CHAPTER 8

CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND

POLITICAL CHANGE AND
RESPONSES TO CHANGE
By: Group 5
 OBJECTIVES
•Define culture, social and political change.
•Identify and explain the various sources of social,
cultural and political change .
•Discuss the new challenges to human adaptation and
social change.
•Identify the effective means in responding to cultural,
social and political change.
•Determine and illustrate the various characteristics of
social movements.
LESSON 1

DEFINING SOCIAL,
CULTURAL AND
POLITICAL CHANGE
SOCIAL CHANGE
• Is an alteration in patterns of culture,
social and social behavior over time.
As observe by Heraclitus, no society can
prevent change, not even those that try to do so
( Robertson : 507 ).
• Nonetheless, some society are more resistant
to change than others, particularly indigenous
peoples who continuously uphold their old
traditions rather than accepting external
interventions in their daily lives.
CULTURAL CHANGE
• A change in the cultural patterns of
behavior and values as well as the tangible or
material aspects and the intangible or non-
material aspects of people’s lives.
• The alteration of built heritage in
downtown Manila and Iloilo in favor of
sleek, modern structure is cultural change.
POLITICAL CHANGE
• A change in political patterns of behavior
and values as well as the various political
institutions that held power and control.
• The proposed change in the type of
government in the Philippines from
presidential to parliamentary is a fine example
of political change.
LESSON 2.1

SOURCES OF SOCIAL,
CULTURAL, AND
POLITICAL CHANGE
3 MOST IMPORTANT
SOURCES OF CHANGE

a. Innovation
b. Diffusion
c. Acculturation
 A. INNOVATION
• Is defined as “ independent invention
to creatively find solutions to
problems”
Notable innovation drastically altered the lives
of many people in the world especially in
providing ease, comfort, public safety, and even
access to information and ideas.
• For example, the invention of public
transport system like metro rails
revolutionized safe travel and regulated
traffic in countries like Thailand and
Singapore.
In the same way, the birth of social media like
Facebook and Twitter significantly contributed
to fast delivery of information and sharing of
ideas in the four corners of the globe.
2 TYPES OF INNOVATION;

• Primary Innovation
• Secondary Innovation
PRIMARY INNOVATION
• When an individual or a group comes up
with a completely new idea, method, or
device (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, and
McBride 2008).
Example: the invention of elevator.
 SECONDARY INNOVATION
• when an individual or a group further develops
or improves on an already existing idea, method, or
device.
Example: the cellular phone and other forms
of wireless phone are improvised versions of
the original telephone.
B. DIFFUSION
• since a particular culture can never truly be isolated from
the rest, traits from one culture may be shared to
others.
People in a particular society are also cautious and careful
which trait to borrow from other cultures especially if they
find it incongruous or even inimical to their beliefs and
existing norms
• For instance, pre-modern societies like highland
dwellers of Northern Philippines shared the
traditions of ritual feasting and head-hunting.
The last practice, however is abhorred by lowland
societies in Central and Southern Luzon who
considered the act “barbaric” and “inhuman”.

Diffusion can either be direct or indirect.

DIRECT DIFFUSION
• occurs through trade, marriage, war.
For instance, the use of silk clothes was
introduced by the Chinese to the
Filipino through trade.
• In the same way, the participation of the
Philippines to the brisk Manila-Acapulco Galleon
Trade provided impetus for the diffusion
transplantation of Mexican flora like corn and
peanut to the Philippine soil so as the Philippine
mango to Mexico.
INDIRECT DIFFUSION
• when a group comes with another
group indirectly through a third party.
For example, when merchants bring new
products, language, customs, beliefs to a certain
place from another place.
In this case, the two places had no direct
contact, but influence were shared through the
merchants (i.e. third party).
Similarly, Indian influences to the Philippines
indirectly permeated through Hinduized Malays an
Indonesians who served as emissaries of goodwill
of the Sri Wijayan and Mojopaht kingdoms.
 C. ACCULTURATION
• this process results to a massive cultural
change, and entails show of force by one
party over another (Haviland, Prins, Walrath,
and McBride 2008).
For example, the integration of Chinese people in
Indonesia involved forcible measures including
bloody persecutions. This is, however, not the
case among the Chinese in the Philippines, who
admittedly received prejudicial treatment from the
locals but significantly have the upper hand in the
local economy.
• Acculturation is also prevalent through learning
Filipino culture side by side with the Chinese.
 Create shared
Understanding
Analyze Current
Culture Create shared
Vision

The Culture
Start over at Identify Core Values
the next level Change With Supporting and
Process Non-supporting
Behavior
Teach Leaders
to be Coaches
Conduct Employee
Provide Coaching
Perception
to Leaders Survey to measures ability
to Walk the Talk
LESSON 2.2

