CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL CHANGE

SOURCE OF SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND POLITICAL CHANGE

• SOCIAL CHANGE refers to the significant modification or alteration in the lifestyle of a society,
including culture.

• CULTURAL CHANGE refers to changes made in cultural elements, both material and non-
material.

• POLITICAL CHANGE is when there is a significant disruption in a government that leads to new
or modified leadership or policies.

INNOVATION

Innovation at first is a form of deviance. It refers to the use of new techniques to achieve
desired ends. When the goals of a society are stressed more heavily than the strategies by
which they are to be achieved, members of the society tend to disregard moral or legal
standards to reach these goals. Instead, the individual acquires the cultural weight of the goals
without internalizing the norms governing the means by which they were to be reached.

DIFFUSION

Diffusion is an important source of social change. Most of the social changes between societies
developed through diffusion. Diffusion refers to transmission of cultural characteristics or traits
from the common society to all other societies. This criticizes the beliefs of the evolutionists.
Quick means of communication and transportation made possible an invention or to diffuse a
cultural element to another culture.