"Those who come to smile, remain to pray": the theory of convergence of protests

Abstract

The study of the concept of collective action involves the use of various theories relating to social activism. Among the works of scholars who study social activism in a political context, the most common are "infection theory", "convergence theory", "norm theory", "political protest theory", "value growth theory" and more. The key assumption that unites all of these theories is that protest can affect both public opinion and political change. This means that the protest provides important information for the public to adapt their preferences. This mechanism is that the protests affect outside observers – people who do not attend such protests, but watch them. This article proposes to turn to the theory of convergence and consider its theoretical research. This will help to identify the reasons for the emergence of protest groups, as well as to understand convergence policy as a political strategy. It is important to understand the links not only between protesters but also those who oppose them.
Theoretical intelligence shows that collective behavior, where there are people with similar desires, attitudes, goals, is able to influence change. Social cohesion, high level of belief system, normative behavior, charisma of leaders have their influence in the context of contextual variation. Which is measured by the protest field. And at a time when the question of divergence is increasingly being raised as a challenge to globalization processes, it is convergence that is driving the question of the threat to common values or the loss of common interests. Thus, both the contagion theory and the suggestion theory indicate that the actions of crowd members are not rationally controlled because the thought process in the crowd is used situationally and emotionally. At the same time, the thinking of the individual in the crowd takes the form of rationalization, sophisticated phrases, intolerance and accusations, often aggressive reactions that hide the true selfish nature of the motives at work. "Fighting" in the crowd’s sense requires fighting someone. There must be an enemy. Mob violence is partly explained by social facilitation combined with abdication of individual responsibility. Morality and self-restraint are acquired through the approval or disapproval of society.