Social Change: Traditional, Modern, and Postmodern Societies
Social Change
Traditional cultures are being transformed by the materialism and affluence of rich societies.
Modernity
Changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
Postmodernity
Transformations sparked by the Information Revolution and the post-industrial economy.
What is Social Change?
Social change is the transformation of culture and social institutions over time.
- Happens all the time, but some societies or elements change faster than others.
- Is sometimes intentional, but often unplanned.
- Is controversial, and some changes matter more than others.
Causes of Social Change
Culture and Change
- Invention: Production of new objects, ideas, and social patterns.
- Discovery: Taking note of existing elements of a culture.
- Diffusion: The spread of products, people, and information from one culture to another.
Conflict & Change
- Marx theorized that the struggle between capitalists and workers in industrial-capitalist societies pushes society toward a socialist system of production.
- While simplistic, Marx correctly predicted that social conflict arising from inequality creates social change.
Ideas & Change
- Max Weber traced the roots of most social change to ideas.
- Weber also showed how early Protestant religious beliefs set the stage for the spread of industrial capitalism. Ideas also direct social movements.
Demographic Change
- Demographic Change: Population growth strains the natural environment and alters cultural patterns. Changes in migration or birth rates can lead to social change as society may need to expand and/or contract housing, education, and health.
Modernity
Modernity: Social patterns resulting from industrialization. In everyday usage, modernity refers to the present in relation to the past.
Modernization: The process of social change begun by industrialization.
Four Dimensions of Modernization
- Decline of small, traditional communities: Cars, TV, and high-tech communications connect small towns with the world.
- Expansion of personal choice: An unending series of options referred to as “individualization.”
- Increasing social diversity: Modernization promotes a more rational, scientific worldview.
- Orientation toward the future and growing awareness of time: Modern people look forward to scientific advances and organize their daily routines down to the minute.
Theories of Modernity
Ferdinand Tönnies: The Loss of Community
- Modernization brings the loss of Gemeinschaft, or human community, and the rise of Gesellschaft, characterized by efficiency, rootlessness, and impersonal relationships.
- Critical Review: Gemeinschaft (e.g., families and friendships) exists in modern society. This perspective romanticizes traditional societies.
Emile Durkheim: The Division of Labor
- Mechanical solidarity: Society held together by social bonds anchored in common moral sentiments.
- Organic solidarity: Modern type of social bonding based on mutual dependence.
- Critical Review: Societal norms and values are strong enough to avoid anomie for most people. People value the personal freedom of modern society despite the risks.
Max Weber: Rationalization
- Modernization replaces a traditional worldview with a rational way of thinking.
- Modern people value efficiency, have little reverence for the past, and adopt social patterns that help them achieve their goals.
- Modern society is “disenchanted.”
- Critical Review: The alienation attributed to bureaucracy could stem from social inequality.
Karl Marx: Capitalism
- The Industrial Revolution was a capitalist revolution.
- Social conflict in capitalism sows the seeds of an egalitarian socialist revolution.
- Critical Review: This complex theory underestimates the dominance of bureaucracy. Stifling socialist bureaucracies were as bad or worse than dehumanizing capitalism.
Sociological Perspectives on Modernity
Structural-Functional Analysis: Theory of Mass Society
- Theory of mass society: Prosperity and bureaucracy have weakened traditional social ties.
- Modern life’s massive scale leads to the dehumanization of everyone.
- Ever-expanding states: In a mass society, power resides in large bureaucracies, leaving people in local communities with little control over their lives.
- Critical Review: This theory romanticizes the past and ignores problems of social inequality. People in small towns were often eager to seek a higher standard of living in cities.
Social-Conflict Theory: Modernity as Class Society
- Modernity takes the form of a class society, a capitalist society with pronounced social stratification.
- Capitalism rests on “naked self-interest” that weakens social ties and treats people as commodities.
- Persistent inequality hinders the state’s ability to combat problems because it is controlled by capitalists.
- Critical Review: This theory overlooks the increasing prosperity of modern societies and improvements in human rights. Most people favor unequal rewards for talent and effort.
Modernity and the Individual
Mass Society: Problems of Identity
- Mass society can make finding an identity difficult.
- According to David Riesman, modernization brings changes in social character, personality patterns common to members of a society, from:
- Tradition-directedness: Rigid conformity to time-honored ways of living.
- Other-directedness: Receptiveness to the latest trends and fashions, often expressed by imitating others.
Class Society: Problems of Powerlessness
- Persistent inequality undermines modern society’s promise of individual freedom.
- While some are well off, many experience economic uncertainty and powerlessness.
- Herbert Marcuse argued that science causes problems rather than solves them, disagreeing with the notion that modern society is rational and technology solves problems.
Modernity and Progress
Progress: A state of continual improvement.
- We see stability as stagnation.
- In North America, modernity has made our lives longer and more comfortable.
- Traditional cultures are often seen as backward, but is our society too fast-paced and stressful?
Modernity: Global Variation
Traditional and modern often coexist in unexpected ways.
In regions like Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, and Latin America, combinations of traditional and modern are common.
Postmodernity
Postmodernity: Social patterns characteristic of post-industrial societies.
Five Themes of Postmodern Thinking
- Modernity has failed in important ways: Poverty and lack of financial security characterize modern life.
- The bright light of “progress” is fading: There is less confidence in the future, and optimism about the promises of modernity is waning.
- Science no longer holds all the answers: Science has created problems like pollution, global warming, and the threat of pandemics. The notion of a single truth has been challenged.
- Cultural debates are intensifying: The promises of social movements have not been fulfilled.
- Social institutions are changing: The rise of a post-industrial society is reshaping society globally.
Critical Review: In defense of modernity, there have been significant increases in longevity and living standards.
Looking Ahead: Modernization and Our Global Future
Modernization theory claims that technological change enhanced human productivity and raised living standards in many nations.
However, dependency theory argues that today’s poor societies have little ability to modernize.
We have witnessed unprecedented human achievement, yet solutions to many problems remain elusive.