What is Social Change?
SOC103 How Society Works
CHAPTER 12 Social Change, Collective Behaviour, Social Movements, and the Future MODULE 12.1 – What is Social Change?
Social change: changes in the typical features of a society (e.g. norms and values) over time; ongoing and inevitable o Occurs when there are modifications or adjustments to public policy, cultural traditions, or social institutions that at times are inspired by collective behaviors o Broad concept used to explore changes that take place in interpersonal relations as in society’s social organization Collective behavior: occurs when people come together to achieve a meaningful short-term goal that may result in social change o Not regulated by everyday rules and expectations that normally shape people’s actions Social movement: collection of people who are organized to bring about or resist social change o Movement emerge from grassroots organizations that operate outside existing social power structures, including established political parties and the legal system Rules of social change: 1. Change originates within what are seen as cutting-edge sources 2. Change addresses strongly felt need among the public 3. Change is material rather than nonmaterial 4. Change is broadly compatible with people’s existing values
THE LIFE CYCLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE Innovation: something new that inspires social change o Early adopters who are young, tend to live in cities, are middle class (or higher) with good education and enjoy distinguishing themselves from the crowed by setting trends, not following them Exponential growth: the adoption of a new technology or behaviour by the majority of the population Saturation: the point at which a new technology or behaviour becomes a part of everyday living Understanding how technology can spread through society o Digital natives: Prensky’s term for people who grow up with digital technologies o Digital immigrants: Prensky’s term for people who grew up before digital technologies became commonplace OPPOSITION TO SOCIAL CHANGE Vested interests: Veblen’s term to describe why privileged members of society resist change o Since leisure class gain wealth and social position not by personal actions or attributes but through inheritance, would resist change as it might cost them their lives of privilege Luddites: a loosely bounded group of displaced textile workers who destroyed the new machines that put them out of work in the early nineteenth century INSPIRATIONS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE Technology: anything that provides an artificial means to achieve a given end or result o Inspires a great deal of social change that is the application of knowledge to achieve practical purposes Living through harsh physical environments by altering material culture and social behaviour Demographic shifts due to events such as immigration, increased or decreased birth rates, migration of people who can create social change, and growing population of healthy seniors Economic competition with the emergence of China and India as industrial powerhouses has led to a reordering of global capitalism Warfare has a prime inspiration for technological development for military application Ideas such as free will, evolution, democracy, and freedom inspires social change Governments with strong political leadership and mobilize large-scale efforts to alter the character of a society Individuals can inspire social change through personality, charisma, and conviction Social movements where ordinary people come together to fight for or against something, tremendous social changes can occur SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SOCIAL CHANGE Functionalists interested in the forces that keep a society stable than in those that change it o Emergence of social problems indicates that social system needs to change in order to regain a state of equilibrium o Equilibrium theory: the assertion that a system requires changes in another part in order for society to return to a natural state of balance and harmony
SOC103 How Society Works
Conflict theory argues that since the rich and powerful maintain their control over society to benefit their interests, anything that challenges the status quo will be resisted o True equality possible only in the final stage of social development: communism o To achieve equality, social change as coming about through active revolt against oppression and exploitation; considers conflict as inevitable and necessary to inspire social change that will rid the world of inequality
Evolutionary theory believed that societies move through three stages of evolution, called Law of Three Stages 1. Theological stage – use religion and the acts of god to explain the world and human behaviour 2. Metaphysical stage – societies question the teachings of religion, and can understand and explain the universe through their own insight 3. Positive stage – use science to understanding the world o Unilinear evolutionary theory: assertion that there is only one path through which an organism or society can evolve o Universal evolutionary theory: assertion that all societies must process in the same manner o Neoevolutionary theory: Lenski’s analysis of the role that technology plays in people’s adjustment to the physical world; it is multilinear, continuous, and fluid
