SOC 705 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Civil Liberties, Fatalism, Social Contract

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 705
• Professor: Terry Roswell

Document Summary

Social change means that large numbers of people are engaging in group activities and relationships that are different from those in relationships that are different from those in which they or their parents engaged in previously. Social change means modifications in the way people work, rear a family, educate their children, govern themselves, and seek ultimate meaning in life. Refers to a restructuring of the basic ways people in a society relate to each other with regard to government, economics, education, religion, family life, recreation, language, and other activities. Bentham expected legal reforms to respond quickly to new social needs and to restructure society. Savigny believed that only fully developed popular customs could form the basis of legal change. Legal changes are codifications of customs, and they can only be national, never universal. In history, custom has been the principal source of law. Today, the tempo of social change has accelerated.