2.4 The IPO disruption: some concluding thoughts

The first section of this short course focused on how individuals in a crowd can gain (as well as lose) an identity by virtue of being in a crowd. What did this section add to that?

We often think of an ‘audience’ as something passive. When you hear that the Israeli Philharmonics played at the Proms, you probably imagine some peaceful (or turbulent, for that matter) romantic music being played in front of a calmly receptive audience. Yet, as the actual example illustrated, such an image of audience may have to be revised. Audiences are engaged in a very active sense and have the potential to transform or even disrupt performances.

Thus, much like crowds are entities that actively create identities and relations, groups and even supposedly abstract categories as publics are best understood as active forces that create as much as receive contents.