1. Traditional, Modern And Postmodern Societies
Social Change
Traditional, Modern And Postmodern Societies
Macionis, Sociology,
Chapter Twenty-Four

2. Social Change – the transformation of culture and social institutions over time
Four major characteristics
Social change is inevitable, only the rate of change varies
Social change is sometimes intentional, but often is unplanned
Social change is controversial
Some social change matters more than others

3. Why Cultural Change Takes Place
Culture and change
Invention
Production of new objects, ideas, and social patterns
Discovery
Taking note of existing elements of a culture
Diffusion
The spread of products, people and information from one culture to another

4. Other Reasons Why Conflict and social change Ideas and change
Tensions and stressors between individuals and groups can bring about change
Different groups gain and lose power and privilege as they struggle for their own positions
Ideas and change
Ideas can fuel social movements which bring about social change
The idea of equal rights for everyone
Demographics and change
Increases and decreases in numbers can lead to social change as society may need to expand and/or contract
Need for jobs, housing, education, etc.

5. Modernity – Social Patterns Resulting From Industrialization
Peter Burger identified four characteristics of modernization – the process of social change begun by industrialization
Decline of small, traditional towns
High-tech communications puts small towns in touch with the world
Expansion of personal choice
An unending series of options referred to as individualization
Increasing diversity in beliefs
Modernization promotes a more rational, scientific world-view
Future orientation and growing awareness of time
People living in industrialized nations tend to focus more on the future than on the past

6. Ferdinand Tonnies & Loss of Community
With modernization comes the loss of gemeinschaft, or human community
Loss of community caring and the beginning of individualization and a business-like emphasis
Modernity brings about a condition referred to as gesellschaft, or impersonal relationships
People live among strangers and ignore most they pass on streets
Critical evaluation
Gemeinschaft exists in modern society
Didn’t distinguish between cause & effect
Romanticized traditional societies

7. Emile Durkheim & Division of Labor
Modernization is marked by increases in a complex division of labor
People performing highly distinctive roles rather than everyone performing the same daily routines
Society transformed from mechanical to organic solidarity
Mechanical solidarity refers to a time when society was held together by social bonds anchored in common moral sentiments
Organic solidarity refers to modernity during which time social bonding is accomplished by way of mutual dependence
Critical evaluation
Societies’ norms and values strong enough to avoid anomie
People value the personal freedom of modern society despite the risks

8. Max Weber and Rational Society
Modernization means replacing a traditional worldview is nothing more than the with a rational way of thinking
Modern people value efficiency, have little reverence for the past and adopt whatever social patterns allow them to achieve their goals
Critical evaluation
The alienation he attributes to bureaucracy actually stems from social inequality

9. Theoretical Analysis of Modernity
Structural-functional theory
Mass society is a society in which prosperity and bureaucracy have eroded traditional social ties
Draws upon the ideas of Tonnies, Durkheim and Weber
Social-conflict theory
Class society is a capitalist society with pronounced social stratification
Draws upon the ideas of Marx
Critical evaluation
Mass society ignores social inequality, romanticizes the past
Class society overlooks the way equality in modern society has increased

10. Modernization and the Future
Modernization theory claims that in the past the entire world was poor and that technological change, especially the Industrial Revolution, enhanced human productivity and raised living standards in every nation
Solution to poverty – promote technological development around the world

11. Modernization and the Future
Dependency theory: Today’s poor societies have little ability to modernize, even if they want to
Rich nations achieved their modernization at the expense of poor ones
Solution to poverty – Discontinue ties with rich countries that perpetuate current patterns of global inequality

12. “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, and quietly building new structures.”
-John F. Kennedy