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Slide 1. Slide 1. SOCIOLOGY. Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Social Change and Social Movements. Chapter Ten. Kenneth J. Neubeck University of Connecticut. Davita Silfen Glasberg University of Connecticut. The Meaning of Social Change.

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  1. Slide 1 Slide 1 SOCIOLOGY Diversity, Conflict, and Change Social Change andSocial Movements Chapter Ten Kenneth J. Neubeck University of Connecticut Davita Silfen Glasberg University of Connecticut

  2. The Meaning of Social Change • Social change — significant variations or alterations in social structures and cultures over time • 1. It is on going • 2. Sometimes intentional, other times hidden (what words did we use before for intentional or hidden?) • 3. It is controversial- changing the status quo isn’t normally accepted • 4.Some changes matter more than others- based on the hierarchy of institutions

  3. The Meaning of Social Change • Social reforms — adjustment in content of cultural patterns of behavior or normative systems that does not fundamentally alter social structure eg. inventions and their diffusion • Social revolutions — fundamental and radical upheaval of existing social structures

  4. The Meaning of Social Change • Manifest social change — social change resulting from deliberate organized effort on the part of one group e.g., Marx’s new synthesis (i.e. socialism replacing capitalism etc., civil rights movement that changed laws, etc). • Latent social change — social change that is largely unrecognized and unintended e.g. baby boom after ww2, and how that changing demography affected the institutional setup.

  5. The Meaning of Social Change • Explaining Social Change • ongoing process • Cyclical theory — Society is like a biological organism, and each society passes naturally and inevitably through the same life-cycle phases as individual biological organisms, birth, maturity, death etc • Ibn Khaldun (14th century), Oswald Spengler- 1000 year cycles. • Some die prematurely, some are transformed beyond recognition • Paul Kennedy (1987), some rise, surrounding ones fall because of economic, military and political conquest. • Cannot explain fall of Soviet Union or rise of Japan or why certain old societies like India etc have lasted over 1000 years

  6. The Meaning of Social Change • Evolutionary theory — Society is like a biological organism that evolves to a higher life form with each change.Each stage of development is more advanced and more complex. Survival of the fittest. • Social Darwinism — Extension of the evolutionary perspective, which holds that as societies evolve and change only the fittest survive and those less fit die out. • Cultural heritage of technological innovation determines fittest, as it has the greatest control over its environment. (As if nature is our enemy) • Takes the western model as the model of “progress”, ignores role of conquest and unequal access to information and technology and power.

  7. Equilibrium theory (Talcott Parsons)— Society is like a biological organism such as the human body; all systems in the organism are interdependent, and any disturbance or alteration in one of the systems requires adjustments in the other systems for the organism to maintain its equilibrium. • All sectors are specialized to perform functions. Minor adjustments needed, major social structure upheavals don’t happen. • Ignores changes coming from outside the system or that equilibrium is an illusion given public issues and social problems. Ignores why revolutions occur or why equilibrium is disturbed in the first place if everything is harmonious. Does not define at what level the equilibrium occurs, talks about an ambiguous “social system” is it a nation, a neighborhood etc.

  8. The Meaning of Social ChangeMode of Production & Change • Marxist theory — material conditions produce changes- the mode of production and the relationship of production • Dialectic — according to Marx and Engels, the ongoing process of social change marked by conflict

  9. The Meaning of Social Change • Thesis — current or temporary state of existence of a society • Antithesis — contradictions and antagonisms within structure of society that challenge that structure • Synthesis — result of conflict between the thesis and the antithesis; a whole new social structure containing elements of both the thesis and the antithesis Synthesis results in a new Thesis with new crisis and new contradictions, which provokes its new antithesis and so on

  10. The Meaning of Social Change • Capitalists — those who have invested in business and own the means of production • Proletariat — working class; those who do not own the means of production and must sell their labor power in order to live

  11. Max Weber- Ideas and change • The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism: Weber claims the Calvinist tradition, John Calvin (1509-1564), led to Industrial capitalism. • 1. Predestination: can’t alter fate set at birth by God. • 2. Calling: work as a calling; wealth a sign of blessing from God, , frugality in lifestyle for greater wealth, (reinvesting savings for greater wealth as against wasteful spending). • 3. Otherworldliness: Good deeds performed on earth would lead to greater rewards in heaven, reinforces the religious “work ethic” regardless of material reward. Over time this “religious ethic” became a “work ethic”. Industrial capitalism developed in those areas of Europe where the Calvinist tradition was strong as against the Roman Catholic tradition.

