Group Emergence in Community Crises: A Study of Conditions Conducive to the Development of Collective Behavior

Abstract

Using data from five community crises, this study analyzes the conditions that facilitate the development of emergent groups in stress situations. We compare the empirical evidence from three community emergencies in which there was group emergence with empirical evidence from two community emergencies in which there was no group emergence. It is postulated that the conditions conducive to the generation of new groups in community disasters can be classified in a three-fold typology: (1) social-psychological conduciveness; (2) cultural conduciveness; and (3) structural conduciveness. We anticipate that the findings of this research will expand and extend collective behavior theory through devoting attention to the origins of collective behavior, an area which has received little prior emphasis.