Crowd (Sociology) Notes

1.Definition of Crowds

A crowed is a large number of people who comes together with a common short-term and long-term purpose.

2.Types of crowd

(i)Casual crowd

Casual crowd means the crowd which comes together by coincidence and does not interact with each other. The people in this type of crowed have no real common bond, long-term purpose, or identity.

For example: 

Gathering or people waiting to cross the street at a busy intersection in a large city. 

People on a train.

people standing in a queue.

(ii)Conventional crowd

Conventional crowd means the crowd which gather for a certain purpose like a scheduled event. 

For example: People gathering for attending a movie, a play, concerts, lectures, etc.

(iii)Expressive crowd

Expressive crowd means the crowd which comes together to express the strong emotions for a certain issue. In this crowd , the people express their feeling and emotions by physical action like dancing, singing, speech, slogans and other activities. 

For example:

political rallies

religious revival etc.

(iv)Acting crowd 

Acting crowd means a crowd the member of which are actively involved in doing something that is directly relates to their goals. It engage in violent and destructive behaviour. In this crowd individual have no will and are subject to the will of the crowd. Strong emotion of actions are found in this crowd .

For example:

A mob i.e. an extremely incited crowd which is likely to commit or has already committed a violent action as in mob lynching, or 

panic , that is an emotionally charged crowd which results in self-destructive behaviour such as a stampede.

(v)Protested crowd

Protested crowd is a collection of the people who gather to protest a political, social, cultural and economic issue.

For Example:

People participating in March are the example of protest crowd