Chapter 18: Social Change and Modernization

   Social change is one of the aspects of society that sociologists examine the most, partly because sociology was developed in a period of time when social chaos was around.

   Sociologists around the world are very interested in social change, social change is defined by sociologists as changes in various aspects of a society over time. Since social change has become such a popular topic within the sociological community, and many sociologists base themselves on different perspectives to find out a theory that would explain social change correctly, there are many theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon. A very important aspect of society that sociologists are interested in and is part of social change is modernization. Modernization is the process by which a society’s social institutions become increasingly complex as the society moves towards industrialization. Sociologists have also come out with many theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon as well.

  

   One the most recognized theories that explain social change is called cyclical theory of social change, this theory views change from a historical perspective, this meaning, they agree that societies undergo a certain process of formation. Societies arise; undergo many stages through which they develop and then, like most societies in history can prove,  decline. In this system, we can classify many kinds of cultures. In an ideational culture, truth and knowledge are acquired through faith or religion.. In a sensate culture, people seek knowledge through science. These are basically the two extremes in the cultures of these societies. No extreme is good, so there is a category that’s lies right in between these two cultures, this culture is called the idealistic culture, knowledge here is transmitted through both religion and science, making both important aspects of the society. Another very recognized theory is he evolutionary theory of social change. This theory views change as a process that moves only towards one direction which is an increasing complexity of the society, the society will reach a maximum point of complexity and won’t fall apart after it has reached that point.

   Modernization, that is one of the most complicated phenomena to understand for sociologists. Sociologists around the world have agreed and coined a theory named modernization theory, the more developed nations modernized because they were the first to industrialize. There is another theory called world system theory which views modernization in terms of the world economy. The world system theory comprises three types of nations, core, peripheral, and semiperipheral. Core nations are the most powerful developed nations that form the center of the world economy, the peripheral nations are the poor countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. They control few productive resources, and they depend on the core nations for financial aid. Semiperipheral nations are the nations in between these two, most probably known as second world nations these nations may or may not have industrialized but are not powerful manufacturer nations like the central nations. 

   Explanation of the Modernization Theory.

   Modernization is a great thing, and in many cases inevitable, anyone would agree it is a necessary factor to the improvement of any society, it brings a country great things aside from industrialization. So, if modernization is inevitable like some claim it is, and for modernization to occur social change must occur first, then we probably agree that social change is inevitable as well. Social change after all is something good then, and many sociologists would agree that necessary for the success of any society.

Chapter 17: Collective Behavior and Social Movement

     

   People within a society most of the time tend to behave in pretty similar ways, mainly because individuals usually tend to, or at least are expected to, follow certain norms society has. Many times individuals that have some kind of bond experience this phenomenon of behaving similar to each other, this is what scientists call collective behavior.

   Norms of behavior within a society are not always clear enough though. During these situations, people begin to follow norms which don’t quite exist but that they think are correct. Sociologist refers to these actions as collective behavior which is the relativity spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations. There are many forms of collective behavior. A crowd is a temporary gathering of people who are in close enough proximity to interact. A mob is an emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal. And finally a riot, which is a collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, the result of which is social disorder. Fear might trigger some collective behavior as well, some examples of collective behavior triggered by fear are the following. A panic is a spontaneous and uncoordinated group action to escape some perceived threat.  A moral panic occurs when people become fearful, often without reason, about behavior that appears to threaten society’s core value. Another collective behavior is mass hysteria which is an unfounded anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide geographic area.

    Not all types collective behavior have fear, an example is fashion which refers to enthusiastic attachments among large numbers of people for particular styles of appearance or behavior.  Fads are ideas that a large number of people are attached to for a very short period of time. . A rumor is an unverified peace of information that is rapidly spread from one person to another. Another form of communication within members of a society is urban legends which are stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue. Another collective behavior that depends on communication is public opinion, which refers to the collection of differing attitudes that members of a o public have about a particular issue. Propaganda, which is an organized deliberate attempt to shape public opinion, is also a form of communication within society’s members. Collectivism happens in every society, and it a very big concept that many sociologists try to explain, therefore there are many theories that try to explain this phenomenon. The contagion theory was developed by Gustave LeBon and it said that the hypnotic power to encourage people up their individuality and strong pull of a group. The emergent theory says that the people in a crowd face a situation in which traditional norms of behavior are not applied.  The value added theory predicts if collective behavior would occur and the direction it would take.

