Sociology of Social Change chapter 13 Chapter Outline Social Change A World of Change Collective Behavior Social Movements Looking to the Future A World of Change Social change refers to fundamental alterations in the patterns of culture, structure, and social behavior over time. A World of Change Sources of Social Change • Physical environment – desert expansion, loss of ice cover, weather patterns • Population – size, composition, distribution • Group conflict and resolution • Internal values and norms • Innovation – discovery and invention • Diffusion of cultural traits • The mass media A World of Change Perspectives on Social Change • Evolutionary – Unilinear • Social Darwinist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) • Laissez-faire capitalism and imperialism – Multilinear • Adaptive upgrading – Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) • Gerhard Lenski (b.1924): evolution depends on a society’s level of technology and mode of economic production A World of Change Lenski’s underlying continuum of societies Industrial Agrarian Advanced horticultural Simple horticultural Hunting and gathering A World of Change Perspectives on Social Change (cont) • Cyclical – Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) • Studied 8 cultures • Development maturity decline death • Cultures have a lifespan of 1000 years – Arnold Toynbee (1885-1975) • A civilization grows when a creative minority successfully meets a severe challenge to the group – Primary agent in early failures was abrupt and highly disruptive climate change A World of Change Perspectives on Social Change (cont) • Functionalist – Society as a system in dynamic equilibrium, adjusting to disturbances – Sociologist William Ogburn (1922): Nonmaterial culture lags behind material culture A World of Change Perspectives on Social Change (cont) • Conflict – Tensions between competing groups are basic source of social change – Karl Marx’s dialectic – a world that is becoming – Dialectical materialism – every economic order grows to maximum efficiency, but includes internal flaws that result in decay – Change is both individual and social A World of Change The Information Revolution • 2003: 2/3 of U.S. households have computers and 57% have Internet access • Social impacts include: – Automation of workplace activities – Concentration of power – Relationship alteration – Losses of privacy and confidentiality – Expansion of methods of crime The Digital Divide Source: Figure generated by the authors using data from Day, Janus, and Davis, 2005. A World of Change A World of Change Social Change in Developing Nations • Modernization – a society moves from traditional socioeconomic arrangements to industrial ones. Example: East Asia • World system – societies develop based on their dependency on other societies. Examples: Latin America, Africa • Thomas Friedman: The World is Flat (2005) Collective Behavior Collective behaviors are ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that develop among a large number of people and that are relatively spontaneous and unstructured. Collective Behavior Varieties of Collective Behavior • Rumors – quick info, person-toperson • Fashions, fads, and crazes – folkways • Mass Hysteria – rapid dissemination of contagious anxiety – Mass psychogenic illness: “Bin Laden itch” • Panic – irrational, uncoordinated collective actions triggered by an immediate threat • Crowds – temporary gathering (types here) Collective Behavior • Types of crowds – Casual – people have little in common except perhaps viewing a common event – Conventional – people assembled for some specific purpose that act according to established norms – Expressive – gathering for selfstimulation and personal gratification Examples: religious revival, rock concert – Acting – excited, volatile collection of people engaged in rioting or other aggressive behavior ©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Collective Behavior • Shared characteristics of crowds – Suggestibility – lack of conventional norms; susceptibility – Deindividualization – diminished identity and self-awareness – Invulnerability – sense of power and invincibility ©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Collective Behavior Preconditions for Collective Behavior • Sociologist Neil Smelser (1963): Theory of collective behavior • Value-added model imported from economics • Six sequential steps determine range of final outcomes • Sometimes stages are missing or misordered, or other perspectives are better ©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Collective Behavior Smelser’s Six Determinants of Collective Behavior 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Structural conduciveness Structural strain Growth of a generalized belief Precipitating factors Mobilization of participants for action 6. Operation of social control Collective Behavior Explanations of Crowd Behavior • Contagion Theory – Gustave LeBon’s “the mob mind” (1896) – Imitation Suggestibility Circular Reaction • Convergence Theory – people in crowd have same predispositions – Hadley Cantril’s study of Texas lynching (1941) • Emergent-Norm Theory – Sherif (1936), Asch (1952), and Turner/Killian (1972) – Finding meaning in uncertain social situations – Developing new norms, then enforcing them Social Movements A social movement is a persistent and organized effort on the part of a relatively large number of people to bring about or resist change. Social Movements Causes of Social Movements • Deprivation – Marx’s relative deprivation – discontent from the gap between what people actually have and what they believe they should have – Example: civil rights movement (USA, 1960s) – James Davies’ J-curve Social Movements Davies’s J-Curve Theory of Revolution Source: Adapted from James C. Davies, “Toward a Theory of Revolution,” American Sociological Review, vol. 27, February 1962, fig. 1, p. 6. Social Movements Causes of Social Movements (cont) • Resource Mobilization – Social discontent is constant and endemic – Participants choose to join via rational process – Structural, organizational, strategic issues are critical – Sociologist Craig Jenkins (1985): The politics of insurgency: The farm worker movement in the 1960s. – John Hall’s four factors (1988) Social Movements John Hall’s Four Factors for Long-term Success of a Group 1. Common ethnic background or foreign language 2. Spiritual hierarchy, with authority members being of higher moral status 3. Obligatory confession 4. Wearing of special clothes or uniforms Social Movements An ideology is a set of ideas that provides individuals with conceptions of: the purposes of a social movement, a rationale for the movement's existence, an indictment of existing conditions, and a design for action. Social Movements Types of Social Movements • Revolutionary – replacement of existing value scheme • Reform – change implementation of existing value scheme • Resistance – blocks change or eliminates a previously instituted change • Expressive – concerned with renovating or renewing of people from within Social Movements Social revolution involves the overthrow of a society's state and class structures and the fashioning of new social arrangements. The natural history of revolutions view is that social revolutions pass through a set of common stages and patterns in their development. Social Movements Terrorism is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” U.S. Department of State, as quoted in Atran, Scott 2003. “Genesis of Suicide Terrorism”, Science, 299:1534-39. Social Movements Terrorism • Typically a media event • Suicide terrorists have same characteristics as surrounding population • Terrorists motivated by group commitment • Scott Atran (2003): – Sociological and psychological research into formation, recruitment, and retention – Reduce receptivity of recruits – Address the grievances of terrorist organizations Looking to the Future • Karl Popper – Conditional scientific predictions vs. unconditional historical prophecies – Role of science to “understand even the more remote consequences of possible actions” • Futurists – study of the future – Understand, predict, and plan – USA being restructured from industrial to information society – Modern societies shifting to global economy • Crisis forecasting – Los Alamos National Laboratory ©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Looking to the Future “We must … design strategies that minimize the impact of climate change on societies that are at greatest risk. This will require substantial international cooperation, without which the 21st century will likely witness unprecedented social disruptions.” – Weiss and Bradley, 2001 ©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.