Clifford Stott

Crowds, context and identity: Dynamic categorization processes in the 'poll tax riot'

Reicher has recently developed the social identity model of crowd behaviour based on self-categorization theory (SCT). This model begins to tackle the thorny theoretical problems posed by the dynamic nature of crowd action (Reicher, 1996b). The present paper describes an ethnographic study of a crowd event in which there were changes in the inter-group relationships over time. It is suggested that the laboratory evidence in support of SCT is complemented by ethnographic research of this type. By exploring situations in which definitions of context and/or categories are not purposefully manipulated, we can demonstrate the explanatory power of a dynamic and interactive approach to social categorization.

An integrated approach to crowd psychology and public order policing

This paper uses recent developments in crowd psychology as the basis for developing new guidelines for public order policing. Argues that the classical view of all crowd members as being inherently irrational and suggestible, and therefore potentially violent, is both wrong and potentially dangerous. It can lead to policing strategies that respond to the violence of some in the crowd by clamping down on all members, and therefore lead all members to perceive the police as hostile and illegitimate. In such conditions, even those who were initially opposed to violence may come to side with more conflictual crowd members and hence contribute to an escalation in the level and scope of collective conflict. This paper argues that police officers need to concentrate on understanding the collective identities, priorities and intentions of different groups in the crowd and give the same priority to facilitating the lawful intentions of some groups as to controlling the unlawful intentions of others.

Bias as a Research Strategy in Participant Observation: The Case of Intergroup Conflict

Participant observation (PO) is one of the more fruitful methodological approaches to studying crowd behavior. This article argues that, since crowd behavior characteristically takes place in a context of intergroup conflict, PO may involve having to take sides to gather data. Possible sources of bias within a partisan PO framework are examined, including bias in access, in observation, and in analysis. Two examples vof partisan research on crowd conflict—a demonstration riot and an antiroads occupation—show that only the first of these forms of bias is unavoidable. However, it is posited that limited access to one of the groups in conflict is more than offset by the quality and quantity of data gathered from the other group and the subsequent objectivity this affords within the data analysis.

Contextualising the crowd in contemporary social science

This paper situates contemporary social scientific studies of crowd events and crowd behaviour in their historical and ideological context. The original ‘crowd science’ developed from definitions of ‘social problems’ that emerged in the late nineteenth century – in particular the concerns among the French establishment about the threat of the ‘mass’ to ‘civilization’. This, and the surrounding intellectual context, encouraged the development of theoretical models of the crowd characterized by forms of reductionism and irrationalism. Early accounts of ‘mass panic’ similarly suggested that collective behaviour was irrational because it was governed by primitive bio-psychological processes. After describing these early approaches to the crowd, the paper outlines how changes in late twentieth society, whereby those writing about the crowd were no longer necessarily ‘outside’ crowd events, have coincided with the development of accounts of the crowd which draw upon contemporary social scientific concepts (such as social norms, social identities, and cognition) and which assume that crowds are not alien to meaningful social and political participation, but integral to it.

Police expectations and the control of English soccer fans at “Euro 2000”

This study is concerned with understanding the nature of police stereotypes and expectations and their potential role in shaping the intergroup dynamics of “hooliganism” involving England fans during the football European Championships in Belgium and Holland (Euro 2000). The paper uses a questionnaire survey of Belgian Gendarmerie officers to explore the extent to which England fans were seen as a dangerous social category whos normative behaviours were likely to be interpreted as a manifestation of hooliganism and therefore as posing a relatively uniform threat to “public order”. In so doing the study provides evidence to support a contention that the Gendarmerie at Euro 2000 held a view of England fans that was consistent with the use of relatively indiscriminate coercive force. The implications of the analysis for understanding the nature of public order policing, its role in shaping “public disorder” in football contexts and the need for interactive and historical studies of crowd events are discussed.

