12) Social Change

sabots

(wooden shoes)

transnationals

, immigrants who travel back and forth between the developing and developed worlds, forging human rather than technological links.

genome editing

, in which scientists change the genome sequence by adding, replacing, or removing elements in the DNA.

collective behavior

-Happens when large numbers of individuals rapidly behave in ways that are not in line with societal norms -Time limited -Involves short social interactions -Have loose norms

false consciousness

A term used by Karl Marx to describe an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position.

value-added model

A theory of collective behavior proposed by Neil Smelser to explain how broad social conditions are transformed in a definite pattern in some form of collective behavior.

History, according to Marx, proceeds through a series of stages, each of which exploits a class of people

Ancient society exploited slaves; the estate system of feudalism exploited serfs; modern capitalist society exploits the working class.

theoretical approaches to change—evolutionary

Auguste Comte-He saw human societies as moving forward in their thinking, from mythology to the scientific method Émile Durkheim-maintained that society progressed from simple to more complex forms of social organization. Charles Darwin-stresses a continuing progression of successive life-forms.

There are four basic explanations of social change:

Cyclical Theory Conflict Theory Evolutionary Perspective Functionalist Perspective

Parsons's four processes of social change

Differentiation adaptive upgrading Inclusion value generalization

Sociologists' views on the use and abuse of new technologies

Functionalists take a generally positive view of the Internet, pointing to its manifest function of facilitating communication. Conflict theorists, in contrast, stress the danger that the most powerful groups in a society will use technology to violate the privacy of the less powerful.

Fads

Items or activities that are very popular for a short time

Conflict Perspective on change

Marx- had an important influence on the development of sociology. His thinking offered insights into such institutions as the economy, the family, religion, and government. Ralf Dahrendorf-has noted that the contrast between the functionalist perspective's emphasis on stability and the conflict perspective's focus on change reflects the contradictory nature of society

____________provided leadership (even from jail) and was elected president after apartheid was outlawed in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela

cultural lag

Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations

theoretical approaches to change— functionalist

Parsons-viewed society as being in a natural state of equilibrium. By "equilibrium," he meant that society tends toward a state of stability or balance

Factors that Contribute to Social Change

Physical environment Environment acts on people (flood, tornado) and people act on the environment (global warming, pollution). Population Changes in size, composition, and distribution of people in a geographic area Conflict over resources and values The conflict doesn't result in a mixture of old and new; it results in completely new entities. Fall of the Berlin Wall Supporting values and norms Existing norms permit, stimulate, or inhibit change. Innovation Discovery adds to knowledge, invention uses existing knowledge in a new way. Mass Media Facilitates diffusion by flooding information globally; t. Diffusion The spread of cultural traits from one social unit to another; we gain from other cultures and they gain from us.

Luddites

Rebellious craft workers in 19th-century England who destroyed new factory machinery as part of their resistance to the Industrial Revolution.

Types of social movements:

Reform movements attempt to modify a part of society. Revolutionary movements seek to overthrow the existing social system. Resistance movements seek to quell the fast pace of social change.

controversial scientific advances in the field of biotechnology

Sex selection of fetuses, genetically engineered organisms, cloning of sheep, cows, and some small animals

______________ are more structured than other forms of collective behavior and persist over longer periods.

Social movements

2 evolutionary perspectives

Unilinear Evolutionary Theory: society is viewed as moving in a definite direction. Multilinear Evolutionary Theory: that change can occur in several ways and does not inevitably lead in the same direction.

urban amish

Which slang term is used to identify those who resist technological devices that have become part of our daily life?

flash mob

a group of people organized by social media to assemble suddenly in a public space, perform some collective activity, and then quickly disperse.

Scholars have taken two different approaches to studying these movements:

a macro-level or national approach, and a more local approach to new social movements.

generalized belief

a shared view of reality that redefines social action and serves to guide behavior

assembling perspective

a theory of collective behavior introduced by McPhail and Miller that seeks to examine how and why people move from different points in space to a common location

emergent-norm perspective

a view of collective behavior that emphasizes how new norms emerge and influence the behavior of crowds

technological disasters

airplane crashes, industrial explosions, nuclear power plant melt-downs, and massive chemical poisonings.

Karl Marx recognized the importance of recruitment when he called on workers to

become aware of their oppressed status and to develop a class consciousness.

There are three theories about crowd behavior:

contagion, convergence, and emergent-norm.

sociologists have investigated many forms of collective behavior such as?

fads and fashions, crowds, disaster behavior, panics and crazes, rumors, public opinion, and social movements

fake news

false information created to make money or entertain

women joined together in Korean Women's Association United (KWAU) to seek a voice on issues involving

families, the environment, education, and sexuality, including sexual harassment and assault.

flash gang.

gangs have used social media to assemble members at a specific time and location to commit a crime, such as shoplifting, and then disperse.

assembling perspective examines

how and why people move from different points in space to a common location.

adaptive upgrading

in which social institutions become more specialized in their purposes.

