Social Change

Question 1

The three definitions in Thulani’s notes.

Answer 1

1. The variation in social organization and the beliefs and practices of those who believe in it.
2. Modification of any aspects of social practices, social processes, social organizations, social interactions.
3. Variations in the nature of social interactions, social organizations and social behaviour of a society or any community of people.

Question 2

Social continuity

Answer 2

The persistence or continued existence of cultural aspects of a society over a given amount of time.

Question 3

Major sources of social change

Answer 3

1. Technological advancement
2. Social movements
3. Rising expectations

Question 4

Social movement

Answer 4

Continual, large-scale, organized, collective action aimed at either stopping, enacting or reversing change in some area of society.

Question 5

How many types of movements are there? List them.

Answer 5

Six.
1. Alternative
2. Redemptive
3. Reformative
4. Transformative
5. Counter movement
6. Revolutionary

Question 6

What is a counter movement?

Answer 6

A movement designed to prevent or reverse the changes sought or accomplished by an earlier movement.

Question 7

What type of movement attempts to overthrow the entire system be it the government or the existing social structure in order to replace it with another? Give at least 3 examples

Answer 7

Revolutionary movement.
American revolution 1776
French Revolution 1789
Russian revolution 1917
Iranian revolution 1979
Afghan revolution 1996

Question 8

Redemptive movement.

Answer 8

Focus on personal transformation and changes in individual behaviour often with religious or spiritual component.
Example: Christianity movement from 1500s to 1900s offering salvation

Question 9

What type of movement seeks partial change in social system and doesn’t seek to alter or replace any major social institutions? Give at least two examples.

Answer 9

Reformative movement.
1. Women Suffrage to allow woman to participate in voting from 1840 to 1920
2. Civil Rights movement against racial segregation and exclusion in the U.S from 1954 to 1968.

Question 10

Transformative movement.

Answer 10

These seek total change in social institutions or structures by destroying or replacing current existing system.
Revolutionary movements fall here.

Question 11

Alternative movement and examples.

Answer 11

Seeks partial change in an individual’s behaviours or offer alternative lifestyles without seeking societal change.
1. Mothers Against Drunk Driving
2. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Question 12

The act of maintaining a certain degree of similarity to those in general social circles or in authority or in general status quo is known as

Answer 12

Conformity

Question 13

What are the two types of influence?

Answer 13

1. Informational
2. Normative

Question 14

Which sociologist claimed that most societies have one or more modernizing elites - groups of people who create significant social change and influence the direction it goes?

Answer 14

Samuel Eisenstadt

Question 15

Sociologist Max Weber claimed that…

Answer 15

One of the most important components of social change was a charismatic leader who places great demand on his/ her followers,promises rewards for their support.

Question 16

What did sociologists Karl Max and Emile Durkheim do?

Answer 16

Emile coined the word “anomie” to describe conditions of industrial workers. No roots, no norms. Struggled.
Karl took the term and applied it to working people or proletariat. Karl claimed the workers were controlled through housing and employment and were exploited

Question 17

What are the effects of alienation?

Answer 17

1. Positive: can create reformers.
   Can create people who create outstanding ideas (positive motivator to change)
2. Negative: can create anarchists.
   Can cause oppressed people to accept live in the margins of society ( social roles, crime, poverty)

Question 18

Impacts of conformity on society.

Answer 18

1. Discourages social change due to desire to fit in. No one wants to be odd or stand out.
2. Encourages people’s to accept practices they know or suspect are wrong.
3. It stifles social change as everyone behaves the same.
4. Results in negative behaviours such as racism, sexism, bullying.

Question 19

Define the two types of influence. With daily practical examples.

Answer 19

1. Normative influence: pressure to conform to the positive expectations of others.
   E.g. working hard on essay because one wants lecturer to think highly of them or follow footsteps of parent’s career.
2. Informative influence: human desire to accept information that an admired person tells us as valid.
   E.g. parents, teacher, coach.

Question 20

Who is Mao Zedong and what did he do?

Answer 20

An example of Max Weber’s charismatic leader.
Chinese communist revolution leader.
Promised freedom from poverty and exploitation as benefits of communism.

Question 21

What changes does industrialization bring about?

Answer 21

1. Gender activities. As people work outside home/ community, value of childcare and labour shifts.
2. Work centered and organized around machines.
3. Production of weapons.
4. Informative society

Question 22

Characteristics of industrialized societies.

Answer 22

1. Fewer children. Family roles change, tech advancements allow ctrl or reproduction.
2. Families change from extended to nuclear. No longer seem as an economic unit. Also due to geographic and occupational mobility.

Question 23

Characteristics of modern societies

Answer 23

1. Larger role of govt. in society & bureaucracy to run governments
2. Large, formal organizations & division of labor based on specialization of skills & abilities into occupations

Question 24

Natural forces of social change.

Answer 24

1. Geography.
   • Terrain affecting how societies develop.
   • Natural disasters drastically change.
2. Environment
   • Pollution
   • Programs that address environmental problems

Question 25

External events as forces of social change.

Answer 25

• Cause large and immediate impact
1. American civil war
2. World War II
3. September 11, 2001

Question 26

Give at least one example of a country that has geography as a cause of social change.

Answer 26

1. China had to develop large scale irrigation system. This requires a strong centralized government.
2. North American coasts - developed small, separate colonies independent of each other due to the small inlets they had.
3. Canada - different styles of land which requires decentralization to provincial level.