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Social and Institutional Change 2022/2023 - Lecture notes
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Detailed lecture notes on the course Social and Institutional Change of the bachelor Sociology (2022/2023).
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Social and Institutional ChangeHC 1 – Introduction
Definition of institutions: the rules of the game in a society or the humanly devised constrains that
shape human interaction.
- Institutions are rules (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, codes of conduct, constitutions,
laws and property rights.
- Devised by humans.
Formal vs informal institutions:
- Institutions reduce “uncertainty by providing a structure to everyday life”.
o Informal institutions: behavioral regularity based on socially shared rules: unwritten
and enforced outside of officially sanctioning channels (norms).
o Formal institutions: official rules, written down in law or contract and typically enforced
by a state (laws or constitutions).
HC 2 – The Micro-Macro Problem
Auguste Comte defined sociology as a discipline: the scientific study of society. He was considered
the father of sociology, despite limited contribution to the field (he used no scientific methods). The
core of sociology for him was:
- The study of dynamics – why do societies change?
- The study of statics – which processes make societies endure?
- Progress is possible through order.
Emile Durkheim was the first professor of sociology. He was the first who applied a scientific method
to the field. He defined sociology as the field that studies “social facts”. A social fact is any way of
acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint. This means
that there are external facts that influences the individual.
- Society is not a simple collection of individuals but is a collectivity with its own characteristics
(Society is more than the sum of the individuals comprising it; it is also about social
relationships, social patterns and forms of social organizations. These collective forces
independently regulate individual and group behavior).
- Social facts are also called macro-phenomena collectives of individuals (groups, cohorts,
societies, organizations). Micro is referred to as individuals.
- Social facts include all the ways external things constrain social behavior (such as social
norms, institutions). It is independent from you as an individual, but when you look at it from a
macro-level it becomes a social fact. For example:
o Social movements, residential segregation, fertility rates, inequalities.
Why do we need a study about collectives (instead of individuals), Durkheim: “The whole does not
equal the sum of its parts: it is something different, whose properties differ from those displayed by
the parts from which it is formed” Sometimes a good understanding of the behavior of individuals
will not help explaining collective phenomena Sometimes a good understanding of individual
behavior is not enough to explain macro-phenomena.
o You cannot study a forest by only studying one tree of that forest, you need to study the
whole forest.
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, Social facts occur because of previous social facts, not because of the state of the individual
consciousness. This is the structural approach to sociology collective phenomena can and
should only be explained with other collective phenomena (Coleman-boat).
- Macro-level: improved social conditions lead to revolution, because conditions improved, but
not for everyone. Social facts are formed on the macro-level, but it is necessary to first look at
the micro-level before concluding about the revolution (macro-phenomena).
Criticism of the structural-individualistic research program (SIP) – Coleman-boat:
- The Coleman-boat has been criticized for its “representative-agent approach, two problems:
o It seems to suggest that all individuals behave and decide in the same way.
o It suggests that there is no interaction, actors decide in isolation.
- However, research shows that individuals influence each other’s political protest behavior
not all individuals behave the same way or decide in isolation.
- The difference between the Coleman-boat and Durkheim:
o Durkheim: The whole is not different from the sum. Coleman-boat: The whole is
different from the sum.
o Durkheim: There are no interdependencies among individuals. Coleman-boat: There
are interdependencies among individuals.
Emergence: collective which are unintended in that sense that individuals do not seek to create them
are called emergent phenomena. This means that there are collective phenomena which are not
necessarily the consequence of individual motives. Many collective phenomena are unintended and
may evolve even though people seek to prevent them. Emergence has two main ingredients:
- The system has a micro-macro structure.
- The entities
Evolutionary-based approach to institutions:
- Institutions evolve periodically, undergoing a decentralized selection process in competition
against alternative institutions.
- Spontaneous and uncoordinated, no external party implementing them.
- Some norms are being replaced over time, for example marriage norms.
An example of emergence: residential segregation. Why has segregation declined:
- Change in law which banned race-based zoning.
- Easing of credit standards (African Americans can afford expensive housing).
- Interregional migration (African Americans leave segregated cities).
- Massive housing projects builds were demolished at the peak of segregation.
- Inflow of foreign-born residents.
Schelling’s model of residential segregation. His question was which social mechanisms explain
residential segregation? He constructed one of the earliest agent-based models of social science. The
main findings of this model:
- Even when individuals didn’t mind being surrounded or living by agents of a different race or
economic background, they would still choose to segregate themselves from other agents
over time.
- Segregation emerges even under conditions where integration appears to be more plausible.
- Further mechanisms are excluded.
- Only based on the motives of the agents, one would not expect that segregation is the
outcome.
In this sense, residential segregation is an emergent phenomenon. Segregation is the result
of a self-reinforcing feedback loop (people affect each other’s decision to move or not).
HC 3 – Informal Institutions and the reason why people cooperate
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