  12. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • Modernization theory — Poor countries can move from traditional to industrial economies by adopting the value systems of industrialized Western nations. • An internationalized “culture of poverty” type argument. It is the “value system” (lifestyle) of those countries that keeps them poor. If they want to develop they should model after the “Western” nations and adopt their values.

  13. Rostow’s Modernization Theory- stages • 1. Traditional • 2.Preconditions to take off= urbanization, education etc • 3.Take off • 4. Drive to maturity • 5. Mass consumption

  14. Critiques • 1. Ahistorical and non comparative (what parts is the Sociological Imagination made up of?) • 2.Ethnocentric- Hierarchy in “modernization theory” considers the higher stage to be European- and the dominant institution to be the Economic. • 3. Ignores the “development of underdevelopment”- history of colonization • 4. High mass consumption for all impossible • 5. Development even within the so-called “developed” countries does not benefit all. Richest 1% owns more than the rest of the 99% in the US.

  15. Peter Berger’s Four Dimensions of Modernization • 1. Decline of small traditional communities- decline of gemeinschafts • 2. Expansion of personal choice by greater control over physical environment • 3. Urbanization: Increased diversity and growth of cities. • 4. Focus on the future instead of the past: greater awareness of time, “time is money” concept; according to Berger a good measure of modernization are the % of people wearing wrist watches.

  16. Reisman- Modernization and changes in Social Character • Pre-industrial societies have people whose biographies display “Tradition directedness”- rigid conformity to time honored ways of living • Modern societies have people who display “Other directedness”- a receptiveness to what the powers that be tell them, latest trends, fashions, mass media advertising etc.

  17. Modernization- also remember these from your previous notes • 1. Durkheim’s Mechanical Solidarity and Organic Solidarity • 2. Tonnies, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • 3. Weber’s Bureaucracy • 4. Simmel’s Blasé Attitude • 5. Mills’ Cheerful Robots.

  18. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • How to measure development? • Traditional measures: KW hrs of electricity used per capita or GDP per capita- links industrialization with urbanization • Definition of Basic Needs based measurement • What a country’s population requires for survival, including health (LE & IM), education (literacy), food, water, and sanitation. If we use these measures even the so called developed countries have large undeveloped sectors.

  19. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • Underdeveloped nations — peripheral nations that experienced historically disadvantageous relationships with more powerful industrialized or core nations and thus have been limited in development opportunities

  20. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • Dependency and Development • Trade Dependency — relationship between nations characterized by limited numbers of core trade partners for peripheral countries, and specialization in raw materials that are subject to massive price fluctuations • The “development of underdevelopment”: Destruction of infant industries during colonization- periphery industry was designed to concentrate on mineral and raw material production and supply to the core which are susceptible to price fluctuations and low prices because of many sellers, and a few buyers • Cash crops- Argentina 5th largest exporter of ag products but half of its population is under nourished.

  21. Import Substitution • Dependent Development: is Import substitution plus Export processing • Import substitution — strategy developed by peripheral nations of substituting locally produced goods for imported goods- inviting multinationals (same as Wal-Mart moving into a community and the effect on mom and pop stores) • Chase Dunn- short run/long run • Marshall Aid after WW2 to Europe $17 billion; From 1982 to 1990 transfer from periphery to core six times that amount. Six times the Marshall Aid amount transferred from the poor to the rich countries (Alexander, 1996), yet no comparable “development”- what has happened is the exit of wealth and capital from the poor nations to the rich, and even in those rich nations to a small minority at the top, most of the rest live from paycheck to paycheck

  22. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • Export processing — strategy adopted by peripheral nations of specializing in products for sale abroad, cash crops etc, and not for local consumption (to get foreign exchange)- land owned by a few elites, that devote it to what is most profitable, as against what is needed by a society. • Dependent development — dual strategy combining import substitution and export processing adopted by peripheral nations

  23. Debt dependency • Debt dependency — strategy of development based on reliance on aid and loans from other countries, international aid agencies, and banks, many countries spend over a third of their GNP on interest payment. • By 1999, Argentina’s Debt rose to $140 billion, so that 70% of the government budget was being devoted to debt service payments that translated into huge profits for Citibank and other IFIs. Debt service payments are like minimum payment required by your credit card companies. They mostly include interest for that period, wind fall profit for banks i.e. money made on lent money, which is not linked to any kind of physical production or transfer of goods.

