Chapter 2

Social and cultural change

 INTRODUCTION OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
CHANGE
• Nature is always changeable. It’s never at rest.
• So change is universal fact.
• Similarly, society is not all the static phenomenon but a
dynamic entity.
• The term social change is used to indicate the change that
takes place in human interaction and interrelation.
• As we know society is the web of different social relationship.
Such relations are understood in terms of social process and
social interaction.
• Thus the term social change is used to refer desirable variations
in social interaction , social process and social organization.
 INTRODUCTION OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Definition:
• Social change refers to any significant alteration
over time in behavior patterns , cultural values and
norms. By “significant” alteration, sociologists mean
changes yielding profound social consequences.
Examples of significant social changes having long‐
term effects include the:
– industrial revolution(1760-1840)
– the abolition of slavery 15th century
– the feminist movement 19th century
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
There are following characteristics of social change:
1.SOCIAL CHANGE IS SOCIAL:
• social change obviously means a change in the
system of social relationships.
• Only that change can be called social change
whose influence can be felt in a community form.
• The changes that have significance for all or
considerable segment of population can be
considered as social change
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
2.SOCIAL CHANGE IS UNIVERSAL
• Change is the universal law of nature.
• The social structure, social organization and social
institutions are all dynamic.
• Social change occur in all societies no society
remains static for long time.
• Adjustments take place in every society and
conflicts break down adjustments.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

3.SOCIAL CHANGE OCCURS AS AN ESSENTIAL

LAW
• Social change is an unavoidable law of nature.
• Our needs keep on changing to satisfy our
desire for change and to satisfy these needs,
social change becomes a necessity.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

4.SOCIAL CHANGE IS CONTINIOUS

• It is an “ongoing process”.
• Society is continuously changing since from
the past up till now.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

5. SOCIAL CHANGE IS BOUND BY TIME FACTORS:

• Social change is temporal.
• It happens through time, because society
exists only as a time-sequences.
For example : the caste system which was a
pillar of stability in traditional society, is now
undergoing considerable changes in the
modern.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

6.DEFINATE PRIDICTION OF SOCIAL CHANGE IS

IMPOSSIBLE:
• It is very much difficult to make out any
prediction on the exact forms of social change.

FOR EXAMPLE:A thousand years ago in Asia,

Europe and Latin America the face of society was
vastly different from that what exists today. But
what the society will be in thousand years from
now, no one can tell.
 PROCESS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
• The process of social change starts when an
innovation spread in a society.
• Social change accepted easily in some societies
and some societies show rigidness in acceptance

STEPS
• Discovery
• Invention
• Diffusion.
 PROCESS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
DISCOVERY
• Discovery is finding something that has never been found
before, or finding something new in something that already
exists social Change.
• A discovery is a share human perception of an aspect of
reality which already exists.
• A discovery is addition to the world’s store of verified
knowledge.
• A discovery becomes factor in social change only when it is
put in use.
• When new knowledge is used to develop new technology,
vast changes generally follow.
 PROCESS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
INVENTION
• An invention is often described as new
combination or a new use of existing knowledge
• Each invention may be in new form, function,
meaning and principle
• Invention is not strictly an individual matters, it is a
social process involving an endless series of
modifications, improvements and combinations.
 PROCESS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
DIFFUSION
• It is a spread of culture traits from group to group
• Diffusion takes place whenever societies come into
contact and always a two way contact
• Diffusion is a selective process
• There are a lot of ways to diffuse innovations in a
society but most effective and popular are.
– 1. Communication channels.
– 2. Mass media.
– 3. Interpersonal communication.
 Theories of Social Change
(Evolution, Functional, Conflict)
EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES
According to evolutionary theory, society moves in
specific directions. Therefore, early social
evolutionists saw society as progressing to higher
and higher levels, as a result, they concluded that
their own cultural attitudes and behaviors were
more advanced than those of earlier societies.
Several Understandings:
“Auguste Comte” saw human societies as progressing
into using scientific methods.

“EMILE DURKHEIM”one of the founders of

functionalism , saw society moving from simple to
complex social structure.

HEBER SPENCER compared society to a living organism

with interrelated parts moving toward a common
end .
In short COMTE,DURKHEIM and SPENCER proposed
unilinear evolutionary theories
 Theories of Social Change
(Evolution, Functional, Conflict)
CONFLICT THEORY
Grounded in the ideas of Karl Marx – Claims that the
engine for social change is conflict between unequal
social classes
More recent conflict theorists suggest that conflict
between various groups, not necessarily class-
based, also fuels social change – Such groups
include the National Organization for Women, the
Christian Coalition and many others
 Theories of Social Change
(Evolution, Functional, Conflict)
FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
• Functionalists see society as a homeostatic system-
consisting of interrelated parts
– The normal state of society is one of equilibrium.
– Because society is an open system, it is usually in a dynamic
state, or a state of near equilibrium.
• Society changes as it seeks to integrate conditions
which act upon it
– The changes, however, are piecemeal and very gradual
– The purpose of these changes is to bring society to a place
of equilibrium
 FACTORS OF CHANGE

• Economics
• Technology
• Education
• Demography
 RESISTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL
CHANGE
• Not all changes or innovations are accepted by the
society. The attitudes and values of a group
determine what kind of changes a group is likely to
accept.
• A process of selective acceptance operates. Some
innovations are accepted instantly and some are
rejected entirely.
 RESISTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL
CHANGE
1.SPECIFIC ATTITUDES AND VALUES
• If a change has a purely utilitarian value,
change may be accepted quite readily.
• If some feature of some traditional culture is
valued intrinsically, change is less readily
accepted.
 RESISTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL
CHANGE
2. DEMONSTRABILITY OF INVENTION
• An innovation is most quickly accepted when
its usefulness can be easily demonstrated.
• We hesitate to adopt an invention until we
have been shown how it works, yet we can
determine the practical value only by adopting
them. This dilemma slows their acceptance.
 RESISTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL
CHANGE
3. COMPATABILITY WITH EXISTING CULTURE
• The innovation may be incompatible with the
existing culture in at 3 ways:
– The innovation may conflict with existing cultural
pattern.
– The innovations may call for new patterns not
present in the culture.
– Some innovations are substitutive, not additive,
and less readily accepted.
 RESISTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL
CHANGE
4. COST OF CHANGE
• Most social changes carry threat to some
people with vested interests, who then
oppose these change.
• Social changes which are profitable to status
quo, having vested interests, will be promoted
by them.
 Technological Changes and its Consequences
• Technology society and life or technology and
culture refers to dependency co-dependence, co-
influence, and co-production
of technology and society upon the other
(technology upon culture, and vice versa).
 Assignment
• Discuss the Role of Media and Communication in
Social and Cultural Change.
• Study the current social and cultural environment
of Nepal .
• What are the Technological Changes and its
Consequences on society and culture?