 Dear students, in this module we are going to discuss interpreting collective behavior. Collective behavior refers to spontaneous, unstructured and temporary behavior of a group of people responding to the same event, situation or a problem. The concept challenges the assumption of inherent societal order and emphasizes the transformative potential of group dynamics. So basically when we talk about the collective behavior, we are actually talking about the behavior of a group of people who are on a shared consensus for a situation, either they want to change that situation or they want to agitate against a certain situation that occurred which is against their will and to which they are not affirmative. From the perspective of interactionism, collective behavior is shaped by shared meanings and definitions that people attribute to their social reality. For instance, a demonstration can emerge if a large group of people interpret a particular political decision as unjust. So when they feel that there is a sense of discomfort or disequilibrium or injustice about a certain situation they are going to react against that simultaneously cumulatively. So the main type of collective behavior includes crowds, masses, public social movements and roids. Each manifest is a different way to which people collectively react to the social stimuli. Roids and roids represent a more immediate and emotional response while the social movements indicate a more sustained and organized effort towards the social change. For example, in Pakistan the lawyers movement in 2007 was sustained social movement where lawyers, civil society and political parties collectively respond against the suspension of chief justice by the then prime minister, by the then president Pravesh Musharab. The shared interpretation of this act as the violation of judicial independence led to the nationwide protest demanding the restoration of judiciary. So we can see that this is based on the collective interpretation of a situation where they feel that injustice is happening and people need to do something about that situation. In comparison to that if we look at it from sociological lens structural strain theory suggests that collective behavior emerge when there is the disconnect between the cultural goals and institutionalized means. So the theory given by Robert K. Merton suggests that the cultural goals and institutionalized means must be coherent otherwise that can call for a collective behavior. This strain motivates people to collectively react. Now the rights after major sports events in different societies could be an instance where the strain between the goal which is that winning a match and the means to perform about the team's performance which is the actual situation it creates an unrest. So unlike the structural social behavior governed by the established norms and laws collective behavior often represents the emergent norms. These norms spontaneously develop in response to a novel situation. For example we can observe that during the natural disasters like the earthquake where people are spontaneously organizing and reacting to the situation and they often go against the conventional norms and they are motivated by themselves to act for help. The collective behavior plays a crucial role in societal change and innovation. From the civil rights movement in the US to anti-apartheid movement in South Africa collective behavior has significantly challenged and transformed different social structures. Lastly if we apply the theory of relative deprivation people actually engage in the collective behavior when they perceive a gap between the expected and actual social rewards. The Arab Spring can be seen as such an instance where populations across the Middle East and North Africa collectively reacted to the perceived economic injustice and political repression. So the situations where people do feel that they are being treated unequally or they are facing injustice in the society they react in response to that collectively.