Evolutionary Theory

in which society is viewed as moving in a definite direction.

The three creators (Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi) had been focused on the issues of

incarceration, immigration, and domestic labor, but this represented a new area of concern.

nonperiodic assemblies

include demonstrations, parades, and gatherings at the scene of fires, accidents, and arrests.

Periodic assemblies

include recurring, relatively routine gatherings of people such as work groups, college classes, and season-ticket holders in an athletic series.

panic

is a fearful arousal or collective flight based on a generalized belief that may or may not be accurate.

A crowd

is a temporary gathering of people in close proximity who share a common focus or interest.

craze

is an exciting mass involvement that lasts for a relatively long period.

charisma

is that quality of an individual that sets him or her apart from ordinary people.

Digitalization

is the diffusion of digital technologies into nearly every workplace, remaking the economy and the world of work.

Cyclical theorists,

look at the rise and fall of civilizations. tend to be historians.

Functional theorists focus on

maintaining a system, not on what changes

Computer-mediated communication

may be defined as communicative interaction through two or more networked devices, such as a computer or cell phone.

Maureen Hallinan (1997) cautioned that we need to

move beyond the restrictive models of social change—the linear view of evolutionary theory and the assumptions about equilibrium in the functionalist perspective.

structural strain

occurs when the conduciveness of the social structure to potential conflict gives way to a perception that conflicting interests do, in fact, exist.

Inclusion

of groups that were previously excluded because of their gender, race, ethnicity, or social class.

conflict theorists contend that social institutions and practices persist because?

powerful groups have the ability to maintain the status quo.

public

refers to a dispersed group of people, not necessarily in contact with one another, who share an interest in an issue.

disaster

refers to a sudden or disruptive event or set of events that overtaxes a community's resources, so that outside aid is necessary

public opinion

refers to expressions of attitudes on matters of public policy that are communicated to decision makers.

Artificial intelligence, or AI,

refers to the ability of machines, rather than humans, to address problems and perform tasks in a manner that achieves some measure of success.

Differentiation

refers to the increasing complexity of social organization.

The three types of social movements are

reform, revolutionary, and resistance

A group will not mobilize into a social movement without a shared perception that its ___________ _________ can be ended only through collective action.

relative deprivation

The success of a social movement depends in good part on effective?

resource mobilization.

FORMS OF COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR

riots, rumors, panics, mass hysteria, moral panics, fads and fashions, urban legends

in the study of collective behavior, the public does not include everyone. Rather, it is a collective of people who focus on

some issue, engage in discussion, agree or disagree, and sometimes dissolve when the issue has been decided

structural conduciveness

structural conduciveness to indicate that the organization of society can facilitate the emergence of conflicting interests.

The value-added model outlines six determinants of collective behavior:

structural conduciveness, structural strain, generalized belief, a precipitating factor, mobilization of participants for action, operation of social control.

fashions

styles of imitative behavior or appearance that are of longer duration than fads

New social movements

tend to focus on more than just economic issues and often cross national boundaries.

The emergent-norm perspective suggests

that new forms of behavior may emerge during an episode of collective behavior

relative deprivation is defined as

the conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities things aren't as good as you hoped they would be.

Human behavior is guided by

the cultural patterns of society. Usually we encounter organized situations in which we play well-defined social roles. The structure of our society and our cultural norms guide our behavior.

value generalization

the development of new values that tolerate and legitimate a greater range of activities.

equilibrium model

the functionalist view that society tends toward a state of stability or balance

crowdsourcing

the online practice of asking Internet surfers for ideas or participation in an activity or movement.

Sociologists rely on two explanations for why people mobilize:

the relative deprivation and resource mobilization approaches.

resource mobilization refers to

the ways in which a social movement utilizes such resources.

value-added model

to explain how broad social conditions are transformed in a definite pattern into some form of collective behavior.

vested interests

to refer to those people or groups who will suffer in the event of social change.

precipitating factors

triggers collective behavior.

Collective behavior is:

unstructured

Because functionalist sociologists focus on

what maintains a system, not on what changes it, they might seem to offer little to the study of social change.

conforming behavior

which we usually associate with highly structured situations, was evident in this rather chaotic crowd

diffusion

—the process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society.

Factors that lead to collective behavior:

• The structure is conducive. • The structure is strained. • Growth and spread of a rumor or generalized belief. • Precipitating factor or event. • Participants mobilize for action. • Breakdown in social control.