   Most social movements happen, or work to change any aspect of society. Reactionary movements are to revers current social trends. Another kind of social movements are conservative movements, they try to protect what they see as society’s prevailing values from change that they consider to be a threat to those values. Revisionary movements work to improve or revise some part of society through social change. Finally, revolutionary movements are a total and radical change of the structure. Just like with collectivism, many sociologists have tried to understand why these movements form, and once again just like collectivism, there are many theories to explain it. The relative deprivation theory states that people join social movements because they feel deprived relative to other people or groups with whom the identify. Modern sociologist believe that social movements can occur only if people are successful in resource mobilization. Resource mobilizations are the organizations and effective use of resources.  Since this is a very important factor, many sociologists developed the resource mobilization theory, which states that not even the most ill-treated group with the most just case will be able to bring about change without resources.

   Collective behavior is simply amazing, no matter if you don’t agree that this phenomenon happens, it does, unconsciously people know that they are expected to follow a determined behavior, and in order to fit in they do. In limited cases do individuals not agree with the collective behavior they must follow, and it’s those individuals that become leaders and initiate a social movement, perfect way to change a well established collective behavior in a society and reestablish unclear norms.

Chapter 16 Population and Urbanization

           Population is the number of people that live in an area at a particular time. It is clear how population in the 1800’s is not the same as today, and this change in population has led to a change in the social characteristics of many individuals within the population. The amount of population is not the only thing that has changed, but also the way they are distributed. Population used to be on separate small groups apart from each other. Population movement, which will be furthered explained, has caused effects such as urbanization, which is how population has been moving towards big cities and concentrating on big cities. Many theories have been created to explain these changes in the population and population movements worldwide.

The field of science that studies population is called demography. Demographers measure the growth of a population by finding its birthrate. The term fertility, when used by sociologists around the world, refers to the actual number of births occurring to women of childbearing age. Fecundity is different than fertility, fecundity refers to the biological capability to bear children. Population is also affected by mortality, which is the number of deaths within a society. Demographers call the amount of deaths that occur in a society, death rate. When the death is of a kid under the age of one, then it is included in the infant mortality rates, which includes the record of all the deaths of children under 1 year old. The average number of years that a person born in a particular year can expects to live is called life expectancy. The third factor that demographers take into account is migration, the number of individuals that are entering the society and come from somewhere else. Demographers can calculate the migration rate by finding the annual difference between migration and emigration. In reality, the long-term effect of such a growth rate on population size is related to a population’s doubling time.

Population growth on the last decades.

              Like mentioned before, there are many theories that try to explain these phenomenon, some of the following are part of the most respected by demographers around the world. The demographic transition theory says that population patterns are tied to a society’s level of technological development. If we were to follow the demographic transition theory, there would be a point in which the stage three population, or society, will reach a point in which its birth rates and death rates are the same, so population won’t be neither increasing nor decreasing, this phenomenon is called zero population growth. Viewing that population might become a major 21rst century problem, many countries have begun to promote family planning, which give many options to families to be able to “plan” their children and not have families with many children, instead have small families that will reduce the population.

              Urbanization, urbanization is a movement involves the concentration of the population in cities. To completely understand the definition of urbanization it would be most proper to understand some key terms of the definition, for example, “a city is a permanent concentration of a relatively large number of people who are engaged mainly in non-farming activities”. Over urbanization, “a situation in which more people live in a city than can be supported in term s of jobs and facilities”, has lately become a great problem in countries that are not yet that developed. The concentric zone model which helps to describe urban structure was created in 1925 by Ernest W. Burgess. The sector model argues that growth occurs in wedge-shaped sectors, outward from the center of the city, the multiple nuclei model, on the other hand, argues that a city does not develop around one central core but around several centers of activity. Unplanned cities, such as Tegucigalpa, follow a urban sprawl pattern, which is characterized by poorly planned development on the edge of cities and towns. Louis Wirth put forward an urban anomie theory.  Compositional theory views the ways in which the composition of a city’s population influences life in the city.

