ABSTRACT
Social and behavioral sciences have explained or theoretically accounted for collective behavior and social solidarity in a number of ways. The dominant model in the theoretical toolkit on solidarity in social movements centers on explanations derived from the application of rational choice theory. The similarity between B. L. Turner’s portrayal of the structure of rituals and much of the behavior that marks crises is striking. The immediate postimpact stage of crises and catastrophes seems to evoke a kind of liminal state, in which victims have been violently separated from their previous social, economic, and political identities with their normal modes of interactions. The importance of crisis-induced solidarity can be addressed on a level of practice and on a level of theory/policy. The matter might be phrased in terms of whether social policy makers and practitioners wish to address the potentialities of action and change which crisis-induced solidarity represents.
