Social Change

1
Social Change

• -Transformation of culture social institutions
• Four major characteristics of change
• Inevitable, only rate varies
• Sometimes intentional, often unplanned
• Controversial
• Some change matters more than others

2
Why Cultural Change Takes Place

• Invention
• Production of new objects,
  
  ideas, and social patterns
• Discovery
• Taking note of existing
  
  elements of culture
• Diffusion
• Spread of products, people,
  
  information from culture to culture

3
Other Reasons

• Conflict and social change
• Tensions between individuals and groups
  Different groups gain/lose power/privilege
  as they
  struggle for own positions
• Ideas and change
• Ideas can fuel social movements
• Idea of equal rights for everyone
• Demographics and change
• Increases and decreases in
  numbers lead to change as
  
  society may need to expand
  and/or contract
• Need for jobs, housing, education

4
Social Movements

• Most of todays movements are international
• Focus on cultural change
• Improving social/physical surroundings
• Draw support from middle/upper classes
• Term "social movements" introduced 1850 by
  German Sociologist Lorenz von Stein in
  "History of the French Social Movement from
  1789 to the Present (1850)

5
Stages of Social Movements

• Stage one emergence
• Perception that something is wrong
• Stage two coalescence
• Defining itself and going public
• Stage three bureaucratization
• Organizing rationally to get job done
• Stage four decline
• Is movement in need of regrouping or is it simply
  time for demise?
• Reasons
• Success has been reached
• Organizational problems (leadership)
• Leadership sells out to other interests
• State-sponsored repression

6
Types of Social Movements

• Social Movements organized activity that
  encourages or discourages social change
• Alternative
• Least threatening, limited change for limited
  number of members
• Planned Parenthood Organization
• Redemptive
• Selective focus, radical change
• Churches, religions
• Reformative
• Limited social change targeting all
  members of
  society
• Equal Rights Movement
• Revolutionary
• Most severe, striving for basic
  transformation
  of society
• American Socialist Party

7
Four Types of Social Movements
8
Theories of Social Movements

• Deprivation Theory
• Social movements arise among people
  who feel deprived
• relative deprivation
  perceived disadvantage arising
  from some specific
  comparison
• Mass-Society Theory William Kornhausers
• Social movements attract socially isolated people
  who feel personally insignificant
• Movements are personal as well as political,
  giving people with weak social ties sense of
  purpose and belonging

9

• Structural-Strain Theory Neil Smelsers
• Six factors encouraging social movement
• Structural conduciveness
• Arise out of perceptions of problems
• Structural strain
• Experiencing relative deprivation
• Growth and spread of an explanation
• Making clear reasons and solutions for suffering
• Precipitating factors
• Specific events give rise to collection action
• Mobilization for action
• Action stage Protest and rallies
• Lack of social control
• Quick, harsh response, or giving green light
  for change

10

• Resource-Mobilization Theory
• Social movement wont succeed without substantial
  resources
• Money
• Human labor
• Offices/communication facilities
• Mass media

11
Gender and Social Movements

• Gender figures in operation
• More men than women take part in public life,
  including heading social movements
• Freedom Summer in 1964
  (Negro voter registration in MS)

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