  24. IMF/WB DEBT FOR SOVERIGNITY PLANS • The names and terms of the loans given by the IMF and WB explicitly suggest the objectives. They are called “structural adjustment loans (SAL),” or “Sector adjustment loans.” The IMF calls part of its loaning facilities “Systematic Transformation Facility (STF)”. The changes that these institutions require are not based on the implementation of an investment program or project; they are “policy” changes that affect the entire economic structure of a nation and affects the majority population in these countries

  25. Structural Adjustment required by the IMF/World Bank • 1. Currency Devaluation: causes inflation in the local economy, makes items cheaper for export abroad, but locals have to spend more now for same items, imports from abroad become more expensive. • 2. Reduce expenditure on social welfare, laying off public employees, water and health and sanitation suffers (PER) • 3.Control labor unions, resulting in reduced protection for labor used by multinationals • 4. Privatize national industry: most profitable ones are sold to core multinationals. Citibank bought many profitable banks in the “Third World” • 5. Remove quotas on imports, to create a profitable market for core country products- allowing them to flood in, killing the local industry • 6. Project Approval: All public infrastructure projects to be approved by the IMF- usually contracts given to “core country” corporations

  26. Control through War and Control via World Bank and IMF serves the same purpose • Economic/military/political link • "Once you understand the process of corporate globalization, you will see that what happened in Argentina, the devastation of Argentina by the IMF, is part of the same machine that is destroying Iraq. Both are efforts to break open and to control markets…” • (Arundhati Roy, The Checkbook & the Cruise Missile, 2004:31) • Who is Paul Wolfowitz?

  27. Modernization, Development, and Underdevelopment • Debt-for-nature swaps — Debt-ridden governments agree to set aside land to protect natural resources in exchange for debt cancellation. • Your book talks about, Conservation International, a non profit purchasing Bolivia’s debt from Citicorp, in exchange for 4 million acres of nature preserve.

  28. Technological and Social Change • Energy Production • Greater availability of advanced technology in the core • Inventions — new practices and objects developed out of existing knowledge- usually driven by elite perceptions of need and their perception of need is always linked with profit/status/power maximization. As we will study under the “Power Elite” that is their ‘social psychology’ as a group.

  29. Technological and Social Change • Technological Change and the Labor Process- cottage industry vs factory vs pc. • Late 1800s and early 1900s • Cottage industry — business whose labor force consists of family members who work at home using their own equipment • Capitalists built factories to gain greater control over the labor process • PCs recreated the isolation of the cottage industry, but involve greater control, everything you do on a PC can be tracked

  30. Technological and Social Change • Technology and Reproductive Issues • Technology has given more control over the birthing process to doctors and technicians. Surgeries are profitable so doctors prefer them- control moves from the mother to the doctor • Every year around 2 million unnecessary surgeries are performed by doctors, 10 thousand people die as a result of these, overall over 100,000 are killed by medical doctors in the US due to medical errors • Technology also altered the process of conception and pregnancy. Hiring surrogate mothers to carry the fertilized egg to term. In-vitro fertilization.

  31. Technological and Social Change • Technological is not a neutral force • Driven by many factors, including: • Profit motives • Vested interest in control over such processes as work and reproduction • Elite definition of reality drives technological innovation • Frequently affects individuals’ daily lives, pollution by cars how will it affect your life and the world? Global Warming, toxic dumping, nuclear weapons. • Your government, according to its own admission, has used chemical and biological and nuclear “weapons” against you (i.e. mostly the poor populations). Can someone explain how?

  32. Collective Behavior (Not In your Book, take notes) • Social interaction in response to, unstructured, ambiguous or unstable situations- (as against well crystallized behavior governed by norms)- Factors that make collective action likely:

  33. - • 1. Shared interests • 2. A change Trigger (external or internal) • 3. Planning in response to the change • 4. Resource mobilization • 5. Evaluating effects and reformulating if necessary

  34. Crowds • A crowd is a temporary grouping of individuals who are physically close enough to engage in social interaction • A mob is a special type of crowd, one that has violence and harm as its intention

  35. Types of Crowds5 types: • 1. Casual or Passive Crowd- people standing close to each other, no purpose • 2. Conventional (classroom or bus stop)- assembled for a specific purpose • 3. Solidarity (provides solidarity to the members) like the Million Man March in 1995, or the Millions More March 2005 • 4.Expressive Crowds (like a rock concert) • 5. Acting Crowds (getting angry and smashing windows or rioting)

  36. Theories of Crowd Behavior • 1. Contingency Theory: People in collective situations lose their individuality and become swept up in behaviors of others- • Durkheim called these “social currents”- as opposed to “social facts” which are crystallized behavior within an organized social structure.

