Social Change

1. Social Change Modern And Postmodern Societies Society, Seventh Edition

2. Social Change – the transformation of culture and social institutions over time Four major characteristics • Social change is inevitable, only the rate of change varies • Social change is sometimes intentional, but often is unplanned • Social change is controversial • Some social change matters more than others Society, Seventh Edition

3. Why Cultural Change Takes Place • Culture and change • Invention • Production of new objects, ideas, and social patterns • Discovery • Taking note of existing elements of a culture • Diffusion • The spread of products, people and information from one culture to another Society, Seventh Edition

4. Other Reasons Why • Conflict and social change • Tensions and stressors between individuals and groups can bring about change • Different groups gain and lose power and privilege as they struggle for their own positions • Ideas and change • Ideas can fuel social movements which bring about social change • The idea of equal rights for everyone • Demographics and change • Increases and decreases in numbers can lead to social change as society may need to expand and/or contract • Need for jobs, housing, education, etc Society, Seventh Edition

5. National Map 16-1 (p. 440)Who Stays Put? Residential Stability across the United States Society, Seventh Edition

6. Types of Social Movements Social Movements – an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change • Alternative • Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members • Example: planned parenthood • Redemptive • Selective focus, radical change • Example: some religious organizations • Reformative • Limited social change that targets all members of society • Example: equal rights amendment movement • Revolutionary • The most severe, striving for basic transformation of society • Example: ultra-conservative political movements Society, Seventh Edition

7. Figure 16-1 (p. 441)Four Types of Social Movements Society, Seventh Edition

8. Theories of Social Movements • Deprivation Theory • Social movements arise among people who feel deprived • Result of experiencing relative deprivation – a perceived disadvantage arising from some specific comparison • Critical evaluation • Why do social movements arise among some groups and not others • Theory suffers from circular reasoning • Focuses exclusively on the cause telling us little about movements themselves Society, Seventh Edition

9. Theories of Social Movements Wm. Kornhauser’s Mass-Society Theory • Social movements attract socially isolated people who feel personally insignificant. • Movements are personal as ell as political, giving people with week social ties a sense of purpose and belonging • Critical evaluation • Gives no clear standard fro measuring the extent to which we live in a mass society • Belittles the social justice issue suggesting it is flawed people not flawed society that are responsible • Research is mixed on support of theory Society, Seventh Edition

10. Theories of Social Movements • Neil Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory • Six factors encouraging social movement • Structural conduciveness Arise out of perceptions of problems • Structural strain Experiencing relative deprivation • Growth and spread of an explanation Making clear reasons and solutions for suffering Society, Seventh Edition

11. Theories of Social Movements • Neil Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory • Six factors encouraging social movement (cont.) • Precipitating factors Specific events give rise to collection action • Mobilization for action Action stage; Protest and rallies • Lack of social control Quick, harsh response, or giving the “green light” for change? • Critical evaluation • Same circular arguments as Kornhauser’s theory • Overlooks important role of resources, mass media and international alliances Society, Seventh Edition

12. Theories of Social Movements • Resource-Mobilization Theory • No social movement is likely to succeed or even get off the ground without substantial resources • Money • Human labor • Offices and communication facilities • Access to mass media • Critical evaluation • Powerless can promote change if they are organized an have committed members • Overstates the extent to which powerful people are willing to challenge the status quo Society, Seventh Edition

13. Theories of Social Movements • Cultural Theory • The people in any particular situation are likely to mobilize to form a social movement only to the extent that they develop shared understandings of the world that legitimate and motivate collective action • Critical evaluation • Does not address how and when powerful cultural symbols turn people from supporting the system toward protest Society, Seventh Edition

14. Theories of Social Movements • New Social Movements Theory • Emphasizes the distinctive futures of recent social movements in postindustrial societies • Most of today’s movements are international • Tend to focus on cultural change and improving social and physical surroundings • Draws support from middle and upper classes • Critical Evaluation • Tends to exaggerate differences between past and present social movements Society, Seventh Edition

