Understanding 11

Culture, Society and 1

Politics
Quarter 4- Modules 6

Writers:
Eric F. Fungo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Estella Marie A. Oclares, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Rosanna T. Sarte, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Maria Cristita B. Cuerdo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus

Content Validator:
Eric F. Fungo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus

Language Validator
Mary Rose B. Baita – GANHS - SHS

Consolidator/Team Leader
Mary Jane Aranda, PES Camella Annex

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 Lesson Factors Causing Social, Political and
6 Cultural Change

Most Essential Learning Competency

● Evaluate the factors causing social, political, and cultural change

What is it?
Change is the law of nature. What is today shall be different from what it would be tomorrow.

SOCIAL CHANGE DEFINED

Social scientists have stressed social change in terms of a change in relationships,
organization, culture, institution, structure and functioning of the social system.
There are few identifiable characters of social change. Some of them are as follows: that social
change happens everywhere, but the rate of change varies from place to place; that social change is
sometimes intentional but often unplanned; that social change may generate controversy; that some
changes matter more than others do.

Factors of Social Change.

1. Physical Environment: Certain geographic changes produce great social change. Climate, storms,
social erosion, earthquakes, floods, droughts etc. It affects social life and induces social change.
Generally, changes in the physical environment force migration of people in large numbers and this
brings major changes in social life and cultural values. Migration itself encourages change, for it brings
a group into a new environment, subject to its new social contacts, and confronts it with new problems.
2. Demographic (biological) Factor: Demography is concerned with the size and structure of human
population. The social structure of a society is closely related with the changes in the size, composition
and distribution of population. The size of the population is based mainly upon three factors—birth
rate, death rate and migration (immigration and emigration).
3. Cultural Factor: Values, beliefs, ideas, institutions are the basic elements of a culture. Certainly,
all cultural changes involve social change. It is an established fact that there is an intimate connection
between our beliefs and social institutions, our values and social relationships.
Social and the cultural aspects are closely interwoven. Thus, any change in the culture (ideas,
values, beliefs etc.) brings a corresponding change in the whole social order. Social institutions
cannot live on life shells within which life is extinct. Social systems are directly or indirectly the
creations of cultural values.
4. Idealization Factor: Among the cultural factors affecting social change in modern times is the
development of science and secularization of thought have contributed a lot to the development of the
critical and innovative character of the modern outlook. We no longer follow many customs or habits

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 merely because they have the age-old authority of
tradition. On the contrary, our ways of life have
increasingly become on the basis of rationality
5. Tension and conflict: Structural strain, deprivation, and
cultural revitalization has been the major causes of
conflict. Again, social division based on class, caste,
gender, ethnicity, estate, etc. have also been important
sources of conflict in society. Social movements are
organized efforts of groups of people to bring about
deliberate change in the values, norms,
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1Figure 1Immigrants institutions, culture relationships and
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traditions of the society. They also generate new
identities and a new perspective.

POLITICAL CHANGE DEFINED

Political change occurs when the
rulers in a country lose power or the type of
governance in the country changes.
Governance is the type of system used to rule
a country. Examples of types of governance
would be democracy and monarchy.
Political changes most often stem
from social or economic issues that a country
may be facing. For instance, political change
may be caused by social issues, such as the
tensions between differing racial and ethnic
groups or policies that deny specific groups of
people civil rights. Political change may also
occur if a country is suffering from economic
turmoil and its citizens feel the pressure of not
having enough money and feel that the
government is not helping them out. This
frustration then comes to a head and sparks
political change.
Political change is a normal function of
internal and external politics. Rulers will be
voted out, retire, or die while in power, and the new leader will make changes. The more powerful
countries will anticipate political change and make the process clear and smooth. Countries that
appear more prone to in-fighting and/or civil wars are likely led by a person or group that refuses to
allow political change or lacks a clear understanding of how political change is to occur.

