ANR-Lab Seminar “Mass behavior: contemporary conceptualization and research opportunities”

The dissertation examines the conceptualization of mass behavior and analyzes the methodological possibilities of its empirical study. The work is based on the interdisciplinary tradition of mass behavior research, modern theories of the propagation of ideas and behavior, and developments in the field of modeling these processes and the use of non-reactive/behavioral data ("digital traces") in social research. The study highlights the critical stages in developing scientific ideas about mass behavior, describes the context in which modern mass phenomena exist, and develops a refined conceptualization of mass behavior, which includes its definition and theories about its nature and mechanisms. Mass behavior's proposed concept is compared with the images of "collective behavior" and "collective action" and modern ideas used to describe social communities. The paper describes current opportunities for studying mass behavior and suggests a methodological strategy for studying mass behavior in the digital environment. The work ends with assessing specific aspects of the proposed strategy implementation using the example of analyzing participants' behavior in the virus charity campaign Ice Bucket Challenge. 

The language of the seminar is Russian. The meeting will be held online on the Zoom platform.
Registered participants will receive a letter with an invitation to a video conference.

Registration for the seminar is available here.

We will be glad to see all comers!