Cyclical theory assumes social change occurs in a cycle; there is an ebb and flow through time according to a series of endless cycles (Pitirim Sorokin) social change occurs over time by moving back and forth between two opposites: o Ideational culture: society driven to seek and achieve spiritual goals o Sensate culture: society that interprets the social and physical world through the senses
MODULE 12.2 – COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR
Collectivity: substantial number of people who join together on the basis of loosely defined norms o Little solidarity or loyalty, short period of time, no defined boundaries, few recognized leaders, display only basic division of labour Localized collectivities: collectivities in which the members are located in one another’s immediate physical presence Dispersed collectivities: collectivities in which the members are in different places at the same time
LOCALIZED COLLECTIVITIES Crowds: unorganized collections of people who gather temporarily for a particular cause and are united by common mood Four types of crowds: 1. Casual crowd: unorganized collection of people who just happen to be in the same place at the same time Lacks formal leadership or structure and is the simplest form of collective behaviour 2. Casual crowd: chance collection of individuals in the same location at the same time Generally behave in ways that are appropriate to given activity and disperse without incident 3. Expressive crowd: collection of people who gather intentionally to express their emotions 4. Acting crowd: collection of people who gather to express anger and direct it outwardly at a specific person, category of people, or event Mob: a crowd that gathers to achieve an emotionally driven goal Flash mob: a planned gathering of large numbers of people for a brief and predetermined period of time Riot: type of acting crowed that directs its anger towards multiple targets, moving from one to another in unpredictable ways Protest crowd: deliberately assembled crowd to rally support for a social movement DISPERSED COLLECTIVITIES More likely to react in emotional or relatively unconventional ways to situations or messages Five types of dispersed collective behaviours: 1. Rumours: specific information passed from person to person that lacks reliable evidence; helps to justify, explain, and provide meaning to ambiguous situations Gossip: intimate and personal communication meant to be entertaining Urban legend: short, persistent, nonverifiable tale with an ironic or supernatural twist
SOC103 How Society Works 2. 3. 4.
5.
Mass hysteria: occurs when people react to a real or imagined event with irrational or frantic fear Disasters: an unexpected event that causes extensive damages to people, animals, and property Fashion, fads, and crazes Fashion: social pattern that outwardly expresses an individual’s identity as being “with it” Fad: short-lived but enthusiastically embraced new cultural element o Four distinct types of fads: object fads (cellphones, pogs), idea fads (astrology, UFOs), activity fads (tongue piercing, bungee jumping), and personality fads (Elvis, Oprah) Craze: widespread emotional connection to a cultural phenomenon Public: accumulation of people who have a defined political interest for meeting and who are organized by a common mood Intended to establish a new norm or law, policy, or practice that would guide people’s behaviour and actions
SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR Contagion theory basic assumption is that groups exerts a powerful influence on the individual o When gathering in crowds, individual loses conscious personality and has it replaced by uncivilized and potentially barbaric “collective mind” o For collective mind to emerge, three complementary factors required: Anonymity – people have to feel that they are lost within the group Suggestibility – anonymity makes people more suggestible to the collective will Contagion – with two other factors present, increasingly likely that “mindless” emotional activity will spread through the group
Convergence theory argues that the group is not the source of negative, irrational behaviour but that behaviour appeals to a particular type of person o When like minds converge, more likely to manifest type of behaviour they were looking for in the first place
Emergent norm theory approach which aggressive or anti-social behaviours are viewed as resulting from adjustment to new norms that emerge within given group and in certain situations o Social norms in ambiguous situations where individuals turn to other for cues on how to behave o Views crowd behaviour as a result of dynamic exchanges between participants
MODULE 12.3 – SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Social movements are highly structured, rational, and enduring form of collective behaviour to stimulate change o Beings with small groups of people who possess little social power and who seek legitimacy, recognition, and change from existing social institutions such as government, political parties, and civic leaders Four characteristics that participate in social movement 1. They have a shared common identity 2. They act at least partly outside of traditional political institutions and use protest as one of their primary forms of action 3. They rely on non-institutionalized networks of interaction 4. They reject or challenge dominant forms of power Informal social movement: a social movement that emerges to challenge a specific local issue, such as a direct hazard, a plan, or a broader concern or threat o Common form of informal social movements is environmental groups that promote more responsible and sustainable lifestyles choices o What informal groups lack in resources, they make up for in passion and commitment Formal social movement: a large, well-integrated and established organization with bureaucratic procedures, but do not operate within society’s existing power structures (government or business) o Well integrated within society, well known to the public, and mainstay of regular media coverage Social movement organizations (SMOs) influence, inspire, and complement each other’s activities
