1. Modern And Postmodern Societies
Social Change
Modern And Postmodern Societies
Society, Seventh Edition

2. Society, Seventh Edition
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
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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
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4. Society, Seventh Edition
Other Reasons Why
Conflict and social 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
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5. Society, Seventh Edition
National Map (p. 440) Who Stays Put? Residential Stability across the United States
Society, Seventh Edition

6. Types of Social Movements
Social Movements – an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change
Alternative
Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members
Example: planned parenthood
Redemptive
Selective focus, radical change
Example: some religious organizations
Reformative
Limited social change that targets all members of society
Example: equal rights amendment movement
Revolutionary
The most severe, striving for basic transformation of society
Example: ultra-conservative political movements
Society, Seventh Edition

7. Figure 16-1 (p. 441) Four Types of Social Movements
Society, Seventh Edition

8. Theories of Social Movements
Deprivation Theory
Social movements arise among people who feel deprived
Result of experiencing relative deprivation – a perceived disadvantage arising from some specific comparison
Critical evaluation
Why do social movements arise among some groups and not others
Theory suffers from circular reasoning
Focuses exclusively on the cause telling us little about movements themselves
Society, Seventh Edition

9. Theories of Social Movements
Wm. Kornhauser’s Mass-Society Theory
Social movements attract socially isolated people who feel personally insignificant.
Movements are personal as ell as political, giving people with week social ties a sense of purpose and belonging
Critical evaluation
Gives no clear standard fro measuring the extent to which we live in a mass society
Belittles the social justice issue suggesting it is flawed people not flawed society that are responsible
Research is mixed on support of theory
Society, Seventh Edition

10. Theories of Social Movements
Neil Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory
Six factors encouraging social movement
Structural conduciveness
Arise out of perceptions of problems
Structural strain
Experiencing relative deprivation
Growth and spread of an explanation
Making clear reasons and solutions for suffering
Society, Seventh Edition

11. Theories of Social Movements
Neil Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory
Six factors encouraging social movement (cont.)
Precipitating factors
Specific events give rise to collection action
Mobilization for action
Action stage; Protest and rallies
Lack of social control
Quick, harsh response, or giving the “green light” for change?
Critical evaluation
Same circular arguments as Kornhauser’s theory
Overlooks important role of resources, mass media and international alliances
Society, Seventh Edition

12. Theories of Social Movements
Resource-Mobilization Theory
No social movement is likely to succeed or even get off the ground without substantial resources
Money
Human labor
Offices and communication facilities
Access to mass media
Critical evaluation
Powerless can promote change if they are organized an have committed members
Overstates the extent to which powerful people are willing to challenge the status quo
Society, Seventh Edition

13. Theories of Social Movements
Cultural Theory
The people in any particular situation are likely to mobilize to form a social movement only to the extent that they develop shared understandings of the world that legitimate and motivate collective action
Critical evaluation
Does not address how and when powerful cultural symbols turn people from supporting the system toward protest
Society, Seventh Edition

14. Theories of Social Movements
New Social Movements Theory
Emphasizes the distinctive futures of recent social movements in postindustrial societies
Most of today’s movements are international
Tend to focus on cultural change and improving social and physical surroundings
Draws support from middle and upper classes
Critical Evaluation
Tends to exaggerate differences between past and present social movements
Society, Seventh Edition

15. Stages of Social Movements
Stage one: emergence
Perception that something is wrong
Stage two: coalescence
Defining itself and “going public”
Stage three: bureaucratization
Organizing rationally to get job done
Stage four: decline
Is the movement in need of regrouping or is it simply time for its demise?
Reasons:
Signals success has been reached
Signals organizational problems (leadership, etc.)
Leadership sells out to other interests
Demise may result from state-sponsored repression
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16. 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
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17. 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
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18. 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
Society, Seventh Edition

19. 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
Society, Seventh Edition

20. Society, Seventh Edition
Karl Marx & Capitalism
Industrial revolution was a capitalist revolution
Social conflict in capitalism sows seeds of egalitarian socialist revolution
Critical evaluation
Complex theory underestimates dominance of bureaucracy
Stifling socialist bureaucracies as bad or worse than dehumanizing capitalism
Society, Seventh Edition

21. 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
Society, Seventh Edition

22. David Riesman & Modernity & the Individual
Personal identity can be a problem since society changes so rapidly; Inherent instability
Social character refers to personality patterns common to members of a particular society
Tradition-directedness refers to rigid conformity to time-honored ways of living
Other-directedness refers to a receptiveness to the latest trends and fashions, often expressed in the practice of imitating others
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23. Society, Seventh Edition
Postmodernity Social Patterns Characteristic of Postindustrial Societies
In some ways, modernity has failed
Much poverty and stress
The bright light of progress is fading
Less confidence about future
Science no longer holds the answers
Science has created its share of problems
Cultural debates are intensifying
The promises of social movements have not been fulfilled
Social institutions are changing
All institutions are going through change, including the most basic, the family
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