  37. - • 2. Convergence Theory: crowds are made up of like minded people, and its unity and behavior results because of this similarity between its members • 3. Emergent Norm Theory: Since the crowd is a “new” phenomena when it occurs it leads to new norms emerging which are quickly acknowledged and crowd behavior is an expression of those norms.

  38. Social Movements • Large-scale, persistent efforts in which individuals working together may alter how institutions and whole societies operate

  39. Social Movements • Types of Social Movements • Redemptive movements — directed at totally changing individuals rather than society as a whole; often a religious movement, that seek conversion e.g. Billy Graham Crusade • Alterative movements — focus on changing individuals’ thinking and behavior in a specific, limited way e.g.. AA

  40. Social Movements • Reformative movements — aim to make limited but specific changes in society rather than just in individuals, e.g. NOW • Transformative movements — aim to make sweeping, rather than limited, changes in society- eg. Marx’s proletariat revolution • Movements of one type may morph into another • Several types may coexist. Besides these there are two other types that prevent change • Resistance Movements: Resisting some change • Expressive Movements: Protecting some cherished value. Reviving something swept away by the dominant culture. Aka: New Social Movements

  41. Social Movements • Explaining Social Movements • Marx and Engels argued working class and capitalist class would become so polarized that workers would suffer absolute deprivation, which would lead to class consciousness and then the revolution. • Davies argued rebellions occurred in response to relative deprivation and not necessarily absolute deprivation.

  42. Social Movements • Absolute versus Relative Deprivation • Absolute deprivation — state of being unable to purchase the things related to basic survival • Relative deprivation — According to Davies, the state in which people’s understanding of deprivation is relative to the conditions around them, to conditions they expect, or to conditions that previously existed.

  43. Social Movements • Resource Mobilization Theory — Social movements and revolutions will not occur unless resources are available and can be deployed for use. • Supportive resources + ability of people to apply them • Tangible resources, things you can touch, money, tools etc; Intangible resources: leadership, ability to move the masses, belief in cause etc. • External Forces • Forces for or against social movements can come from outside a given society. • External resources may combine with internal resource mobilization to provoke and sustain social movements across national boundaries. The anti war movement, anti- sweatshop movement etc.

  44. Necessity Is the Parent of Invention? Dominant definitions of necessity Dominant control of research and development funds New technologies consistent with dominants’ interest Concentrated in the US in the military industries.

  45. Social Change from the Bottom Up Social change addressing subordinates’ needs Social movement Subordinates’ definition of a problem

  46. Jurgen Habermas and New Social Movements (Not in book) • 1. System integration (Dominant culture learned through mass media, state etc.). Coercing the individual to “fit in” to the current system. • 2. Social integration (social tradition (through family), and norms acquired as a result)- produces a “life world” of meaning • 3. System integration saturates and overpowers social integration- “colonizes the life world” • 4. As a reaction to protect the “life world”, social movements arise to protect a lost or endangered lifestyle.

  47. Expressive Social MovementsNew Social Movements (Not in your book) • Jurgen Habermas argues that system integration (1) and social integration (2) possess distinct logics (remember dialectic used by Marx) that require different types of legitimation (remember Weber’s legitimation): (3)system integration (the steering mechanisms of a society) results from mechanisms of domination, such as the state and the mass media; (4)social integration (the normative structures) is obtained through socialization and the creation of a ‘life world’ of meaning (primarily through the family). A crisis develops when the expansion of steering mechanisms (system integration) disturbed the processes through which norms, values and meaning were produced (social integration).

  48. Life World Crisis • Habermas identifies the present intrusion by the state and the market into areas of private life — the ‘colonization of the life-world’ — as the source of the present crisis of legitimation. New Social Movements (NSM), he argues, represent defensive reactions seeking to retain or re-create endangered lifestyles. They operate at the level of social integration and are concerned less with redistributional issues than with the ‘grammar of forms of life’. Thus the new movements arise ‘at the seam between system and life-world’.

  49. New Social Movement section is not in the book but you need to know these four terms; 3 or 4 Questions on Final, as well as your quiz that is rapidly approaching • Social integration • System integration • Life World • Colonization of Life World

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