Chapter 16: Social Change: Looking Toward Tomorrow

1. Chapter 16: Social Change: Looking Toward Tomorrow

2. What Is Social Change? • Sociologists define social change as the transformation of a culture over time. • This can be: • deliberate, intended • unplanned, unintentional • Some changes are more controversial than others. 2

3. What Is Social Change? (cont’d.) • There are several ways that social change can occur: • Major physical event (hurricanes, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions) • Demographic factors (for example, the aging of baby boomers) • Discoveries and innovations (fire, the wheel) 3

4. What Is Social Change? (cont’d.) • The most important contributions to social change have been made through collective action (like the civil rights movement). 4

5. Collective Behavior • Collective behavior: a group or crowd of people who form together to take action toward a shared goal. 5

6. Theories of Collective Behavior • Contagion theory: Individuals who join a crowd or mob become “infected” by a mob mentality and lose the ability to reason. 6

7. Theories of Collective Behavior (cont’d.) • Emergent norm theory states that: • Individual members of a crowd make their own decisions about behavior. • Norms are created through others’ acceptance or rejection of these behaviors. 7

8. Types of Collective Behavior Collective behavior can take three different forms: • Crowd — temporary gathering of individuals (spontaneous or planned) with a common focus. • Riot — continuous disorderly behavior by a group of people that disturbs the peace and is directed toward other people or property. • Mass behavior — large groups of people engage in similar behaviors without necessarily being in the same place. 8

9. Examples of Mass Behavior • Fads—interests or practices followed enthusiastically for a relatively short period of time. • Fashion—the widespread custom or style of behavior and appearance at a particular time or in a particular place. 9

10. Examples of Mass Behavior (cont’d.) • A social dilemma happens when a behavior is rational for an individual but it can lead to collective disaster when practiced by many people. 10

11. Specific Social Dilemmas • Tragedy of the commons—many individuals overexploit a public resource and deplete or degrade it. • Public goods dilemma—individuals must contribute to a collective resource, even though they might not benefit from it. 11

12. Collective Behavior (cont’d.) • A social movement refers to any social group with leadership, organization, and an ideological commitment to promote or resist social change. 12

13. Collective Behavior (cont’d.) • Armand Mauss identified the four stages that social movements tend to go through. • Public defines problem • People organize • Movement becomes bureaucratized • Movement begins to decline 13

14. Emergent Social Movements: Promoting and Resisting Change • Because society is constantly changing, new social movements and different opportunities for activism (any activity intended to bring about social change) are constantly emerging. 14

15. Types of Social Movements • Some emerging social movements are regressive(attempt to resist social changes, maintain the status quo, or go back to an earlier form of social order) • Others are more progressive (efforts to promote forward-thinking social change) 15

16. Technology andSocial Change • Sociologists have developed a number of theories to explain the role of technology in social change. One common characteristic of these theories is an emphasis on technological determinism (the idea that technology plays a defining role in shaping society). 16

17. Technology andSocial Change (cont’d.) • Cultural lag refers to the time between changes in material culture or technology and the resulting changes in the broader culture’s relevant norms, values, meanings, and laws. • Cultural diffusion refers to the spread of material and nonmaterial culture to new cultural groups regardless of the movement of people. 17

18. Technology and Social Change (cont’d.) • Cultural imperialism refers to cultural influence caused by adopting another culture’sproducts rather than by an imposing military force. • Cultural leveling is the process by which societies lose their uniqueness and become increasingly similar. 18

19. Implications for a Postmodern World • Modernity refers to the social conditions and attitudes characteristic of industrialized societies, including the decline of tradition, an increase in individualism, and a belief in progress, technology, and science. 19

20. Implications for a Postmodern World (cont’d.) Postmodernity refers to the social conditions and attitudes characteristic of postindustrialized societies, including a focus on the production and management of information and skepticism of science and technology. 20

21. Chapter 16: Participation Questions • Have you ever been part of a group that was working toward a shared goal? • yes • no 21

22. Chapter 16: Participation Questions • Have you ever engaged in an act of activism (an activity intended to bring about social change)? • yes • no 22

23. Chapter 16: Participation Questions • Do you have a Facebook account? • yes • no 23

24. Chapter 16: Participation Questions • Have you traveled abroad? If so, did you notice any American influence on the local culture? • I haven’t traveled abroad. • I have traveled abroad but didn’t see much American influence. • I have traveled abroad and I saw a little American influence. • I have traveled abroad and I saw a lot of American influence. 24

25. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 16 25