Types of Political Change

There are two ways in which political change may occur: internally or externally. You should
realize, however, that both types of political change can occur at the same time to create a mixed
political change. Internal political change is initiated by citizens of the country. It can be done through
regular events, such as elections and rulers choosing to hand power over, or through irregular events,
such as a coup d’état or a rebellion. External political change is initiated by other countries. It is usually
achieved through military threats or action but could occur through embargoes and/or withholding

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foreign aid. If it is achieved by the military, then a new leader will be placed in charge by the victorious,
foreign power. The victorious country may also choose to change the style of governance as well.
Political changes can also occur when political, military, or rebellion leaders in a country receive
support from a foreign country. The foreign country will likely talk to the leaders to ensure that the next
leaders and/or style of governance is preferable. If it is, then the foreign power will supply weapons
and other kinds of aid, such as money, naval blockades, military leadership training, and, as seen
recently, airstrikes, to the leaders attempting to take power. This would be preferable to an external
political change to a foreign country because it is usually less expensive in terms of money and lives
lost.

CULTURAL CHANGE DEFINED

The culture of a society is not stagnant, it is always evolving. Social and cultural change has
been constant throughout the history of mankind. A large part of change in society is caused by change
in culture. Culture is a system that constantly loses and gains components.
Cultures are inherently predisposed to change and, at the same time, to resist change. There
are dynamic processes operating that encourage the acceptance of new ideas and things while there
are others that encourage changeless stability. It is likely that social and psychological chaos would
result if there were not the conservative forces resisting change.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2https://tinyurl.com/y6mkt35j
There are three general sources of influence or pressure that are responsible for both change
and resistance to it:
1. Forces at work within a society
2. Contact between societies
3. Changes in the natural environment

Within a society, processes leading to change include invention and culture loss. Inventions
may be either technological or ideological. The latter includes such things as the invention of algebra
and calculus or the creation of a representative parliament as a replacement for rule by royal decree.
Technological inventions include new tools, energy sources, and transportation methods as well as
more frivolous and ephemeral things such as style of dress and bodily adornment.

Culture loss is an inevitable result of old cultural patterns being replaced by new ones. For
instance, not many Americans today know how to care for a horse. A century ago, this was common
knowledge, except in a few large urban centers. Since then, vehicles with internal combustion engines
have replaced horses as our primary means of transportation and horse care knowledge lost its
importance. As a result, children are rarely taught these skills. Instead, they are trained in the use of
the new technologies of automobiles, televisions, stereos, cellular phones, computers, and iPods.

Within a society, processes that result in the

resistance to change include habit and the
integration of culture traits. Older people, in
particular, are often restrained to replace their
comfortable, long familiar cultural patterns. Habitual
behavior provides emotional security in a
threatening world of change. Religion also often
provides strong moral justification and support for
maintaining traditional ways. In the early 21st
century, this is especially true of nations mostly
guided by Islamic Law, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

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 In the last millennia, the world has undergone countless changes especially during this Covid-
19 pandemic. Global processes of social and cultural changes continue to affect people and nations
in a variety of ways. Cultural change is the transformation of culture or the way people live.

Such changes occur because of factors such as innovations like discovery and invention;
diffusions and globalization, acculturation and assimilations, technology and modernization. Changes
anywhere in the world can have amplified effects elsewhere, with increased benefits to some people
and increased costs to others. There is also the possibility of some changes producing instability and
uncertainty that are to the disadvantage of all. Worldwide stability may depend on nations establishing
more reliable systems of doing business and exchanging information, developing monitoring
mechanisms to warn of global catastrophes (such as famine and nuclear war), and reducing the large
gap in the standard of living between the richest and the poorest nations. Nations, like all participants
in social systems, sometimes find it to their advantage to suffer some short-term losses to achieve the
longer-term benefits of a stable world economy

In a nutshell, it may be said that social

change refers specifically to alterations in
social relationships among people in groups,
whereas cultural change refers to change in
both material and non-material cultural
elements. It may be said that social change
and cultural change are inextricably linked. It is
very difficult to draw a line of demarcation
between the two. At certain places both
concepts overlap.

Processing Questions:
How did Covid-19 change the world socially,
culturally and politically?
How did you respond to these changes? How did it
affect your life in terms of your personality, your family and your
community?
Do you think that modernization is good or bad?
Explain, using examples.