Theories of Social Change

1. Theories of Social Change You need to know at least two of these so that you can compare and contrast. You must know the good points and criticisms.

2. Evolutionary Theory • Social change moving in a single direction • Based on the work of Charles Darwin (1808 – 1882). • Ordered and progressive: assumes that societies in their earliest form were very simplistic in their nature and that they have become more complex and specialised as time has progressed. • Historical evidence used to support these views • Theorist: • Edward Tyler (1832 – 1917): argued that all societies evolved in a unilinear direction from simple to more complex eg agricultural to industrial. • Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903): saw societies all eventually evolving into an industrial stage, characterised by individual freedom. He coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. • Single path unilinear • Hunter gatherers to agricultural settlement to industrial to post industrial. • By the early 1920’s this theory was seen as being outdated and people were keen to explain change rather than describe it. • Adapted to multiliniear and that agricultural society not lower than industrial. • Despite its improvements in determining how change exists, evolutionary theory proved to be restrictive when interpreting social change. Theorists need to look beyond to incorporate a broader range of reasons that account for that change.

3. Functionalist Theory • Assumes that as societies develop, they become ever more complex and interdependent. • Premise: is that society functions more effectively when there is clear social order and when individual parts of the society are working in harmony. This collaboration is in turn believed to supply social stability. • The social context for this theory was the US in a period of social stability of the 1940’s and 1950’s • Key people: • Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917) • Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 – 1942) • It was argued that a complex society accepts that there are differing institutions eg business, education that complement the society and for society to develop these institutions need to be integrated. Each institution has a different role. • Change occurs when there is either internal or external pressures on the community. In coping with these challenges to social order and the integration of differing institutions it is hoped that a society develops to become more complex. • Social theorists are critical of this theory as it does not account for the fact that in their view conflict is a naturally occurring feature in any society and can also precipitate change.

4. Conflict Theory • Social change and development comes form conflict that is a natural occurrence in any given society. • A precipitating event (trigger) is needed for change to occur. • The trigger can be population growth, acculturation, technological advances or changing environmental conditions. • Key people: • Karl Marx • Marx believed that both the character of the economic base of the country and the manner in which the economy was developing were key aspects of any society. The exploitation of the working classes who supported the upper classes was a fine example of the conflict evident in many societies. In his view this conflict would keep occurring, until the vulnerable in society – the underclass, working classes revolted and pushed for change against capitalist ways. • Social theorists have broadened the notion of conflict to go beyond class structures so that conflict can now be observed around personal morality, religious beliefs, gender, age, or issues. • At a basic level, conflict theory argues that social change will occur when individuals and social groups reach a breaking point due to a given conflict that must be overcome for social progress to occur. • .

5. Post Modernism • Historical background: • Developed in early 1980’s, growing out of the symbolic, interpretive approach of Clifford Geertz. One of the currently accepted theoretical approaches. • Approaches: • Idealism and materialism, largely synchronic and agency-centred, particularist (emic), but within a universalistic framework. • Key people: • James Clifford, Geroge Marcus. • Essential features: • Questions very idea of researchers describing and analysing people in cultures other than their own. This is seen as an extension of colonialism, reflecting an imbalance between developed and developing countries; they assert that people being studied lacked the opportunity to speak for themselves. • Accordingly any social and cultural research needs to be polyvocal; not only written by the researchers but by the subjects themselves. • Postmodernists have been described as ‘responsible anarchists’, dealing with the realities of life not ‘grand theories’. • Regard culture as a system of symbols, and the task of the researchers and their subjects together is to breakdown essential elements, such as ‘family’ and ‘gender’ into their component parts in order to find out what underlying ideology and power aspects are. • A re-emphasis of the concept of relativism, that is , understanding customs in their specific cultural context, especially in light of globalism.

6. Post Modernism • Continuity and change; • Postmodernism accepts uncertainty, acknowledges diversity and views the concepts of ‘society’ and ‘justice’ as flexible, not controlled fixed truths. It recognises and explains why change can occur. It gives a ‘voice’ and potentially power to ordinary people in societies, recognising the possibility of a new social order. Globalisation is recognised as a potent force for change. It says that globalisation produces local diversity and differences creating new types of hybrid societies. Postmodernists also regard the explosion of information technologies as having produced a new society in which technology itself, knowledge and information are now the principles underlying social organisation. People have moved away form previous realities and created a new social environment. • Applications to a society; • Holly Wardlow looked at the women of Highlands Papua New Guinea, in particular the ‘passenger women’. These are women who sell sex and are found at roadside market places, where public busses pass. They are not described as ‘sex workers’ because that is too simplistic as there are non-sexual and non-monetary aspects to the passenger women. An important component of this identity is freedom of movement and autonomy. A post modern interpretation of these women’s action is that their non-acceptance of the conventional social order is bringing about change, that is, moving towards a possible new social order in terms of gender relations. • In a larger context, globalisation had facilitated the government’s permission for the introduction of capitalism to socialist Vietnam, empowering groups to respond to their newfound economic society within a framework of communist ideology. • Critical evaluation: • Postmodernism provides a credible explanation of globalisation as an agent of social change in terms of local culture response. Postmodernists tend to ‘glorify’ the differences between cultures and gloss over similarities.

7. Conclusion • It seems to understand the complexities of social change it is ideal to ‘beg and borrow’ from various theories of social change. Each of the above theories have their advantages and limitations in understanding the nature of social change – which includes aspects of continuity and change

8. Activities • How significant is ‘time’ in the development for these theories? How has it influenced the theories? What do they aim to provide? • What is the role of theories of social change? • Complete the following summary table:

9. Bibliography • Society and Culture Preliminary and HSC, Donnelly, Grove, Leaver, Lieberman, Lovat and Webster, Nelson, Melbourne, 2008.