SOCIAL &
CULTURAL CHANGE
GUL-E-NAYAB
SOCIAL CHANGE• Social change refers to an alteration in the social
order of a society.
• Social change may include changes
in nature, social institutions, social behaviours,
or social relations
• Social change refers to any significant alteration
over time in behavior patterns and cultural values
and norms.
SOCIAL CHANGE• By “significant” alteration, sociologists mean
changes yielding profound social consequences.
Examples of significant social changes having
long‐term effects include the industrial revolution,
the abolition of slavery, and the feminist
movement.
• Social change is the transformation of culture and
social institutions over time.
DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS
• Kingsley Davis meant only such alterations
that affect the organisation, structure and
functions of society.
• John J. social change is “the
transformation of culture and social
institutions over time.”
MAIN CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
CAUSES • Social change happens everywhere, but the rate of
change varies from place to place social change is
sometimes intentional but often unplanned social
change may generate controversy; that some
changes matter more than others do.
• These are some of the major factors that highlight
the causes of social change:
i. A large part of change in society is caused by
change in culture. Culture is a system that
constantly loses and gains components.
Invention, discovery and diffusion are considered
to be the main sources of cultural change.
• Inventions produce new products, ideas, and
social patterns.
• It is a new combination or a new use of existing
knowledge.
• Inventions may be classified into material
(telephone, aero plane), and social inventions
(alphabet, language, government, etc.).
• Each invention is new in form, function and
meaning and has long-term possibilities of
impact.
• Discovery is finding something that has never
been found before, or finding something new in
something that already exists.
• A discovery adds something new to the culture
and becomes a factor in social change only when
it is put to use.
• Diffusion is a process of the spreading of ideas,
culture and objects to other societies.
• It operates both within societies and between
societies involving trading, migration, and mass
communication.
ii. New ideas and modification of old ideas in a new
context bring wide-scale changes in society.
iii. Demographic change is caused by an increase in
birth and decline in death and migration of
populations. Change occurs from the demographic
transition in society.
iv. Social change is also caused by tension and
conflict. Again social division based on class,
caste, gender, ethnicity, estate, etc. have also been
important sources of conflict in society.
v. Social movements are organized efforts of groups
of people to bring about deliberate change in the
values, norms, institutions, culture relationships
and traditions of the society. They also generate
new identities and a new perspective.
CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE: SUM UP
1. Technological and Economic Changes: (Agriculture
advancement, industrialization)
2. Modernization: standardizing as towards modern tools
(Life Style, Technology)
3. Urbanization: Moving population from ruler areas to
urban (Cities) areas.
4. Bureaucratization: Extreme emphasize on rules and
regulation, impersonality.
CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE: SUM UP
5. Conflict and Competition: War: due to religion, ethnic
tensions, competition for resources. Gender and Women’s
Movement: equal pay, property: Today; day care,
occupational segregation.
6. Political and Legal Power: Elected Official (Government) &
Unelected Officials (Corporative Force)
7. Ideology: Religious Belief, Political or Regional Conviction.
CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE: SUM UP
8. Diffusion: Spreading the ones cultural to another culture.
9. Acculturation: the process in which a minority is
absorbed into the majority and entirely loses its
distinctiveness.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
• Major changes in the physical environment are very
compelling when they happen.
• Climates change, soil erodes and lakes gradually
turn into swamps and finally plains.
• A culture is greatly affected by such changes
although sometimes they come about so slowly that
they are largely unnoticed.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
• Human misuse can bring very rapid changes in
physical environment which in turn change the
social and cultural life of a people.
• Deforestation brings land erosion and reduces
rainfall.
• Environmental destruction has been at least a
contributing factor in the fall of most great
civilization.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
• Many human groups throughout history have
changed their physical environment through
migration. In the primitive societies whose members
are very directly dependent upon their physical
environment migration to a different environment
brings major changes in the culture.
• Civilization makes it easy to transport a culture and
practice it in a new and different environment.
• A population change is itself a social change but
also becomes a casual factor in further social and
cultural changes.
• When a thinly settled frontier fills up with people
the hospitality pattern fades away, secondary group
relations multiply, institutional structures grow
more elaborate and many other changes follow.
POPULATION CHANGES
• A stable population may be able to resist change
but a rapidly growing population must migrate,
improve its productivity or starve.
POPULATION CHANGES
• Migration encourages further change for it brings a
group into a new environment subjects it to new
social contacts and confronts it with new problems.
• No major population change leaves the culture
unchanged.
POPULATION CHANGES
ATTITUDES AND VALUES
• To people in developed nations and societies
change is normal.
• socialized people anticipate and appreciate change.
• People who are preoccupied with past traditions
and rituals will change slowly and unwillingly.
ATTITUDES AND VALUES
• When a culture has been relatively static for a long
time the people are likely to assume that it should
remain so indefinitely.
• They are intensely and unconsciously ethnocentric;
they assume that their customs and techniques are
correct and everlasting.
• Rapidly changing societies are aware of the social
change.
ATTITUDES AND VALUES
• attitudes powerfully stimulate the proposal and
acceptance of changes by individuals within the
society.
• Attitudes and values affect both the amount and the
direction of social change.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
• The technological factors represent the conditions
created by man which have a profound influence on
his life.
• In the attempt to satisfy his wants, fulfill his needs
and to make his life more comfortable man creates
civilization.
• Technology is a byproduct of civilization .
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
• When the scientific knowledge is applied to the
problems in life it becomes technology.
• Technology is a systematic knowledge which is put
into practice that is to use tools and run machines
to serve human purpose.
• Science and technology go together. In utilizing the
products of technology man brings social change.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
• According to Karl Marx even the formation of social
relations and mental conceptions and attitudes are
dependent upon technology. He has regarded
technology as a sole explanation of social change.
• W.F Ogburn says technology changes society by
changing our environment to which we in turn
adapt.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
• Misunderstanding about the need for change/when
the reason for the change is unclear — If staff do
not understand the need for change you can expect
resistance.
• Especially from those who strongly believe the
current way of doing things works well…and has
done for twenty years!
• Fear of the unknown — One of the most common
reasons for resistance is fear of the unknown.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
• People will only take active steps toward the
unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps
more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing
still are greater than those of moving forward in a
new direction
• Lack of competence — This is a fear people will
seldom admit. But sometimes, change in
organizations necessitates changes in skills, and
some people will feel that they won’t be able to
make the transition very well
• Connected to the old way — If you ask people in an
organization to do things in a new way, as rational
as that new way may seem to you, you will be
setting yourself up against hard wiring.
• Low trust — When people don’t believe that they,
or the company, can competently manage the
change there is likely to be resistance
• Temporary fad — When people belief that the
change initiative is a temporary fad
• Not being consulted — If people are allowed to be
part of the change there is less resistance. People
like to know what’s going on, especially if their
jobs may be affected .Informed employees tend to
have higher levels of job satisfaction than
uninformed employees
• Poor communication —When it comes to change
management there’s no such thing as too
much communication objections. Not
dealing proactively is one pitfall – but there are
many other common mistakes.
• Changes to routines — When we talk about
comfort zones we’re really referring to routines. We
love them. They make us secure. So there’s bound
to be resistance whenever change requires us to
do things differently
• Benefits and rewards — When the benefits and
rewards for making the change are not seen as
adequate for the trouble involved.
• Expecting resistance to change and planning for it
from the start of your change management
program will allow you to deal effectively for
change.
Thank You