number of people behave simultaneously in a similar way but individually and without coordination.

For example, at any given moment, many thousands of people are shopping - without any coordination between themselves, they are nonetheless performing the same mass action. Another, more complicated example would be one based on a work of 19th century German sociologist Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Weber wrote that capitalism evolved when the Protestant ethic influenced large number of people to create their own enterprises and engage in trade and gathering of wealth. In other words, the Protestant ethic was a force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that led to the development of capitalism.

A bank run is mass action with sweeping implications. Upon hearing news of a bank's anticipated insolvency, hundreds or thousands of bank depositors simultaneously rush down to a bank branch to withdraw their deposits, and protect their savings.^{[citation needed]}

More developed forms of mass actions are group behavior and group action.

Epidemiology meaning

In epidemiological (disease) models, assuming the "law of mass action" means assuming that individuals are homogeneously mixed and every individual is about as likely to interact with every other individual. This is a common assumption in models such as the SIR model.

Popular Culture

This idea serves as the main plot theme in author Isaac Asimov's work, Foundation. The main character, Hari Seldon, uses mass action to foresee the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. With this, he hopes to reduce that dark age to only one thousand years by creating an Encyclopedia to retain all current knowledge.

See also

• Social action
• Collective behavior
• Collective effervescence

This sociology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Sociological terms Sociology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? Revulsion TR-1 Temp Look at other dictionaries: Mass action — may refer to: Law of mass action, in chemistry, a postulate of reactions Mass action law (electronics), in semiconductor electronics, a relationship between intrinsic and doped carrier concentrations Mass action (sociology), in sociology, a term… …   Wikipedia mass action — noun (neurology) the principle that the cortex of the brain operates as a coordinated system with large masses of neural tissue involved in all complex functioning • Syn: ↑mass action principle • Topics: ↑neurology • Hypernyms: ↑principle, ↑rule …   Useful english dictionary Group action (sociology) — In sociology, group action is the situation in which a large number of people in a given area behave simultaneously in a similar way in order to achieve a common goal; their actions are usually coordinated.Group action will likely take place when …   Wikipedia sociology — sociologist, n. /soh see ol euh jee, soh shee /, n. the science or study of the origin, development, organization, and functioning of human society; the science of the fundamental laws of social relations, institutions, etc. [1835 45; < F… …   Universalium Mass society — Sociology …   Wikipedia Sociology of law — refers to both a sub discipline of sociology and an approach within the field of legal studies. Sociology of law is a diverse field of study which examines the interaction of law with other aspects of society, such as the effect of legal… …   Wikipedia Sociology of Religion (book) — Sociology of Religion is a 1920 book by Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist. The original edition was in German.Max Weber, unlike Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, studied the effects of religious action and inaction. Instead of viewing… …   Wikipedia Mass mobilization — Part of the Politics series Politics List of political topics Politics by country …   Wikipedia Sociology of emotions — Emotions are on one hand constitutive of, embedded in, and on the other hand manipulated or instrumentalized by entities that are studied by sociology on a micro level, such as social roles and norms and feeling rules the everyday social… …   Wikipedia List of sociology topics — This is a list of topics covered in sociology. This is a shorter list: List of basic sociology topics. NOTOC A absolute poverty achieved status acid rain acute disease adaptation Adultism affect control theory affirmative action affluent… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”