THE DESTINY OF SOCIETY: Sociologies of Hope and Hopelessness

1. EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING IN SOCIOLOGY THE DESTINY OF SOCIETY: Sociologies of Hope and Hopelessness Darwin’s Nightmare?

2. Contents of Presentation • 1. Introduction: • Social Darwinism and Societal Transformation • Central Question and Main Theory • Assumption, Paradigm Shift, and Agenda of Main Theory • 2. Typologies of Evolutionary Theorizing: • Classical • Neo-evolutionary • 3. Classical Evolutionary Theorists • 4. Neo-evolutionary Theorists • 5. Darwin’s Nightmares

3. IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLvszWBf6BQ

4. INTRODUCTION

5. INTRODUCTION:Social Darwinism Evolutionary selection is the organizing force of not only the natural world but also the social world. According to Herbert Spencer, “since all creatures adapt biologically to their environments, it is both useless and cruel to try to civilize the natives in colonies or to allow criminals and mentally defective persons to produce their inevitably defective children” ( Collins and Makowsky 2005, p. 81).

6. x Y Transformation of the Social World EVOLUTIONARY SELECTION (x)

7. INTRODUCTION:Societal Transformation • Evolutionary theories of sociology provide a stimulating overview of how societies transform by identifying: • 1. the major and far-reaching differences between our reality and that of our ancestors. • 2. the processes of the transformation • 3. the directions and impact of the transformation • 4. the driving forces of the transformation • 5. the destiny of society

8. INTRODUCTION:Central Question WHAT IS THE CHANGE PATTERN OF HUMAN SOCIETIES, ITS IMPACT, DRIVING FORCE DESTINATION?

9. INTRODUCTION:Main Theory All human societies start from the same point, move on the same path and in the same direction towards the same destination independent of the actions of societal members or social engineering.

10. INTRODUCTION:Assumption Human choices count for little [unless society is in transitional crisis]; Societal change is non-negotiable.

11. INTRODUCTION:Paradigm Shift Supernatural forces and human/social action have little to do with societal change. Social Engineering is unnecessary: According to Saint-Simon, “the main task of science [knowledge] is to discover the laws of social development, evolution , and progress; those laws are inevitable and absolute. All that man can do is submit. Progress takes place in stages and each stage is necessary and contributes something to the further progress of humankind” (Zeitlin 2001: 71).

12. INTRODUCTION:Agenda • Political: To maintain the STATUS QUO. • “…to avert revolution and to achieve the resignation of the ‘multitude’ to the conditions of the existing order” (Zeitlin 2001: 82). • This agenda puts evolutionary theorizing into the ideological typology of sociological theory.

13. TYPOPOLOGIES

14. TYPOLOGIES OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • 1. Classical Evolution Theory: Linear Stages Model • 2. Neo Evolution Theory: • Ecological Model • Curvilinear Model • Globalization Model

15. TYPOLOGIES OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • CLASSICAL: Growth is Progress: Stages Toward Progress • Conceptualizes the movement of society through evolutionary stages where each stage of development represents a marked movement in human progress. • The movements are independent of social action/engineering. • NEO: Growth creates a New order but not necessarily Progress • focuses on mechanisms and processes of change in size, scale, scope and complexity rather than progress. • Social action/engineering influences change only in periods of structural crises.

16. CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING

17. CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • MAIN THEORY: • Change in human society is inevitable, unidirectional, stages-based, and progresses toward a final destination.

18. SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • 1. All societies are fundamentally similar in that they all go through the same sequence of stages, albeit at different rates of change, showing a hierarchy of developmental stages toward the highest and final stage. • 2. Many of these classical theorists ranked their own societies (European societies) very high and placed contemporary non-European societies lower on the sequence of development—throwbacks to earlier, simpler social forms that European societies had long since surpassed.

19. SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • 3. Classical social evolutionists did not believe that once the final stage of evolution was achieved, history came to an end; rather, they thought that once the final stage arrives, change would involve a continued elaboration and development of this final form.

20. SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • 4. Social Relationships, that is, 1) Social Action, 2) Social Status positions and Roles, 3) Culture, 4) Structured Social Inequality, 5) Social Institutions, 6) Attitudes and Behaviors of individuals, and 7) all collective phenomena are manifestations of a particular stage of development or disruptions that occur in crises periods of transition in the progressive development process.

21. CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONISTS

22. CLASSICAL SOCIAL EVOLUTIONISTS • Saint-Simon: Sociology of Hope • AugusteComte: Sociology of Hope • Herbert Spencer: Sociology of Hope • Emile Durkheim: Sociology of Hope • Karl Marx: Sociology of Hope • Max Weber: Sociology of Hopelessness • ThorsteinBundeVeblen: Sociology of Hope

23. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY – CLASSICAL EVOLUTIONISTS • 1. Saint-Simon – Comte Model: • “The Law of Three Stages”: • Movement of ideas towards science causes society to progress in stages from THEOLOGICAL, through METAPHYSICAL to POSITIVISTIC. • What’s the driving force of social progress? • Knowledge is the underlying and sustaining factor of society; a social system is the application of a system of ideas. The historical growth of knowledge, or science, was the major cause of the transformation of European society from feudalism to industrialism (Zeitlin 2001: 70-71).

24. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Theological Stage: • Dominated by religion; ruled by priests. • Metaphysical Stage: • Dominated by abstract philosophy; ruled by Enlightenment thinkers • Positivistic Stage: • Dominated by science or positive philosophy as against negative philosophy, the legacy of Enlightenment and the French revolution and social thought before them; ruled by scientific-industrial elite.

25. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • 2. Spencer’s Model: • The Law of the Four Stages: • Increasing differentiation moves human society from simple society through compound and doubly compound societies to trebly compound society. • What drives social progress? • Increasing differentiation in the areas of production, reproduction, regulation and distribution moves society progressively from a simple stage, through compound, to doubly compound and trebly compound stages. In the process the best forms of social organization emerge ensuring the “survival of the fittest” and thereby elevating the level of society.

26. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • Simple societies of hunters and gatherersreveal very little differentiation. As societies compound to horticultural systems, however, clear differentiation between regulatory (political) and operative (productive and reproductive) structures is evident; then, as they doubly compound into agrarian societies, they differentiate distinctive distributive systems such as markets, ports and roads. Finally, with treble compounding into industrial societies, complex patterns of differentiation between and within the operative, regulative, and distributive axes are evident.

27. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Simple Society: • Dominated by hunting-gathering; virtually no differentiation among the three fundamental axes of society. • Compound Society: • Dominated by horticulture; clear differentiation among the axes of society • Doubly Compound Society: • Dominated by agrarian activities; distinct differentiation with the distributive axis • Trebly Compound: • Dominated by industrial activities; complex differentiation among and within the three main axes of society.

28. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • “Survival of the fittest”: • ‘Almost a decade before Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Spencer coined the phrase ”Survival of the fittest”. He used this phrase in a moral and philosophical sense, arguing that the best forms of social organizations emerge with unregulated competition among human, which allows most fit to survive, thereby elevating the level of society’ (Turner 2003: 77).

29. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • 3. Durkheim’s Model: • The Law of Two Stages: • The necessity of social integration moves human society from the Mechanical Solidarity stage to the Organic Solidarity stage: • What drives social progress? • Problems of integration compel society to become differentiated and progressively move from a MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY stage to an ORGANIC SOLIDARITY stage (Emile Durkheim).

30. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Mechanical Solidarity Stage: • This is an initial stage of evolution when society is characterised by hunting/gathering with little differentiation. Collective conscience (shared basic moral values, beliefs, and norms) provided social solidarity. • Organic Solidarity Stage: • This highest stage of society is characterized by industrialization with complex pattern of differentiation, and division of labour creating a moral value in the form of mutual interdependencethat provide integration for the social system.

31. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • 4. Marx’s Model: • The Law of Six Stages: • Contradictions in the relations of production create social conflict that moves society from Class—primitive communism through slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and socialism-- to Classlessness (advanced communism). • What drives social progress? • Contradictions in relations of production reflected in economic inequalities, exploitation and alienation produce conflicts--class struggles--that progressively transform society from class society into classless society; specifically from a primitive communalism through ancient slavery, feudalism, and capitalism, to socialism, and, ultimately, communism.

32. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Primitive Communism: • Hunting/gathering is the focus of life with little economic inequalities and exploitation. • Slavery: • Horticulture/agrarian activities dominate; slaves and commoners are exploited for the benefits of the nobility/royalty. • Feudalism: • Agrarian economy is well developed with the exploited labour of the serfs for the benefit of the clergy and gentry.

33. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • Capitalism: • Industrialization takes a central stage exploiting the working classes (proletariat) for the benefit of the upper classes (bourgeoisie). • Socialism: • Dictatorship of the proletariat . • Communism: • Highest stage of industrialization without exploitation; classless society. • Inequality: • Unfair distribution of scarce resources • Exploitation: • Appropriation of the labor effort of a group/individual for the benefit of another. • Alienation: • Separation from one’s self, others, and product/service.

34. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • 5. Weber’s Model: • “The Law of Two Stages”: • Increasing rationality moves society from traditional society to modern society: • What drives social change? • Increasing rationality changes society from a traditional inefficient stage into a modern efficient but oppressive bureaucratic stage: • Increasing purposive rationality structures society into a bureaucratic “iron cage”.

35. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Purposive Rationality: • the rule of reason demanding that meaning and action are justified explicitly and objectively. • “Iron Cage”: • Social organization that depersonalizes, dehumanizes, and dominates/restrains its members. • Bureaucracy: • formally rational, large-scale organization with the following six characteristics: division of labor, hierarchy of positions, formal system of rules, separation of the person from the office, hiring and promotion based on technical merit, and the protection of careers that produce efficiency.

36. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • 6. Veblen’s Model: • The Law of Three Stages: • From savagery through barbarianism to civilization • As the material conditions of life change, society develops through three basic stages--savagery through barbarianism to civilization.

37. LINEAR STAGES MODEL THEORIES IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY • MAJOR CONCEPTS: • Savage Society: • Small, independent, and self-sufficient hunting and gathering communities. • Barbarian Society: • Both the agricultural slave societies of the ancient Middle East and Asia and feudal societies that developed in Europe and Asia. • Civilization: • Modern society that began in the West in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution.

38. NEO-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING

39. NEO-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • MAIN THEORY: • Competition for scarce resources and control over surplus compels society to evolve/grow from simple to more complex forms of social organization.

40. NEO-EVOLUTIONARY THEORISTS Amos Hawley Gerhard Lenski JurgenHabermas Anthony Giddens Immanuel Wallerstein

41. 1. ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF NEO- EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • Unlike the stages model, the ecological model does not focus on social progress. Rather, it focuses on growth—”that is, increasing size, scale, scope, and complexity of the systemic whole in its environment” (Turner 2003: 89).

42. ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF NEO-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • Amos Hawley’s Ecological Model: • Main Theory: A society’s contact with other cultures and societies causes it to increase in size, scale, scope, and complexity. • An ecosystem’s exposure to ecumenical environment produces new knowledge that causes growth and change in society when it increases the level of communication and transportation technologies through increasing production which then causes expansion of these technologies until the mobility costs associated with the change reach their maximum, that is, until equilibrium is attained (Hawley 1950, 1992).

43. ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Growth: • Increasing size, scale, scope, and complexity of the systemic whole in its environment • Mobility cost: • the time, energy, money and materials associated with the movement of information, materials, and people for a change in any given technology. • Ecumenical Environment: • Other societies or cultures of other societies • Equilibrium: • Relative stability in the ecological system.

44. 2. CURVILINEAR STAGES MODEL OF NEO-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • Main Theory: • Societies begin with equality, change into inequality, and move toward equality (Kuznets’ Curve). • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth6HhOYpn8

45. CURVILINEAR STAGES MODEL OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • Lenski’s Model: • Main Theory: Improvement in technology first changes society from more equality to less equality and later back towards more equality. • Low technology-production-surplus in hunting/gathering societies displayed the most equality; then through medium technology-production-surplus in horticultural and agrarian societies monopolistic control of surplus increased inequality, but with high technology-production-surplus in industrial societies, democratic redistribution of surplus lowered inequality somewhat but not to the level of hunter-gatherers (Gerhard Lenski).

46. CURVILINEAR STAGES MODEL OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Inequality: • Unfair distribution of power and privilege among the members of a population. • Societal types: • Hunting and gathering societies, simple horticultural societies, advanced horticultural societies, agrarian societies, and industrial societies.

47. 3. GLOBALIZATION MODEL OF NEO- EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING: • MainTheory: • Traditional societies disintegrate into transitional modern capitalist nation-states and eventually into a global society.

48. 3. GLOBALIZATION MODEL OF NEO- EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING: • 1. Habermas’ Model: Three Stages • Main Theory: Crises/contradictions in the social system transmitted by communicative action transform society from primitive classless, through class systems, to a postmodern classless global society. • Communicative action/rationality (increasing rationalization of people’s lifeworlds or ideas, values and consciousness) transmits the crises and contradictions inherent in a social system to transform society from primitive classless social formation, through class social formations (traditional civilizations, modern civilizations—liberal capitalist, organized capitalist, postcapitalist) to postmodern classless global social formation (JurgenHabermas).

49. 3. GLOBALIZATION MODEL OF NEO- EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING: • In other words, this evolutionary process is a reflection of underlying structural changes and contradictions manifested in the breakdown of shared values or normative structures that cause the old social system to disintegrate because such disintegration threatens people’s feeling of social identity, and therefore integration (Wallace and Wolf 2006: 177) • All societies in a given social formation are similar in their lifeworlds that evolve.

50. 3. GLOBALIZATION MODEL OF NEO- EVOLUTIONARY THEORIZING: • ACCOMPANYING CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS • Lifeworld (Ideas and Consciousness): People’s values, feelings, identity, and interaction. • Communicative Action or Communicative Rationality: • a distinctive type of interaction oriented to mutual understanding or noncoercive argumentation; an “ideal speech” situation in which everyone would have an equal chance to argue and question, without those who are more powerful, confident, or prestigious having an unequal say (Wallace and Wolf 2006: 184)