Crowdedness mediates the effect of social identification on positive emotion in a crowd : a survey of two crowd events

Exposure to crowding is said to be aversive, yet people also seek out and enjoy crowded situations. We surveyed participants at two crowd events to test the prediction of self-categorization theory that variable emotional responses to crowding are a function of social identification with the crowd. In data collected from participants who attended a crowded outdoor music event (n = 48), identification with the crowd predicted feeling less crowded; and there was an indirect effect of identification with the crowd on positive emotion through feeling less crowded. Identification with the crowd also moderated the relation between feeling less crowded and positive emotion. In data collected at a demonstration march (n = 112), identification with the crowd predicted central (most dense) location in the crowd; and there was an indirect effect of identification with the crowd on positive emotion through central location in the crowd. Positive emotion in the crowd also increased over the duration of the crowd event. These findings are in line with the predictions of self-categorization theory. They are inconsistent with approaches that suggest that crowding is inherently aversive; and they cannot easily be explained through the concept of ‘personal space’.

The role of crowd theory in determining the use of force in public order policing

Social psychological research suggests that where police hold a theoretical view of the crowd in line with the ‘classic’ crowd psychology of Gustavé Le Bon this can lead to police practices that inadvertently escalate public disorder. This research reflects debates within the criminology literature which suggests that a primary factor governing police tactics is police knowledge. However, the existing research on the specific relationships between police theoretical knowledge of crowds and their practice towards them is limited by its reliance on post hoc data. This paper addresses this limitation by examining the role of police theoretical view of crowd psychology and their operational practice during a high risk football crowd event. The analysis supports the argument that when the police hold a view of the crowd as inherently irrational and dangerous they rely upon tactics of mass containment and dispersal. This study advances the literature by suggesting that this ‘classic’ theoretical view of the crowd is leading to missed opportunities for the police to develop more efficient, effective and less confrontational approaches to the management of public order during crowd events.

Representing crowd behaviour in emergency planning guidance: ‘mass panic’ or collective resilience?

Emergency planning often includes assumptions about crowd behaviour. These assumptions matter, as they can operate as rationales for emergency management practices. We examined the extent to which crowds are represented in UK emergency planning guidance as psychologically vulnerable or as contributing to psychosocial resilience. A systematic search of 47 guidance documents identified 9 referring to ‘panic’. These were discourse analysed, along with six more guidance documents considered key to civil contingencies resilience. It was found that the references to ‘panic’ served to construct collectives (and particularly crowds) as a source of psychological vulnerability. References to collective sources of resilience in the public were mostly found to be limited and often served to marginalise the crowd as a basis of coping in emergencies. We argue that the emphasis in the current guidance on the marginal role of crowds and the indispensable role of the professionals conflicts with aspects of current policy on community resilience.

The Inter-Group Dynamics of Empowerment: A Social Identity Model

In recent years, traditional psychological models of crowd action (Le Bon, 1895; Allport, 1924; Diener, 1980; Prentice-Dunn and Rogers, 1989) have been undermined by some very powerful critiques (Nye, 1975; Graumann and Moscovici, 1986; Turner and Killian, 1987; McPhail, 1991). These critiques have focused upon the extent to which this ‘classic’ account tends to reify crowd action, treating it as an inherently irrational atavistic intrusion rather than as an outcome of complex social processes. Moreover, historical studies of crowd events have demonstrated the normative structure of crowd behaviour, even in fast-moving and changing situations (Thompson, 1971; Reddy, 1977) further undermining the ‘classic’ accounts view of such action as a randomly destructive outburst.

Crowd psychology, public order police training and the policing of football crowds

Purpose – This study seeks to examine what theory of crowd psychology is being applied within public order police training in England and Wales and what accounts of crowds, police strategies and tactics subsequently emerge among officers who undertake this training.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a multi‐method approach including observations of public order training courses, interviews with students and instructors, and the dissemination of questionnaires.Findings – The analysis suggests that a form of crowd theory associated with the work of Gustave Le Bon has become institutionalised within police training. This in turn is leading to a potentially counter‐productive reliance on the undifferentiated use of force when policing crowds.Practical implications – The study illustrates that such training outcomes not only are counter to the recent developments in evidence, theory and policy but also undermine the polices ability to develop more efficient and effective approaches to policing crowd...