TYPES OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Level of change – local movement versus national organization
SOC103 How Society Works
Direction of change – movements seen as progressive and in line with public opinion, while others wish to resist or reverse current trends Speed of change – some movements seek immediate change and others work for gradual change Target of change – some movements focus on individual behaviours while others are interested in society-wide change Combining these various features results in four different types of social movements: o Revolutionary movement: social movement that seeks a complete reorganization of society Movements emerge typically when previous efforts to bring about change have failed or proven inadequate Can be perceived by authoritarian regimes as attempts to undermine their rule and be deemed subversive and something to be crushed o Reformist movement: social movement that works within the existing social structure to improve society o Reactionary movement: social movement that emerges when groups resist an event or decision they feel they cannot tolerate Intent is to reverse the direction they feel society is travelling in and return to an earlier time Movements appeal to people who are uncomfortable with the way things currently are and fear what the future might hold o Religious movement: social movement grounded in a spiritual or supernatural belief system that are thought to inspire some form of inner change
LIFE CYCLE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Variety of social movements progress through a life cycle of four stages 1. Emergence/incipience – movement is unorganized and does not have a clear leadership or direction Rather than having defined set of issues or remedies, segment of society feels dissatisfied or disillusioned with current state of affairs 2. Coalescence – movement starts to gain some momentum and to attract new members Begins to establish formal organization in order to develop a strategy for change and to communicate concerns to the larger society 3. Bureaucratization/institutionalization – for movement to have influence on social change, must incorporate some bureaucratic organization to manage its affairs As movement grows and gains stature, becomes increasingly respectable, which usually means that its tactics become less confrontational over time 4. Decline – movements collapses from internal or external pressures To be successful, must have recommendations implemented by those in position of authority Interest group: established lobby group that works within the system to promote change Common reasons for decline are fragmentation of ideas, power struggles among leaders, or loss of original charismatic leader SOCIOLOGICAL APPROCHES TO SOCIAL MOVEMENT Relative deprivation theory suggests that origin of many social movements resides in discontent of those who are dissatisfied with their present condition o Reactions to objective circumstances depend on their subjective comparison to those around them o Feelings of deprivation also arise when groups (based on racial, ethnic, sexual, or physical differences) perceive they are not being treated fairly by the society around them
Added-value theory holds six conditions must be met before a social movement can begin: o Condition 1: structural conduciveness – social movements emerge when people can identify who or what is responsible for social problems o Condition 2: structural strain – exists when society can no longer meet people’s expectations and little appears to have been done to fix the problem o Condition 3: growth and spread of a generalized belief – confidence in understanding how movement plans to solve the problem o Condition 4: precipitating incident – frustration for years until specific incident occurs that galvanizes need for immediate and collective action o Condition 5: mobilization for action – readiness to take action which can involve demonstrations and rallies o Condition 6: social control – involvement of a society’s formal social control agents, which can include police officers, military, elected officials, and civic leaders
SOC103 How Society Works
Response to situation can either incite greater conflict or bring everyone together to develop strategies to address the concern
Resource mobilization theory investigates how members of social movements gather and use resources to meet their needs o To be successful, social movements must secure money, time, and assistance from outside agencies, politicians, and media o Greatest challenge lies in finding people with the right balance of passion, skills, and abilities to assume leadership roles within organization o Theory places emphasis on resources, it diminishes importance of movement’s actual focus
New social movement theory holds that forms of action are motivated by collective identity found in the culture, ideology, and politics of post-industrial society o Defining feature is that they are more globally focused
CHAPTER 12 Social Change, Collective Behaviour, Social Movements, and the Future MODULE 12.1 – What is Social Change?
