Chapter 16, Social Change Key Terms

global interdependence A state in which the social, political, financial and cultural lives of people around the world are intertwined such that one country’s problems are part of a larger global situation. globalization The process of ever-increasing “cross-border flows of goods, services, money, people, information, and culture.”

social change Any significant alteration, modification, or transformation in the reorganization and operation of social life. Innovation The invention or discovery of something new-- an idea, a process, a practice, a device, or a tool.

basic innovations Revolutionary, unprecedented, or ground- breaking inventions that serve as the cornerstones for a wide range of applications. improving innovations Modifications of basic inventions that improve upon the originals- that is, to make them smaller, faster, less complicated, or more efficient, attractive or profitable.

hypertext Allows readers to pick and choose among highlighted key words and follow links to related documents that are stored in computers around the world. dearth of feedback A situation in which not enough critical readers and listeners evaluate material before it is used by the popular media.

cultural base The number of existing inventions. invention A synthesis of existing inventions.

simultaneous-independent inventions Situations in which the same invention is created by two or more persons working independently of one another at about the same time. adaptive culture The portion of the nonmaterial culture, that adjusts to material innovations.

cultural lag A situation in which adaptive culture fails to adjust in necessary ways to material innovation. technological determinist Someone who believes that people have no free will and are controlled entirely by their material innovations.

paradigms The dominant and widely accepted theories and concepts in a particular field of study. anomaly An observation or observations that a paradigm cannot explain.

globalization-from-above A term describing the Internet's ability to connect those people around the world with educational, economic, and political advantages, excluding those who are not so advantaged.

globalization-from-below Interdependence at the grassroots level that aims to protect the environment, enhance ordinary people's access to basic resources, democratize political institutions, and ease tensions and prevent violent conflict between power centers and authority structures.

social movement A situation in which a substantial number of people organize to change, to resist change, or to undo change in some area of society. regressive or reactionary social movements Social movements with the goal of turning back the hands of time to an earlier condition or state of being sometimes defined as a golden era.

reformist movements Social movement that target some specific feature of society as needing change. revolutionary movements Social movements that seek broad, sweeping, and radical structural changes to a society’s basic social institutions or to the world order.

counterrevolutionary movements Social movements that seek to maintain a social order that reform and revolutionary movements are seeking to change. objective deprivation A condition that applies to those who are the worst off or most disadvantaged- people with the lowest incomes,least education, lowest social status, fewest opportunities, and so on.

relative deprivation A condition that is measured, not by objective standards, but by comparing one group's situation to that of those who are more advantaged. terrorism Anxiety inspiring and violent actions taken by a clandestine or semi-clandestine individual, group, or state-supported actors for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons.

resource mobilization A situation in which a core group of sophisticated strategists work to harness the disaffected person's energies, attract money and supporters, capture the media’s attention, forge alliances with those in power, and create an organizational structure.