SCH - Social Changes Overview

Social Changes Overview

Social Change Word Cloud At the beginning of this course, you studied the history of the sociology discipline. You read about its creation and acceptance as a legitimate academic field in science. Over the years, sociology has grown into the subject it is today through the support and influence of many theorists and theories that have adapted to different times and environments. In other words, sociology has come a long way from the days of Auguste Comte, as have the societies that sociology studies. But change never occurs in a vacuum, especially not the types of changes that catch the eyes of sociologists. It is a job of the sociologist to explain social change. Some would even argue that it is a job of the sociologist to participate in bringing social change. In this last module, we will be studying social change- where it comes from, why it happens, how changes are made and what the role of the sociologist is in it.

Essential Questions

What is social change?
What affects society in a way that causes change?
What affects the pace of that change?
What can historical trends reveal about social change?
How do collective behaviors differ from other behavior patterns?
How do the theoretical perspectives view social change differently?
What role does sociology play in social change?

Key Terms

Alterative Social Movement - a type of social movement that seeks limited change in specific individuals; sometimes referred to as Alternative Social Movement
Civic Dialogue - dialogue in which people explore matters of civic importance and consider the dimensions of a civic or social issue, policy, or decisions of consequence to their lives, communities, and society
Civic Engagement - the many ways in which people participate in civic, community, and political life and, by doing so, express their engaged citizenship
Claims Making - the process undertaken by a social movement to persuade the public and officials of the importance of joining the social movement in order to address a particular issue
Class-Society Theory - theory proposing that the global rise of capitalism has resulted in structuralized social inequality
Collective Behavior - activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned, often controversial, and sometimes dangerous
Collectivity - a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the absence of well-defined and conventional norms
Community Building - the process of building relationships that helps to cohere community members around common purpose, identity, and a sense of belonging which may lead to social or community capital
Community Development - the development of a community where the economic, social, and physical dimensions of community are considered
Contagion Theory - theory explaining crowd behavior that sees crowds as anonymous, suggestible, and swayed by rising emotions; Gustave Le Bon
Convergence Theory - theory explaining crowd behavior that suggests the behavior is based on the desires the people brought with them as they formed the crowd
Crowd - a large number of persons gathered closely together temporarily
Crowd Behavior - collective behavior among people located within close proximity of each other
Cultural Diffusion - the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point
Cultural Lag - the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system
Culture (Social Movement) Theory - a theory that explains the advent of a social movement due to the motivation of people using money, resources and cultural symbols
Demographic Transition Theory - a theory that connects demography with a society's level of technological development and argues that technological advances slow population growth
Demography - the study of population patterns using fertility, mortality, migration, population growth and population composition
Deprivation Theory - a theory that explains the advent of a social movement due to people feeling deprived of something
Dispersed Collectivity - a collectivity characterized by members who are not in one another's physical proximity but have an impact on one another's behavior; mass behavior such as rumor, gossip, public opinion, propaganda, fashions, fads, panic, mass hysteria, and disaster response
Emergent-Norm Theory - theory explaining crowd behavior that posits crowds develop their own behavior as events unfold; Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian
Equilibrium Theory - social change theory that argues changes in one aspect of society require adjustments in other aspects and when these adjustments do not occur, equilibrium disappears, threatening social order; Talcott Parsons (Structural-Functional Perspective)
Ferdinand Tönnies - (1885-1936) a German sociologist best known for his theories on Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft that compared mindsets of rural villages and modern cities
Gemeinschaft - preindustrial society based on kinship, tradition and close social ties; Ferdinand Tönnies
Gerhard Lenski - (1924- ) an American sociologist noted for studying social inequality and developing the Theory of Sociocultural Evolution but also known for the Multilinear Evolutionary Theory
Gesellschaft - industrial society characterized by weak family ties, competition and impersonal social relationships; Ferdinand Tönnies
Globalization - the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture
Gossip - idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others
Group - people who interact with one another and think of themselves as belonging together
Gustave Le Bon - (1841-1931) a French sociologist best known for his studies on crowds and the Contagion Theory
Herbert Spencer - (1820-1903) an English sociologist best known for coining the phrase "survival of the fittest" in 1864 upon reading Charles Darwin's work on evolution; a Structural-Functionalist who compared people within a society to the parts of a human body in that all were necessary to work properly; with regards to Social Change, Spencer helped develop the Unilinear Evolutionary Theory
