In the thesis, a sociological conceptualisation of collective action as a discursive and social phenomenon was carried out. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is that for the first time in sociology an integrated concept of collective action was developed, and the results of the concept’s empirical testing on the example of some of the most relevant social practices of contemporary Ukrainian society were demonstrated.
The most important results of the work are: 1) the author’s three-dimensional model of collective action, in which it is considered as a form of existence and a means of preserving the masses in the transformation of social practices and is presented as a situation, as a process, as a system that has allowed deepening the scientific understanding of this phenomenon; 2) on the basis of rethinking of origins and characteristics of collective action the main trends of its development have been defined; 3) the role of collective action in the processes of transformation of social practices through social mobilisation has been found out. The work proves that the structures of mass mobilisation in social practices become, firstly, collective identity, which sets the boundaries of collective action, distinguishes between its participants and non-participants; and secondly, collective solidarity, which provides a solid motivation for collective action; and third, trust, which in a collective action is designed to integrate its participants. Such an approach can become a theoretical basis for the development of social technologies of mass mobilisation in various social practices; 4) the visual component of collective social action, which allows to record the activity of its manifestations, has been characterised.
The main trends in the development of collective action include the following: 1) approval of the notion of collective action sociality; 2) the liberation of social theory from the rationality dictation in explaining social action, both individual and collective; 3) awareness of the heuristic possibilities of the creative action concept; 4) subject to the preservation of external regulation of collective action, the limits of the freedom of its construction are expanded due to the fact that the inclusion / exclusion into a collective social action becomes predominantly the result of an individual decision of its actors; 5) awareness of the limited activity of actors operating in the social space; 6) activation of collective actions at the level of local social practices; 7) a new vision of the nature, forms, types of collective action, which «street democracy» has brought to the sociological theorising.
The ratio criteria of individual and collective in social practices have been developed. The most up-to-date current confrontation in the interaction of individual and collective in the process of transformation of social practices is highlighted. The most up-to-date current confrontation in the interaction of individual and collective in the process of transformation of social practices is highlighted: 1. The value of individualism and collectivism as life values. 2. The value of individual and collective rights. 3. The value of individual and collective liability. 4. The value of individual and collective solutions. 5. The value of individual and collective memory. 6. The value of individual and collective identity. An individual becomes a collective resource provided that individuals are aware of common interests and are willing to take collective action to implement them.
Conceptualisation of the role of collective memory in the deployment of collective action as events, as situations as systems has been carried out. The author’s classification of collective action offered is based on its types, forms, implementation levels. On the basis of the generalisation of various types of social actions (and collective actions as their varieties), the author proposed a typology of collective action according to the following criteria: according to normativity; by institutionalisation (institutionalised and non-institutionalised); depending on the level of social (actual and virtual); according to the target orientation (instrumental and communicative); by scale (local and global); the predictability of consequences (predictable and unpredictable), subjectivity. Deepening the idea of the collective action characteristics, among which can be mentioned: temporality, visuality, controllability, emotional infections. The basic elements of a controlled collective action have been characterised. These include: purpose, norms, support by the leadership structure, process technology, individual actions integration into the collective ones through the mechanism of this integration. Controlled impact on collective action makes the latter predicted and manageable. The spectrum of controlled parameters of collective action depends on the type and scope of its implementation. The controlled area in
