Semester 2, 2024-2025
Type of courseTheory-oriented Workshops
DateMay 12 and May 13, 2025
LocationUtrecht University
2 days
Maximum number of participants24
ECTS1 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course
StaffDr. Sara Vestergren (University of Limerick, Ireland) Dr. Ruthie Pliskin (LEI) Dr. Toon Kuppens (RUG)
Collective Action and Psychological Change: Understanding Crowds and Transformations Through Ethnographic Lenses (GP&IR workshop)
In this two-day interactive workshop, Sara Vestergren will present their collaborative work on the role of collective action in psychological change, and how these transformations can be studied through immersive ethnographic methods. The workshop draws on a unique series of empirical studies from a long-running environmental campaign in Sweden, where participants’ engagement in protest and resistance brought about lasting changes in their identities, beliefs, behaviours, and relationships to people gathered in relation to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Through this work, we will explore questions such as: (a) how does psychological change occur through participation in collective action? (b) which intra- and intergroup processes are crucial in sustaining these changes over time? (c) how can researchers access and make sense of these changes through ethnographic methods in real-world, dynamic settings?
Day 1: Psychological Transformation Through Crowds and Collective Action
In recent years, there has been growing interest in the ways that participation in collective action produces meaningful and lasting psychological change. Research has shown that involvement in protest movements can lead to shifts in identity, empowerment, behavioural change, and enduring lifestyle transformation. However, questions remain as to how exactly these changes occur, which processes sustain them over time, and what role group dynamics play in facilitating or hindering transformation. In this first day of the workshop, we will examine these issues by drawing on longitudinal qualitative data from an environmental campaign in Sweden.
In the morning, we will explore how intergroup conflict—particularly with the police—acted as a catalyst for group cohesion and identity formation among protesters. Simultaneously, we will consider the supportive role of intragroup relationships in reinforcing commitment, agency, and transformation. We will engage with models such as the elaborated social identity model (ESIM) and consider how participants in collective action settings come to see themselves, and act, differently—often long after the protest itself has ended. After an overview presentation, we will move into small group discussions where participants map different types of psychological changes identified in the research and reflect on similar processes in other activism contexts.
After lunch, participants have an opportunity to present their work. We will end the day with a reflective group discussion on what it means to ‘become’ an activist or agent of change through academia making impact and effecting change through research.
Day 2: Ethnography and Crowd Psychology—Studying Change in the Wild
While quantitative methods dominate psychological research, understanding the lived experience of protest participants and crowd members often requires different tools. On Day 2, we turn to ethnography as a powerful but underused method in crowd psychology. We begin with a critical discussion of the need for descriptive, in-situ approaches to crowd behaviour—highlighting how traditional models often ask the wrong questions by assuming anonymity or irrationality in crowd participants. In contrast, ethnographic studies allow us to understand how meaning is created, negotiated, and experienced within mass events.
Drawing on examples of both embedded long-term ethnography and rapid response studies, we examine how researchers can document processes of psychological change as they unfold. Using case studies such as the Ojnare campaign and the mass mourning after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, we explore challenges related to gaining access, building trust, negotiating safety, and ‘taking sides’ in polarized or contested spaces. Special attention will be given to the advantages and risks of researcher alignment and the ethical dilemmas posed by researching high-conflict events.
In the second part of the day, participants will engage in practical work. They will be invited to reflect on how ethnographic methods could be used within their own research, considering both long-term and rapid deployment designs. Small groups will develop their own ethnographic research proposals around themes of protest, social change, or crowd dynamics. These will be presented in a plenary session, with feedback and discussion focused on methodological feasibility, ethical issues, and theoretical contribution. We close the workshop with a roundtable conversation on the role of immersive methods in social psychology and what it means to ‘study change in the wild’.
Literature
Reading the below literature is a compulsory aspect of taking part in the workshop
Suggested reading (not compulsory)
Program
Day 1
10.30 – 10.55 Coffee and tea
10.55 – 11.00 Welcome and introduction
11.00 – 12.00 Introduction: The psychology of transformation through crowds and collective action — what changes, how, and why?
12.00 – 13.00 Breakout session—Mini Sandpit on Research Question Development
13:00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 Presentations by the participants
15.30 – 16.00 Coffee and Tea
16.00 – 17.00 ‘Become’ an activist or agent of change through academia – using research for impact and change.
17.00 – 18:30 Drinks - optional
18:30 - 20.00 Dinner - optional
Day 2
09.00 – 09.30 Coffee and tea
09.30 – 10.30 Introduction: Ethnographic Methods in the Study of Collective Action and Crowds
10.30 – 12.00 Presentations by the participants
12.00 – 13.15 Lunch
13.15 – 14.15 Breakout session—development of research proposals
14.15 – 14.30 Coffee and tea
14.30 – 16.00 Presentation and plenary discussion of research proposals + roundtable
16:00– 17.00 Drinks - optional