       Population trends have simply gone beyond what anyone would have ever imagined, growing from 1 billion 200 years ago, to over 7 billion today, just amazing, and, where is this population at? 2004 was the official date when exactly 50% of the population lived in rural areas and the other 50% in cities, that number must be much more higher on the city side by now, now that’s what any sociologist would call urbanization.

Chapter 15 Science and Mass Media

   Anyone could find it hard to find a similarity between science and mass media, yet they do have some things in common with each other. Science, the pursuit of knowledge through systematic methods, is a central feature for all industrialized countries and works as a social institution. Mass media are instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact from the person sending the information to those that are receiving it, mass media is also considered a social institution. Both these social institutions have developed with time and have become much more common in the past few centuries. Probably the most important aspect of these two concepts up until now is the fact that both are considered to be social institutions.

  The sociology of science, the sociological investigation of how scientific knowledge develops, sociology of science is what gives us the perspective to see science as a social institution, in other words, to understand how science can be a social institution we first need to understand the main sociology of science. A very important and known aspect of science is the scientific method, an objective and systematic way of collecting information and arriving at conclusions, scientists often use this method instead of implying philosophical speculations. Like every social institution, science must have norms.Organized skepticism is also a norm, no scientific finding or theory is exempt from questioning. Organized skepticism is not always a norm scientists believe should be followed all the time, Thomas Kuhn, a historian of science, coined the term paradigm to describe the set of shared concepts, methods, and assumptions that make up scientific reality at any point in time. Communalism, all scientific knowledge should be made available to everyone in the scientific community. Another main norms the one of disinterestedness, which states that scientists should seek truth, not personal gain, of course that all these norms are not laws, and therefore some scientists fail to fulfill them. A natural social phenomenon that occurs within the science social institution is the Matthew Effect, we can observe this phenomenon when we see how honors and recognition tend to go to those scientists who have already achieved recognition, on the other hand, they tend to be withheld from scientists who have not yet made their mark.

Different types of mass media in our daily life.

   Mass media usually plays biggest roles in information societies, such as the United States, were the exchange of information is the main social and economic activity. Developing technologies have led to the creation of many new mass media instruments such as TVs and radios, some sociologists believe that these new technologies will cause mass media to merge together into something they call media convergence, the merging of media technologies. The conflict perspective, which mainly bases its thoughts on Marxist ideology in which violence between people and groups is pretty much the cause of most social instability, believes to have found a pattern, which happens thanks to mass media on the society, within every society. The knowledge-gap hypothesis states that as new information enters society, wealthy and better-educated members acquire it at a faster rate than poor and less educated people. Conflict theorists believe this phenomenon might be occurring because of the digital gap(gap between those with access to new technologies and those without) getting wider and wider every day. Many sociologists believe that mass media has led to a decrease in the social capita. Social capita refers to social networks and the reciprocal norms associated with these networks that encourage people to do things for each other. Many people complain about mass media for a simple reason, they argue that the media sets the boundaries of public debate by deciding which issues will receive coverage and which will not, a process known as agenda setting. Agenda setting is undertaken by gatekeepers-media executives, editors or reporters who can open or close the “gate” on a particular news story.

   Both mass media and science are very complex social institutions, yet simple to understand. Giving it some thought, we might as well come to realize that society today is the way it is partly thanks to science and mass media. Both these social institutions play big roles in our society today. We are exposed to mass media and to science a major part of our day, in some cases affecting the way we think and behave, for this reason, many sociologists including myself believe mass media and science have major roles in the social behavior of individuals.