Social change: changes in the typical features of a society (e.g. norms and values) over time; ongoing and inevitable o Occurs when there are modifications or adjustments to public policy, cultural traditions, or social institutions that at times are inspired by collective behaviors o Broad concept used to explore changes that take place in interpersonal relations as in society’s social organization Collective behavior: occurs when people come together to achieve a meaningful short-term goal that may result in social change o Not regulated by everyday rules and expectations that normally shape people’s actions Social movement: collection of people who are organized to bring about or resist social change o Movement emerge from grassroots organizations that operate outside existing social power structures, including established political parties and the legal system Rules of social change: 1. Change originates within what are seen as cutting-edge sources 2. Change addresses strongly felt need among the public 3. Change is material rather than nonmaterial 4. Change is broadly compatible with people’s existing values
THE LIFE CYCLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE Innovation: something new that inspires social change o Early adopters who are young, tend to live in cities, are middle class (or higher) with good education and enjoy distinguishing themselves from the crowed by setting trends, not following them Exponential growth: the adoption of a new technology or behaviour by the majority of the population Saturation: the point at which a new technology or behaviour becomes a part of everyday living Understanding how technology can spread through society o Digital natives: Prensky’s term for people who grow up with digital technologies o Digital immigrants: Prensky’s term for people who grew up before digital technologies became commonplace OPPOSITION TO SOCIAL CHANGE Vested interests: Veblen’s term to describe why privileged members of society resist change o Since leisure class gain wealth and social position not by personal actions or attributes but through inheritance, would resist change as it might cost them their lives of privilege Luddites: a loosely bounded group of displaced textile workers who destroyed the new machines that put them out of work in the early nineteenth century INSPIRATIONS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE Technology: anything that provides an artificial means to achieve a given end or result o Inspires a great deal of social change that is the application of knowledge to achieve practical purposes Living through harsh physical environments by altering material culture and social behaviour Demographic shifts due to events such as immigration, increased or decreased birth rates, migration of people who can create social change, and growing population of healthy seniors Economic competition with the emergence of China and India as industrial powerhouses has led to a reordering of global capitalism Warfare has a prime inspiration for technological development for military application Ideas such as free will, evolution, democracy, and freedom inspires social change Governments with strong political leadership and mobilize large-scale efforts to alter the character of a society Individuals can inspire social change through personality, charisma, and conviction Social movements where ordinary people come together to fight for or against something, tremendous social changes can occur SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SOCIAL CHANGE Functionalists interested in the forces that keep a society stable than in those that change it o Emergence of social problems indicates that social system needs to change in order to regain a state of equilibrium o Equilibrium theory: the assertion that a system requires changes in another part in order for society to return to a natural state of balance and harmony
SOC103 How Society Works
Conflict theory argues that since the rich and powerful maintain their control over society to benefit their interests, anything that challenges the status quo will be resisted o True equality possible only in the final stage of social development: communism o To achieve equality, social change as coming about through active revolt against oppression and exploitation; considers conflict as inevitable and necessary to inspire social change that will rid the world of inequality
Evolutionary theory believed that societies move through three stages of evolution, called Law of Three Stages 1. Theological stage – use religion and the acts of god to explain the world and human behaviour 2. Metaphysical stage – societies question the teachings of religion, and can understand and explain the universe through their own insight 3. Positive stage – use science to understanding the world o Unilinear evolutionary theory: assertion that there is only one path through which an organism or society can evolve o Universal evolutionary theory: assertion that all societies must process in the same manner o Neoevolutionary theory: Lenski’s analysis of the role that technology plays in people’s adjustment to the physical world; it is multilinear, continuous, and fluid
Cyclical theory assumes social change occurs in a cycle; there is an ebb and flow through time according to a series of endless cycles (Pitirim Sorokin) social change occurs over time by moving back and forth between two opposites: o Ideational culture: society driven to seek and achieve spiritual goals o Sensate culture: society that interprets the social and physical world through the senses
