Ch 16. Social Change: Modern and Postmodern Societies

Question 1

Social change

Answer 1

the transformation of culture and social institutions over time

Question 2

4 characteristics of social change:

Answer 2

1. happens all the time
2. sometimes intentional but often unplanned
3. is controversial
4. some social change matter more than others

Question 3

Conflict and social change

Answer 3

Tensions and stressors between individuals and groups as they gain or lose power can bring about change

Question 4

Ideas and change

Answer 4

Ideas can fuel social movements which bring about social change

Question 5

Demographic change

Answer 5

Increases and decreases in numbers can lead to social change as society may need to expand and/or contract housing, education, and other services

Question 6

Collective behaviour

Answer 6

activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned, often controversial, and can bring about change

Question 7

Types of social movements: Alternative

Answer 7

Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members

Question 8

Types of social movements: Redemptive

Answer 8

Selective focus, radical change

Question 9

Types of social movements: Reformative

Answer 9

Limited social change that targets all members of society

Question 10

Types of social movements: Revolutionary

Answer 10

The most severe, striving for basic transformation of society

Question 11

Types of social movements: Claims making

Answer 11

Process of trying to convince public and public officials of the importance of joining a social movement to address a particular issue

Question 12

Stages in social movements (4)

Answer 12

1. Emergence: Perception that something is wrong
2. Coalescence: Defines itself, recruits members, and devises strategies and tactics
   3.Bureaucratization: Organizes rationally to get the job done
3. Decline: Is the movement in need of regrouping, is it time for its demise, or can it find new goals?

Question 13

Modernity

Answer 13

Changing social patterns resulting from industrialization

Question 14

Modernization

Answer 14

the process of social change begun by industrialization

Question 15

Ferdinand Toonies

Answer 15

With modernization comes the loss of human community
Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society). Modernity brings about impersonal relationships

Question 16

Emile Durkheim

Answer 16

saw modernization as a society’s expanding division of labour. Mechanical solidarity, based on shared activities and beliefs, is gradually replaced by organic solidarity, in which specialization makes people interdependent.

Question 17

Mechanical solidarity

Answer 17

Society was held together by common moral sentiments

Question 18

Organic solidarity

Answer 18

Refers to modernity during which time social bonding by way of specialized work

Question 19

Max Weber

Answer 19

modernity = decline of a traditional worldview/ rise of rationality.

feared dehumanizing effects of modern rational organization.

Value efficiency, have little reverence for the past and adopt whatever social patterns allow them to achieve their goals

Modern society is “disenchanted”: unquestioned truths of an earlier time had been challenged by rational thinking

Question 20

Karl Marx

Answer 20

saw modernity as the triumph of capitalism over feudalism. Theory of class society, a capitalist society with pronounced social stratification. Capitalism promotes self-centredness. Persistent inequality and the state cannot combat problems because it is controlled by capitalists

Question 21

Urbanism as a way of life

Answer 21

Mass society can make finding an identity difficult
People can shuttle from one identity to another

Question 22

Class Society: Problems of Powerlessness

Answer 22

• Persistent inequality undermines modern society’s promise of individual freedom
• Great Inequality: Some are well off and many experience economic uncertainty and powerlessness

Question 23

Post-modernity (5)

Answer 23

1. In important respects, modernity has failed (the promise of modernity was a life free of want)
2. The bright light of “progress” is fading
3. Science no longer holds answers
4. Cultural debates are intensifying
5. Social institutions are changing

Question 24

Structural-Functional Theory: Modernity as Mass Society

Answer 24

a society in which prosperity and expanding bureaucracy have weakened traditional social ties

Modernity = mass society.

role of government and other formal organizations to carry out tasks previously performed by families in local communities.

it’s difficult for people in modern societies to develop stable identities and find meaning in their lives.

Question 25

Social-Conflict Analysis: Modernity as Class Society

Answer 25

Modernity takes the form of a class society.

Modernity = rise of capitalism = persistent social inequality.

concentrating wealth in the hands of a few = widespread feelings of alienation and powerlessness.

Question 26

Modernity and the Individual

Answer 26

Tradition-directedness: rigid conformity to time honoured ways of living

Other directedness: openness to the latest trends and fashions, often expressed by imitating others

We used to be tradition-directedness but now we are other-directedness.