SOC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Auguste Comte, Cultural Lag, Social Change
LECTURE 15: SOCIAL CHANGE
Social change is changes in the institutions, culture, stratification system, and other aspects of
society.
Social change can be large or small scale
-Macrochanges occur at the institutional and structural levels of society.
-Ex: The current economic recovery
-Microchanges are small day-to-day changes
-Ex: New fashions and styles
Characteristics of Social Change
1. Social change is uneven
-Culture lag: material changes occurs more rapidly than changes in accompanying
causes, beliefs, and attitudes.
2. The onset and consequences of social change are often unforeseen.
-The attack on the World Trade Center exemplifies this
3. Social change often creates conflict
-Political, religious, and ethnic conflict often results at international levels and within
national boundaries.
Characteristics of Social Change (continued)
4. The direction of social change is not random.
-Norms, values, and traditions direct social change.
-Emile Durkheim, G. Herbert Spencer, and Auguste Comte saw social structures and
cultures moving from the homogeneous to the complex with increasingly greater levels
of differentiation. (Divisions of labor)
-Others observed cultures becoming less integrated, eventually becoming societies
where neighbors often do not know each other.
Inequality and Social Change
-Inequalities between people on the basis of class, ethnicity, gender, or other social structural
characteristics can be a powerful spur toward social change.
-Some government initiatives result from those differences, such as the introduction of
teaching English as a second language in elementary schools and community colleges.
-Unless immigrants learn English, they will always be disadvantaged, and social and
economic doors will be closed to them.
Technological Innovation
-Technological innovations can be strong catalysts of social change.
-The Industrial Revolution demonstrated this principle
-Technology brings with it great rewards and it also displaces millions of people
-We see large factories converting to automation; this reduces the need to employ and
pay many line workers.
Cyberspace Revolution
-Digital cimputers and the subsequent development of desktop computing since the 1980s has
revolutionized the planet.
-The internet, and the doors it opened to near instantaneous global communication, is one of
the most dramatic sources of social change the world has experienced.
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Document Summary
Social change is changes in the institutions, culture, stratification system, and other aspects of society. Social change can be large or small scale. Macrochanges occur at the institutional and structural levels of society. Culture lag: material changes occurs more rapidly than changes in accompanying: social change is uneven causes, beliefs, and attitudes, the onset and consequences of social change are often unforeseen, social change often creates conflict. The attack on the world trade center exemplifies this. Political, religious, and ethnic conflict often results at international levels and within national boundaries. Characteristics of social change (continued: the direction of social change is not random. Emile durkheim, g. herbert spencer, and auguste comte saw social structures and cultures moving from the homogeneous to the complex with increasingly greater levels of differentiation. (divisions of labor) Others observed cultures becoming less integrated, eventually becoming societies where neighbors often do not know each other.