MODULE 12.2 – COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR
Collectivity: substantial number of people who join together on the basis of loosely defined norms o Little solidarity or loyalty, short period of time, no defined boundaries, few recognized leaders, display only basic division of labour Localized collectivities: collectivities in which the members are located in one another’s immediate physical presence Dispersed collectivities: collectivities in which the members are in different places at the same time
LOCALIZED COLLECTIVITIES Crowds: unorganized collections of people who gather temporarily for a particular cause and are united by common mood Four types of crowds: 1. Casual crowd: unorganized collection of people who just happen to be in the same place at the same time Lacks formal leadership or structure and is the simplest form of collective behaviour 2. Casual crowd: chance collection of individuals in the same location at the same time Generally behave in ways that are appropriate to given activity and disperse without incident 3. Expressive crowd: collection of people who gather intentionally to express their emotions 4. Acting crowd: collection of people who gather to express anger and direct it outwardly at a specific person, category of people, or event Mob: a crowd that gathers to achieve an emotionally driven goal Flash mob: a planned gathering of large numbers of people for a brief and predetermined period of time Riot: type of acting crowed that directs its anger towards multiple targets, moving from one to another in unpredictable ways Protest crowd: deliberately assembled crowd to rally support for a social movement DISPERSED COLLECTIVITIES More likely to react in emotional or relatively unconventional ways to situations or messages Five types of dispersed collective behaviours: 1. Rumours: specific information passed from person to person that lacks reliable evidence; helps to justify, explain, and provide meaning to ambiguous situations Gossip: intimate and personal communication meant to be entertaining Urban legend: short, persistent, nonverifiable tale with an ironic or supernatural twist
SOC103 How Society Works 2. 3. 4.
5.
Mass hysteria: occurs when people react to a real or imagined event with irrational or frantic fear Disasters: an unexpected event that causes extensive damages to people, animals, and property Fashion, fads, and crazes Fashion: social pattern that outwardly expresses an individual’s identity as being “with it” Fad: short-lived but enthusiastically embraced new cultural element o Four distinct types of fads: object fads (cellphones, pogs), idea fads (astrology, UFOs), activity fads (tongue piercing, bungee jumping), and personality fads (Elvis, Oprah) Craze: widespread emotional connection to a cultural phenomenon Public: accumulation of people who have a defined political interest for meeting and who are organized by a common mood Intended to establish a new norm or law, policy, or practice that would guide people’s behaviour and actions
SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR Contagion theory basic assumption is that groups exerts a powerful influence on the individual o When gathering in crowds, individual loses conscious personality and has it replaced by uncivilized and potentially barbaric “collective mind” o For collective mind to emerge, three complementary factors required: Anonymity – people have to feel that they are lost within the group Suggestibility – anonymity makes people more suggestible to the collective will Contagion – with two other factors present, increasingly likely that “mindless” emotional activity will spread through the group
Convergence theory argues that the group is not the source of negative, irrational behaviour but that behaviour appeals to a particular type of person o When like minds converge, more likely to manifest type of behaviour they were looking for in the first place
Emergent norm theory approach which aggressive or anti-social behaviours are viewed as resulting from adjustment to new norms that emerge within given group and in certain situations o Social norms in ambiguous situations where individuals turn to other for cues on how to behave o Views crowd behaviour as a result of dynamic exchanges between participants
MODULE 12.3 – SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Social movements are highly structured, rational, and enduring form of collective behaviour to stimulate change o Beings with small groups of people who possess little social power and who seek legitimacy, recognition, and change from existing social institutions such as government, political parties, and civic leaders Four characteristics that participate in social movement 1. They have a shared common identity 2. They act at least partly outside of traditional political institutions and use protest as one of their primary forms of action 3. They rely on non-institutionalized networks of interaction 4. They reject or challenge dominant forms of power Informal social movement: a social movement that emerges to challenge a specific local issue, such as a direct hazard, a plan, or a broader concern or threat o Common form of informal social movements is environmental groups that promote more responsible and sustainable lifestyles choices o What informal groups lack in resources, they make up for in passion and commitment Formal social movement: a large, well-integrated and established organization with bureaucratic procedures, but do not operate within society’s existing power structures (government or business) o Well integrated within society, well known to the public, and mainstay of regular media coverage Social movement organizations (SMOs) influence, inspire, and complement each other’s activities
