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1. 03/01/2016
Social Change
On the concerned factors, theorist perspectives, modernisation and globalisation

2. What is Social Change?
✤ refers to any important change over time in patterns
of social behavior, cultural values and norms, structure
✤ indicates the alterations taking place within human
relationships and interrelations

3. What is Social Change?
✤ “Social change refers to the change in social structure.”
- H.M. Johnson
✤ “… is meant only such alternation, that occurs in society, that is, the structure and
function of society.”
- K. Davis
✤ “… used to describe variation… of social process, social pattern, social interaction or
social organization.”
- M.E. Jones
✤ “… a large number of persons are engaging in activity that differ from those which they
or their forefathers engaged in some time before.”
- Merrill & Eldredge

4. Characteristics of Social Change
1. Social change is universal.
2. Its speed is related to time factor.
3. Its speed is unequal and comparative.
4. It is an essential law.
5. It may be planned or unplanned.
6. It may be short term or long term.
7. It lacks definite prediction.
8. It is a community change.

5. Factors of change
✤ Education
✤ Technology
✤ Legislation
✤ Physical environment
✤ Population changes
✤ Isolation and contact
✤ Social structure
✤ Attitudes and values
✤ Mass media

6. Social movements
✤ purposeful, organized groups striving to work
towards a common goal
✤ may be attempting to create change or resist it
✤ instigate social changes

7. Types of Social Movements
✤ Reform - seek to change something about the social structure
✤ Revolutionary - seeks to change every aspect of society
✤ Redemptive - “meaning seeking”; provokes inner change or spiritual
growth
✤ Revivalist - regressive; highlights importance of traditional values,
ideologies, etc.; criticise the changes of the present
✤ Resistance - prevent / undo changes in society
✤ Alternative - focused on self-improvement and limited, specific changes to
individual beliefs and behaviours

8. Functionalist perspective
✤ social movements are not actual activities, but are
ways for people to vent their frustrations and emotions
✤ venting upsets the balance of society
✤ movements also bring individuals together, allowing
those who feel isolated and alone to feel like they’re
part of something bigger

9. Conflict theorist perspective
✤ social structures are the cause of movements
✤ people focus on inequality, and this causes discontent
which makes people seek change
✤ movements are fights between opposing forces over
resources and power

10. Interactionist perspective
✤ movements are caused by deprivation
✤ when a person’s expectations are not met, discontent
arises; if expectations are not continually met, people
are more likely to start movements
✤ perception is key

11. Globalization
✤ The present has reached a point where social change is far too
numerous, and has accelerated in the recent generations as
compared to the older progenitors.
✤ McDonaldization - process of rationalisation, where tasks are
broken down into smaller tasks until they are the simplest.
The resulting tasks are then rationalised to find the single
most efficient way of completing them. All other methods are
discarded.
✤ Over-rationalizing creates the side-effect of irrationality.

12. McDonaldization
✤ possesses four main dimensions
✤ Efficiency - optimum method to completing a task
✤ Calculability - quantity over quality
✤ Predictability - uniformity of product and standardised
outcomes
✤ Control - substitution of more predictable non-human labor
for human labor

13. References
✤ Social change defined. Cliffs Notes.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/sociology/social-change-and-movements/social-change-defined
✤ Meaning and Characteristics of Social Change; Factors of Social Change. Oscar Education.
http://oscareducation.blogspot.in/2013/06/meaning-and-characteristics-of-social.html
http://oscareducation.blogspot.in/2013/06/factors-of-social-change.html
✤ Factors of Social Change. Sociology Guide. http://www.sociologyguide.com/social-change/factors-of-
change.php
✤ Social Movement Types. Sociology Guide. http://www.sociologyguide.com/social-change/factors-of-
change.php
✤ Social Movements and Social change. BC Open Textbooks.
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/
✤ McDonaldization. What Is McDonaldization? http://www.mcdonaldization.com/whatisit.shtml