Social change

Social change is a general term which refers to:

• change in the nature, the social institutions, the social behaviour or the social relations of a society, community of people, or other social structures.
• acts of advocacy for the cause of changing society in a positive way (subjective).

The term is used in the study of history, economies and politics, and includes topics such as the success or failure of different political systems, globalization, democratization, development and economic growth. The term can encompass concepts as broad as revolution and paradigm shift, to narrow changes such as a particular cause within small town government.

Social change could be:

• slow, gradual, incremental, and evolutionary; in this it might be barely noticeable
• fast, radical, sudden and revolutionary; it might even take people by surprise.
• wide in scope, affecting almost all people in a society
• limited in scope, affecting only a small number of people.

Social change is a topic in sociology, but also involves political science, economics, history, anthropology, social work and many other social sciences.

Among many forms of creating social change are theater for social change, direct action, protesting, advocacy, community organizing, revolution, and political activism.

Social development is a process which results in the transformation of social structures in a manner which improves the capacity of the society to fulfill its aspirations. Society develops by consciousness and social consciousness develops by organization. The process that is subconscious in the society emerges as conscious knowledge in pioneering individuals. Development is a process, not a programme. Its power issues more from its subtle aspects than from material objects.

Not all social change constitutes development. It consists of four well-marked stages — survival, growth, development and evolution, each of which contains the other three within it. The quantitative expansion of existing activities generates growth or horizontal expansion. Development implies a qualitative change in the way the society carries out its activities, such as through more progressive attitudes and behavior by the population, the adoption of more effective social organizations or more advanced technology which may have been developed elsewhere. The term evolution refers to the original formulation and adoption of qualitative and structural advances in the form of new social attitudes, values, behaviors, or organizations.

While the term is usually applied to changes that are beneficial to society, it may result in negative side-effects or consequences that undermine or eliminate existing ways of life that are considered positive.

Theories of social change

Some social change is almost always occurring, but many different theories have been mooted to explain significant social changes in history.

These theories include:

1. the idea of decline or degeneration, or, in religious terms, the fall from an original state of grace, connected with theology;
2. the idea of cyclical change, a pattern of subsequent and recurring phases of growth and decline, and the social cycles;
3. the idea of continuous social progress;
4. Marx's historical materialism;
5. Evolutionary theories (how one social form evolves into another), including social darwinism;
6. Theories of sociobiology

A currently popular author on social change is Jared Diamond.

It is claimed that a primary agent of social agent is technological advancement, such that the wide adoption of a new technology leads to imbalance in the economic relationship between economic agents. This in turn leads to changes in the social balance of power, therefore leading to social change.^{[citation needed]}

Examples

Some recent trends in global change are that the world population has become more concentrated in the less developed world and in cities, there has been a tremendous growth in internet use, infant mortality rates have declined, illiteracy has declined, more people are living in freedom, GDP per capita has increased, and poverty has declined.

Society gradually accepting new trends such as the birth control pill, African-American/women voting rights, and homosexuality are also examples of social change.

Measuring social change

These changes did not happen equally throughout the world, however. For example, in 1960, infant mortality rates were more than 4.5 times higher in developing countries than it was among industrialized countries. In 2000, infant mortality rates in developing countries was about 10 times higher than was IMR in industrialized countries. That is, infant mortality rates declined faster among the more developed countries. There were similar disparities in illiteracy and political freedom. That is, conditions did improve among less developed countries, but not as much as they did among more developed countries. In addition, some countries experienced worsening of conditions, for example, increases in infant mortality rates, increases in illiteracy and less freedom.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Global Social Change Reports. Gene Shackman, Ya-Lin Liu and George (Xun) Wang. 2004. http://gsociology.icaap.org/reports.html

External links

• Power Under: Trauma and Nonviolent Social Change — a book by Steven Wineman
• Haferkamp, Hans, and Neil J. Smelser, editors Social Change and Modernity. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992.
• Social Continuity and Change, and Social Theory
• Benjamin F. Hadis SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
• Center for Democracy and Social Change
• Guide to Social Change Led By and With Young People
• Provisions Library - Resources for Social Change

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Social_change  ^history
• Social_development  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Social change"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.