TYPES OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Level of change – local movement versus national organization
SOC103 How Society Works
Direction of change – movements seen as progressive and in line with public opinion, while others wish to resist or reverse current trends Speed of change – some movements seek immediate change and others work for gradual change Target of change – some movements focus on individual behaviours while others are interested in society-wide change Combining these various features results in four different types of social movements: o Revolutionary movement: social movement that seeks a complete reorganization of society Movements emerge typically when previous efforts to bring about change have failed or proven inadequate Can be perceived by authoritarian regimes as attempts to undermine their rule and be deemed subversive and something to be crushed o Reformist movement: social movement that works within the existing social structure to improve society o Reactionary movement: social movement that emerges when groups resist an event or decision they feel they cannot tolerate Intent is to reverse the direction they feel society is travelling in and return to an earlier time Movements appeal to people who are uncomfortable with the way things currently are and fear what the future might hold o Religious movement: social movement grounded in a spiritual or supernatural belief system that are thought to inspire some form of inner change
LIFE CYCLE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Variety of social movements progress through a life cycle of four stages 1. Emergence/incipience – movement is unorganized and does not have a clear leadership or direction Rather than having defined set of issues or remedies, segment of society feels dissatisfied or disillusioned with current state of affairs 2. Coalescence – movement starts to gain some momentum and to attract new members Begins to establish formal organization in order to develop a strategy for change and to communicate concerns to the larger society 3. Bureaucratization/institutionalization – for movement to have influence on social change, must incorporate some bureaucratic organization to manage its affairs As movement grows and gains stature, becomes increasingly respectable, which usually means that its tactics become less confrontational over time 4. Decline – movements collapses from internal or external pressures To be successful, must have recommendations implemented by those in position of authority Interest group: established lobby group that works within the system to promote change Common reasons for decline are fragmentation of ideas, power struggles among leaders, or loss of original charismatic leader SOCIOLOGICAL APPROCHES TO SOCIAL MOVEMENT Relative deprivation theory suggests that origin of many social movements resides in discontent of those who are dissatisfied with their present condition o Reactions to objective circumstances depend on their subjective comparison to those around them o Feelings of deprivation also arise when groups (based on racial, ethnic, sexual, or physical differences) perceive they are not being treated fairly by the society around them
Added-value theory holds six conditions must be met before a social movement can begin: o Condition 1: structural conduciveness – social movements emerge when people can identify who or what is responsible for social problems o Condition 2: structural strain – exists when society can no longer meet people’s expectations and little appears to have been done to fix the problem o Condition 3: growth and spread of a generalized belief – confidence in understanding how movement plans to solve the problem o Condition 4: precipitating incident – frustration for years until specific incident occurs that galvanizes need for immediate and collective action o Condition 5: mobilization for action – readiness to take action which can involve demonstrations and rallies o Condition 6: social control – involvement of a society’s formal social control agents, which can include police officers, military, elected officials, and civic leaders
SOC103 How Society Works
Response to situation can either incite greater conflict or bring everyone together to develop strategies to address the concern
Resource mobilization theory investigates how members of social movements gather and use resources to meet their needs o To be successful, social movements must secure money, time, and assistance from outside agencies, politicians, and media o Greatest challenge lies in finding people with the right balance of passion, skills, and abilities to assume leadership roles within organization o Theory places emphasis on resources, it diminishes importance of movement’s actual focus
New social movement theory holds that forms of action are motivated by collective identity found in the culture, ideology, and politics of post-industrial society o Defining feature is that they are more globally focused
