Chapter 18, Section 1
Remember, sociology stemmed from the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1800s. Social change= alterations in various aspects of society over time. Led to the formation of four major theories to explain the process.
Views change from a historical perspective. States that societies pass through stages of emergence, development, and then decline. Social change is a natural offshoot of that cycle. Oswald Spengler and Pitirim Sorokin.
Spengler 4 stages of societies: childhood, youth, adulthood and old age. Western civilization reached ‘adulthood’ around 1700…. so now it is on the decline and will eventually disappear. Sorokin Societies fluctuate between two extremes– ideational culture (belief/truth in religion) and sensate culture (belief/truth in science). ▪ The balance is known as idealistic culture.
Views change as a process that moves in one direction, and grows in complexity. As members in a society adapt, they push society to develop more extensively. Difference between early evolutionary sociologists and modern ones.
Early Evolutionary Comte, Spencer Justified social and political conditions; Distinction between weaker and stronger countries. Modern Evolutionary Societies have a tendency to be more complex over time; Progress does not mean the same in all societies.
Change in one aspect of society yields changes in all aspects– societies maintain balance Functionalist Talcott Parsons As a society encounters new norms, it differentiates between old and new, and the new ones become institutionalized.
Change results from conflicts between groups of opposing interests. Karl Marx and Ralf Dahrendorf Marx’s class conflict differences between classes lead to revolutions (an extreme form of social change).
Agreed with Marx in that conflict is central to all societies. Social conflict is not just between classes, but race, gender, etc. as well. Also believed that revolution does not yield all social change within modern, industrial societies– interest groups.