Forces of Social Change
“Everyone over the age of forty
is an immigrant”
- Margaret Mead
What is Social
Change?
• Social Change: Changes in the way
society is organized, and the beliefs
and practices of the people who believe in it
• All societies are involved in a process of social change, however
this change may be so subtle and slow that society is hardly
aware of it
• The opposite of social change is social continuity which means
that there are structures within society which are built to resist
change. Example - the Catholic Church
Examples of Social
Change
• Question 1 – How has the development
of housing in Markham changed?
• Question 2: How has public opinion shifted
regarding social issues such as:
-Smoking
-Domestic Violence
-Divorce
-Abortion
-Homosexuality
Power of the Individual(s)?
• Sociologist Max Weber claimed that one of the most important
components of social change was a LEADER with CHARISMA (large
vision, magnetic style, strong popular support and extraordinary
character). This leader places great demands on his or her
followers, promises rewards for their support . Examples?
• Sociologist Samuel Eisenstadt
claimed that in most societies,
there exists one or more
MODERNIZING ELITES, groups
of people who create significant
social change and influence the
direction it goes
Examples?
Alienation of the People
• Sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the
word ”anomie” to describe the conditions
of the industrial workers who had no roots or norms as they
struggled in their lives
• Sociologist Karl Marx took this term and applied it to working
people or “proletariat”. He claimed the workers were exploited
and controlled (employment, housing) and could never reach
full potential
• This notion has been expanded it mean anyone who does not
share the major values of society and feels like an outsider
• Effects?
Conformity of the
People
• Conformity is the act of maintaining
a certain degree of similarity
(in clothing, manners, behaviors,
etc.) to those in your general social
circles, to those in authority, or to
the general status quo. Usually, conformity implies a tendency to
submit to others in thought and behavior other than simply clothing
choice
• Informational Influence: human desire to accept information that
another, admired person tells us is valid (ie. Parent, teacher, coach)
• Normative Influence: pressure to conform to the positive
expectations of others (ie. Follow in footsteps of parent’s career)
• Effects?
Natural Forces of
Social Change
GEOGRAPHY
• This is when the natural
lay of the land has affected
the way societies have developed Examples?
• Natural disasters can also drastically change a society (floods,
earthquakes, volcanoes)
ENVIRONMENT
• Pollution, garbage, ozone, car emissions, smog, recycling
• national, provincial and local programs that address
environmental problems
• Effects?
External Events as Forces
of Social Change
• External events are events that have occurred on a
large scale affecting an entire nation or several
nations
• These events have a large and immediate impact on
social change
Examples
• American Civil War – abolished slavery
• WWII – forced women into the workforce and they never
returned home
• September 11/2001 – a change of thought regarding national
threat and security
Poverty and
Affluence
• Karl Marx was first to point
sociology to study inequality
in society
• Income inequalities:
gap between earnings of the rich and poor
• Is social inequality an inherent part of human social structures?
• Does society have a responsibility in trying to deal with the
effects of income inequality?
• Effects? - education, crime, housing
• Examples?
Values and Social Change: Pluralism
• Singularity- belief that everyone in society should act and think
the same way
• Pluralism- widespread acceptance of differences in culture,
religion, values and lifestyle
• Inclusiveness- all law abiding people, regardless of their
particular background, should be able to play a constructive
role in the life of the nation
• Examples: struggle for inclusiveness with women obtaining
equal roles and status to traditionally ‘male’ roles
Technology
• Technology has strongly
affected the way societies
are designed and how they
keep changing
• People receive their
information more quickly
now, can communicate in
different ways
• Greatest invention of the
millennium? Guesses?
• Impact…
Coping with Technological Change –
Positive or Negative???
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Over dependency
Creation of ‘mass culture’
Changes in Gender roles
Social Isolation
Addiction
Positive and Negative
consequences?
• Luddites: People who oppose
new technologies are often
called “luddites” after a secret
society whose goal it was to
destroy new textile machines
during the early years of the
Industrial Revolution