Researchers at Open University Target Psychology and Psychiatry (Crowd psychology and the politics of co-production: Social control, democratic order and the consequences of theory).

This article focuses on recent research examining the political dimensions of crowd psychology within social psychology. The study challenges traditional views that portray collective behavior as inherently irrational and instead highlights how crowd psychology has historically been co-produced with institutions of authority, influencing governance and policing practices in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. It emphasizes the Social Identity Approach and the Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM) as frameworks that reconceptualize collective behavior as normatively organized and interactional, with policing seen as constitutive rather than external to crowd dynamics. The research concludes that social psychology cannot claim political neutrality, as its theories shape how collective action is anticipated and managed in democratic societies. [Extracted from the article]