RESPONDING TO SOCIAL,
POLITICAL, AND
CULTURAL CHANGE
• Since change is generally inevitable in society,
people resort to diverse ways and means in
responding to it and managing the impact it
can generate both to an individual and society.
Among the means employed are as follows:
MEANS EMPLOYED IN RESPONDING TO SOCIAL,
POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL CHANGE

a. Participatory Democracy
b. New forms of Media and Social Networking
c. Social Movements
A. PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
• keeping in mind the belief that empathy is
not inherent to people.
• actively find ways to let people participate
across wide spectrum of issues
(Magstadt, 2013 ).
• This explains the prevalence of cause oriented
groups in many developing countries as
represented by civil society and non-governmental
organizations, which are actively involved in
collaborating with government agencies in
delivering resources and services to the society at
large.
• Is also vital in ensuring that the voiceless will be
given an opportunity to articulate their views and
feelings to issues and concerns affecting their lives
as well as engage in proactive role in community
decision and planning process.
B. NEW FORMS OF MEDIA AND
SOCIAL NETWORKING

• With the advent of the internet, people

have equitable access to information and
ideas, literally with the palm of their hands
and the touch of a finger.
• Theoretically, this technological developments is
great victory for democracy as popular
participation can be handily realized with one
click.
• Nonetheless, unregulated access to information
can be also detrimental especially in relation to
private matters like government and personal
records.
• Such advancement in information access makes it
more difficult for government or any entity to
hide inconvenient truths.
• In addition to a heightened awareness, the ease
of communication and spread of social networks
facilitates mass movements that can be beneficial
if common good is emphasized otherwise create
chaos if uncontrolled.
For instance, social media played a potent role in
exposing the corruption in the Philippine executive
branch when civil society groups gathered in Lucena
denouncing the use of DAP funds by the Aquino
administration as unconstitutional.
• In the same way, social media also necessitated
public uproar among inhabitants in Arab states
that ultimately gave birth to the famous
phenomenon
called the “Arab Spring”.
 C. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• These are activities organized by groups of people
intended to create effects beyond their own
group.
• This usually occurs when people who are
dissatisfied identify their current social conditions
as unable to meet their needs.
• Undeniably, many social movements are in
the world advocate pro-poor platforms by
ensuring the plight of the latter are
ventilated to higher authorities especially
in countries under oppressive regimes.
• And yet others operate as dissensions
to the dominant paradigms of political
economy.
• For instance, the Islamic extremism espoused
but ISIS , which challenged the hegemonic
role of United States of America in ensuring
international security and freedom from
threats of terrorism.
• In the Philippines, many of the social
movements are organized to help poverty-
stricken communities rise from passivity and
apathy to become proactive patterns in
working for the programs of society.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
• Leftist
• Centrist or Rightist Platforms
CHARACTERISTICS OF
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
I.
• An ideology is “a coherent system of beliefs,
values, and ideas that justifies the movements
existence”
• this gives the movements an idea of what they
are fighting for and how should they fight for
it.
II.
• Social movements usually occurs when small
improvements in social conditions occur.
• When people see a spark of possibility
for better conditions, they are
encouraged to pursue these imagined
conditions.
III.
• Having a necessary resources such as money,
people, media, knowledge, etc. are essential to the
sources of any social movement.
• With enough resources a group may be able to
reach more participants to gain more support
for their cause.
IV.
• The formal organization and bureaucratization
helps in making in making social movements
more effective. It will also become very helpful
should a social movement become a
permanently recognize organization within
society.
• Groups spearheading social movements must
also be vigilant of conditions outside their
group to know when their movement will be
most loudly heard or when their desired
effect will most probably take place.
LESSON 3

NEW CHALLENGES TO
HUMAN ADAPTATION
AND SOCIAL CHANGE
CHALLENGES TO HUMAN ADAPTATION
AND SOCIAL CHANGE

A. Global warming and climate change

B. Transnational migration
 A. GLOBAL WARMING AND
CLIMATE CHANGE
• With green house gas emissions reaching alarming
levels, people have begun coming up with new
policies and changing lifestyles to address the
effects of global warming. Currently, glaciers are
melting at an increasing rate resulting to higher sea
levels and altered ocean currents.
• In the Philippines, climate change resulted to
disastrous typhoons like Yolanda, which
bought storm surged and devastation to
Tacloban City and environs.
• El Niño phenomenon is also forecast to
bring drought and long dry spell in the
country in the first half of 2016.
 B. TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION
• Most scholars recognize that many
contemporary migrants and their predecessors
maintain various kinds of ties to their
homelands at the same time that they are
incorporated into the countries that receive
them.
• Increasing, social life takes place across borders,
even as the political and cultural salience of nation-
state boundaries remaining strong.
• Transaction migration studies has emerged as an
inherently interdisciplinary field, made up of
scholars
Thank you!