The Real World
An Introduction to Sociology
Fourth Edition
Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein
Chapter 16: Social
Change: Looking
Toward Tomorrow
What Is Social
Change?
• Sociologists define social
change as the transformation of
a culture over time.
• This can be:
• deliberate, intended
• unplanned, unintentional
• Some changes are more controversial
than others.
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What Is Social
Change? (cont’d.)
• There are several ways that
social change can occur:
• Major physical event (hurricanes,
earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions)
• Demographic factors (for example, the aging
of baby boomers)
• Discoveries and innovations (fire, the wheel)
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What Is Social
Change? (cont’d.)
• The most important
contributions to
social change have
been made through
collective action
(like the civil rights
movement).
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Collective Behavior
• Collective behavior: a group
or crowd of people who form
together to take action toward a shared
goal.
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Theories of Collective
Behavior
• Contagion theory: Individuals
who join a crowd or mob
become “infected” by a mob mentality
and lose the ability to reason.
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Theories of Collective
Behavior (cont’d.)
• Emergent norm theory states
that:
• Individual members of a crowd make
their own decisions about behavior.
• Norms are created through others’
acceptance or rejection of these
behaviors.
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Types of Collective
Behavior
Collective behavior can take three
different forms:
• Crowd — temporary gathering of individuals
(spontaneous or planned) with a common focus.
• Riot — continuous disorderly behavior by a
group of people that disturbs the peace and is
directed toward other people or property.
• Mass behavior — large groups of people
engage in similar behaviors without necessarily
being in the same place.
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Examples of Mass
Behavior
• Fads—interests
or practices
followed enthusiastically
for a relatively short period
of time.
• Fashion—the widespread
custom or style of behavior
and appearance at a
particular time or in a
particular place.
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Examples of Mass
Behavior (cont’d.)
• A social dilemma happens when a
behavior is rational for an individual but it
can lead to collective disaster when
practiced by many people.
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Specific Social
Dilemmas
• Tragedy of the commons—many
individuals overexploit a public resource
and deplete or degrade it.
• Public goods dilemma—individuals must
contribute to a collective resource, even
though they might not benefit from it.
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Collective Behavior
(cont’d.)
• A social movement refers to
any social group with leadership,
organization, and an ideological
commitment to promote or resist social
change.
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Collective Behavior
(cont’d.)
• Armand Mauss identified
the four stages that social
movements tend to go through.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Public defines problem
People organize
Movement becomes bureaucratized
Movement begins to decline
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Emergent Social Movements:
Promoting and Resisting Change
• Because society is constantly
changing, new social movements and
different opportunities for activism (any
activity intended to bring about social
change) are constantly emerging.
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Types of Social
Movements
• Some emerging social
movements are regressive
(attempt to resist social changes,
maintain the status quo, or go back to an
earlier form of social order)
• Others are more progressive (efforts to
promote forward-thinking social change)
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Technology and
Social Change
• Sociologists have developed
a number of theories to
explain the role of
technology in social change.
One common characteristic
of these theories is an
emphasis on technological
determinism (the idea that
technology plays a defining
role in shaping society).
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Technology and
Social Change (cont’d.)
• Cultural lag refers to the time
between changes in material
culture or technology and the resulting
changes in the broader culture’s relevant
norms, values, meanings, and laws.
• Cultural diffusion refers to the spread of
material and nonmaterial culture to new
cultural groups regardless of the
movement of people.
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Technology and
Social Change (cont’d.)
• Cultural imperialism refers to
cultural influence caused by
adopting another culture’s products
rather than by an imposing military force.
• Cultural leveling is the process by which
societies lose their uniqueness and
become increasingly similar.
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Implications for a
Postmodern World
• Modernity refers to the social
conditions and attitudes
characteristic of industrialized societies,
including the decline of tradition, an
increase in individualism, and a belief in
progress, technology, and science.
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Implications for a
Postmodern World (cont’d.)
Postmodernity refers to the social
conditions and attitudes characteristic of
postindustrialized societies, including a
focus on the production and management
of information and skepticism of science
and technology.
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Chapter 16:
Participation Questions
Have you ever been part of a
group that was working toward a
shared goal?
a. yes
b. no
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Chapter 16:
Participation Questions
Have you ever engaged in an act
of activism (an activity intended to
bring about social change)?
a. yes
b. no
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Chapter 16:
Participation Questions
Do you have a Facebook
account?
a. yes
b. no
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Chapter 16:
Participation Questions
Have you traveled abroad? If so,
did you notice any American influence on the
local culture?
a. I haven’t traveled abroad.
b. I have traveled abroad but didn’t see
much American influence.
c. I have traveled abroad and I saw a little
American influence.
d. I have traveled abroad and I saw a lot of
American influence.
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This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint presentation for
Chapter 16
© 2014 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
The Real World
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
4th Edition
Kerry Ferris
and
Jill Stein
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