Collectivities are networks of interaction, not substantive entities.

Evidence

The bearers of moral or social order, moreover, are organized collectivities. Following Simmel, Park sees collectivities not as substantive entities but as networks of interaction. Crowds are made up of persons interacting through milling, sects through the interstimulation of unrest, racial groups through the communication of shared grievances, publics through the circulation of news. Through their various processes of communication, collectivities attain some consensus regarding values and goals. Concerted action is thus the dynamic aspect of moral order and social control. Sociology must therefore be “the science of collective behavior,” not, as for Simmel, the science of the forms of association pure and simple. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 130

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Park’s concept of collectivities as interaction networks — relevant to Lofland’s mapping of stranger categories in public space.
• XREF: Ties to Lofland’s stranger-categorization framework and the reader’s essay on how city dwellers navigate public space without interpersonal trust. — connects to: Society is constituted by communication, not by similarity of customs.; The connective relations among signs are systemic, not private subjective matters.; Humanity functions as an organizing idea, not a concrete entity — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 215 (+2 more)

Related

• A science of society must study only forms of interaction (similarity 0.81)
• Any social group can act as individual or aggregate depending on its relational frame. (similarity 0.80)
• Society names both actual human networks and the abstract forms of sociality (similarity 0.79)
• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction (similarity 0.79)
• Sociology’s proper object is the forms relating two or more individuals (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Society is constituted by communication, not by similarity of customs. #corroborates (0.85)
• The prison industrial complex is a web of symbiotic relationships, not institutions. #exemplifies (0.75)
• Individual and society are methodological standpoints, not separable entities #corroborates (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 213
• Humanity functions as an organizing idea, not a concrete entity #corroborates (0.65) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 215
• The connective relations among signs are systemic, not private subjective matters. #corroborates (0.60)