01 Social Transformation/Change

02 Different Schools of Thoughts

Lecture 3
Course Code: SOC 2101 03 Factors Behind Social Change

Oliver Tirtho Sarkar

Lecturer,
Department of Environment and
Development Studies, UIU
04 Colonialism, Globalization
 What is Social Change?

Social change is the transformation of the basic structures of society over time.
Social transformation can be referred to the changes of a particular society’s
institutions and culture over a certain period.

 It’s an ever-present phenomenon.

 The way of life changes.
 Slow in traditional societies but fast in the modern era.
 Concepts of Social Change

Emile Durkheim related social institutions like political system, economy, family,
and the educational system to organs of human body.
 Social Cohesion
 Organic Solidarity
Emile Durkheim also explored social transformation from the perspective of division
of labor; According to him, when the division of labor expands, interdependence is
also increased.
Traditional Society was comprised of less specialized workers than the modern
world.
 Education
System

Religion
Family

Political
System Economy
 Division Of Labour

Religion basis of social cohesion and organic solidarity

Division of labor basis of social cohesion and organic solidarity

Change in the modern world are rapid and intense that they may increase major
social difficulties.
Explained the significance of religion in shaping moral order and social life.
Specifically when the moral values and practices were controlled by traditional
standards like religion. Under modern social development, many individuals have
a notion that their lives lack meaning (linked with ‘anomie’)
Concepts of Social Change

Karl Marx focused on the changes in modern times. Karl Marx explained the
transformation of societies from the notion of Industrial Revolution. The most
important changes were bound up with the development of capitalism.
He primarily considered economic issues and related them to social institutions.
Economic influences Social Change
 Conflict is inevitable.
 The conflicts between classes rich versus poor and class struggle.
 The conflict between Ruling Class and Working Class.
 The working class who are
exploited by the Ruling class.
 For instance factory owners with
capital are more likely to enjoy large
sum of money leaving minimal
amount for the labors.
 The working class would like to
protest to face that exploitation and
bring about revolution.
According to Marx,
 Capitalism will be replaced by a society with no divisions between rich
and poor.
 Inequalities will not disappear completely, but monopoly (regarding
economic and political power) of small group will be reformed by large
mass of people who used to receive small share of wealth.
 Will lead to a more equal society than we know at present.
Max Weber viewed economic factors as important, but ideas and values have
just as much effect on social change.
 Religious institutions can promote diminishing inequalities in society and it
may lead to social change.
 Cultural ideas and values shape society and affect individual actions.
 Defined bureaucracy as a type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy
of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by
full-time, salaried officials.
Factors behind change of societies.

Some major factors that creates impact on social transformation, are

 The physical environment
 Political organization
 Culture
 Economics
The Physical Environment

The state of physical environment have their lives indoors and, except in
the potential to influence the summer months, plan outdoor activities
development of human and social carefully, given the inhospitable
organization. This can be better environment.
perceived in extreme environmental
conditions, where people have to
organize their lifestyles in relation to the
weather.
For example, people living in polar
regions like Alaska, where the winters
are long and cold, people follow
different patterns of social life than
residents of the much warmer U.S.
South. Most Alaskans spend more of
THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

 And for the warmer countries camel

has been used as the mode of
transport because of its
effectiveness.
 The physical conditions left the
indigenous population of Australia
still hunters and gatherers because
the continent has hardly any
indigenous plants suitable for
cultivation or animals suitable for
pastoral production.
Political Organization

Minimal in hunter-gatherer societies as hardly any political authorities can

mobilize the community.
For other types of society, chiefs, lords, monarchs, and governments strongly
influence of social change.
A leader capable of pursuing dynamic policies and generating a mass following
or radically altering preexisting modes of thought can overturn a previously
established order under favorable social conditions.
 POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

 Military strength played a fundamental part in the establishment of most

traditional states, brings sovereignty.
 Emergence of the modern state, a vastly more efficient mechanism of
government than those of premodern societies.
 Globalization may lead to deterritorialization of economic and political power.
As transnational corporations operate across borders, transnational political
organizations are also becoming stronger than national governments.
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) has the power to punish countries that
violate its principles of free trade. European countries have opened their
borders to one another, established a common currency, and given up
substantial political power to the European Union (EU), a regional form of
governance. Will the twenty- first century see new forms of political.
Culture

 The third main influence on social change is culture, including communications

systems, religious and other belief systems, and popular culture.
 Communications systems, in particular, affect the character and pace of social
change. The invention of writing, for instance, allowed for effective record
keeping.
 In addition, writing altered people’s perception of the relationship among past,
present, and future. Societies that write keep a record of past events, through which
they gain a sense of their evolution. The existence of a written constitution and
laws enables a country to have a legal system based on the interpretation of legal
precedents— just as written scriptures enable religious leaders to justify their
beliefs by citing chapters and verses from religious texts.
Culture

 Internet and the proliferation of smartphones have transformed our personal

relationships, our forms of recreation, our ways of learning and working, the
nature of politics and social movements in fact, almost every aspect of modern
life.
ECONOMIC FACTORS

Of economic influences, the farthest reaching is industrial capitalism. Capitalism

differs fundamentally from previous production systems because it involves the
constant expansion of production and the ever- increasing accumulation of wealth.
In traditional production systems, levels of production were fairly unchanging
because they were geared to customary needs. Capitalism requires the constant
revision of the technology of production, a process that increasingly involves
science.
Governments often spend far more money than individual businesses can afford in
an effort to ensure that their countries don’t fall behind militarily or economically.
For instance, when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, in
1957, the United States responded with a massive and costly space program,
inspired by fear that the Russians were winning the “space race.”
 Colonialism

 The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world
away from their home territories
 From the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, Western countries
established colonies in numerous areas previously occupied by traditional
societies. Although all these colonies have by now attained independence, the
process of colonialism helped shape the social map of the globe as we know it
today.
 Globalization

 Globalization brings people, and their cultures, into intimate contact with one
another, whether through travel or migration, economic interdependence, mass
media, or popular culture.
 Social media play a key role in connecting people, films, and popular music across
a global space