15. Stages of Social Movements • Stage one: emergence • Perception that something is wrong • Stage two: coalescence • Defining itself and “going public” • Stage three: bureaucratization • Organizing rationally to get job done • Stage four: decline • Is the movement in need of regrouping or is it simply time for its demise? • Reasons: • Signals success has been reached • Signals organizational problems (leadership, etc.) • Leadership sells out to other interests • Demise may result from state-sponsored repression Society, Seventh Edition

16. Modernity – Social Patterns Resulting From Industrialization Peter Burger identified four characteristics of modernization – the process of social change begun by industrialization • Decline of small, traditional towns • High-tech communications puts small towns in touch with the world • Expansion of personal choice • An unending series of options referred to as individualization” • Increasing diversity in beliefs • Modernization promotes a more rational, scientific world-view • Future orientation and growing awareness of time • People living in industrialized nations tend to focus more on the future than on the past Society, Seventh Edition

17. Ferdinand Tonnies & Loss of Community • With modernization comes the loss of gemeinschaft, or human community • Loss of community caring and the beginning of individualization and a business-like emphasis • Modernity brings about a condition referred to as gesellschaft, or impersonal relationships • People live among strangers and ignore most they pass on streets • Critical evaluation • Gemeinschaft exists in modern society • Didn’t distinguish between cause & effect • Romanticized traditional societies Society, Seventh Edition

18. Emile Durkheim & Division of Labor • Modernization is marked by increases in a complex division of labor • People performing highly distinctive roles rather than everyone performing the same daily routines • Society transformed from mechanical to organic solidarity • Mechanical solidarity refers to a time when society was held together by social bonds anchored in common moral sentiments • Organic solidarity refers to modernity during which time social bonding is accomplished by way of mutual dependence • Critical evaluation • Societies’ norms and values strong enough to avoid anomie • People value the personal freedom of modern society despite the risks Society, Seventh Edition

19. Max Weber and Rational Society • Modernization means replacing a traditional worldview is nothing more than the with a rational way of thinking • Modern people value efficiency, have little reverence for the past and adopt whatever social patterns allow them to achieve their goals • Critical evaluation • The alienation he attributes to bureaucracy actually stems from social inequality Society, Seventh Edition

20. Karl Marx & Capitalism • Industrial revolution was a capitalist revolution • Social conflict in capitalism sows seeds of egalitarian socialist revolution • Critical evaluation • Complex theory underestimates dominance of bureaucracy • Stifling socialist bureaucracies as bad or worse than dehumanizing capitalism Society, Seventh Edition

21. Theoretical Analysis of Modernity • Structural-functional theory • Mass society is a society in which prosperity and bureaucracy have eroded traditional social ties • Draws upon the ideas of Tonnies, Durkheim and Weber • Social-conflict theory • Class society is a capitalist society with pronounced social stratification • Draws upon the ideas of Marx • Critical evaluation • Mass society ignores social inequality, romanticizes the past • Class society overlooks the way equality in modern society has increased Society, Seventh Edition

22. David Riesman & Modernity & the Individual • Personal identity can be a problem since society changes so rapidly; Inherent instability • Social character refers to personality patterns common to members of a particular society • Tradition-directedness refers to rigid conformity to time-honored ways of living • Other-directedness refers to a receptiveness to the latest trends and fashions, often expressed in the practice of imitating others Society, Seventh Edition

23. PostmodernitySocial Patterns Characteristic of Postindustrial Societies • In some ways, modernity has failed • Much poverty and stress • The bright light of progress is fading • Less confidence about future • Science no longer holds the answers • Science has created its share of problems • Cultural debates are intensifying • The promises of social movements have not been fulfilled • Social institutions are changing • All institutions are going through change, including the most basic, the family Society, Seventh Edition