Localized Collectivity - a collectivity characterized by members within a close proximity to each other; crowds, riots, mobs
Mass Behavior - collective behavior among people spread over a wide geographic area
Mass Hysteria - a form of dispersed collective behavior in which people react to a real or imagined event with irrational and even frantic fear; also known as moral panic
Mass Society - a society in which wealth and government have weakened traditional social ties
Mass-Society (Social Movement) Theory - a theory that explains the advent of a social movement due to socially isolated people uniting for a sense of identity and purpose; William Kornhauser
Mass-Society (Modernity) Theory - theory proposing the growth of government and other formal organizations in certain traditional areas (such as welfare) has reduced the importance of family and community and created a mass society; Structural-Functionalist Perspective
Mechanical Solidarity - a type of social unity achieved by people doing the same type of work and holding similar values; Émile Durkheim
Mob - a disorderly, riotous, or lawless crowd of people
Modernity - social patterns resulting from industrialization
Modernization - the process of social change derived from industrialization
Multilinear Evolutionary Theory - a Social Change theory that argues change can occur in several ways and does not inevitably lead all societies in the same direction; Gerhard Lenski (Theory of Sociocultural Evolution)
Neil Smelser - (1930- ) an American sociologist who focused on collective behavior and social change and is noted for identifying six factors in the development of a social movement; Value Added Theory
New Social Movements Theory - a theory that explains that social movements in postindustrial societies are typically international in scope and focus on quality-of-life issues by improving social and physical environments rather than economic ones
Organic Solidarity - a type of social unity in which society's members' interdependence is based on specialized functions and statuses; Émile Durkheim
Other-Directedness - willingness to remain open to new ideas and fashions, often expressed by imitating others
Panic - a sudden overwhelming fear that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons
Postmodernity - social patterns of postindustrial societies
Propaganda - information or ideas methodically spread to promote or injure a cause, group, nation, etc.
Public Opinion - widespread attitudes about controversial issues
Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian - American sociologists who developed the Emergent Norm Theory in 1957 to explain collective behavior in the form of crowds
Redemptive Social Movement - a type of social movement that seeks radical change in specific individuals
Reformative Social Movement - a type of social movement that seeks limited change in the whole society
Relative Deprivation - a perceived disadvantage brought forth by making comparisons
Resource-Mobilization Theory - a theory that links the success of a social movement to its access to money, labor and mass media
Revolutionary Social Movement - a type of social movement that seeks radical change in the whole society
Riot - a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons
Rumor - a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts
Social Activism - refers to action to make change that ensures inclusion, equity, fairness, and justice
Social Capital - the collective value of all "social networks" (who people know) and the inclinations to do things for each other that arise from these networks ("norms of reciprocity")
Social Change - the transformation of culture and social institutions over a period of time; causes are usually identified within the realms of culture, social conflict, ideas, demographic factors
Social Institutions - the major spheres of social life, or social subsystems, organized to meet human needs; examples include family, education, religion, government, economy, health and welfare (the social subsystems found within all societies)
Social Movement - an organized collective behavior that encourages or discourages social change
Social Structure - stable patterns of social relationships in a group (part of social structure is the status a person has within a society and the role that is performed as part of that status)
Talcott Parsons - (1902-1979) an American sociologist known for his studies on social action; equilibrium theory
Technological Determinism - social change theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values, in Ogburn's hands, it identified four stages of technical development: invention, accumulation, diffusion, adjustment; William F. Ogburn
Tradition-Directedness - inflexible following of traditions
Unilinear Evolutionary Theory - social change theory that claims all societies pass through the same sequence of stages of evolution to reach the same destiny; Herbert Spencer (Structural-Functional Perspective)
Value Added Theory - a theory that explains the development of a social movement using six factors (structural conduciveness, structural strain, growth and spread of explanation, precipitating factors, mobilization for action, lack of social control) and identifies which of these factors encourages the formation of mobs or riots versus which of these factors encourages highly organized movements; also known as Structural Strain or Social Strain Theory; Neil Smelser
William Fielding Ogburn - (1886-1959) an American sociologist best known for his idea of "cultural lag" and expanding the Technological Determinism to identify four stages of technical development within a society: invention, accumulation, diffusion, adjustment

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