Summaries readings Social Changes &
Sustainable Development
Contents
WEEK 1: Core Literature................................................................................................ 3
DONE #1 Harper, C. L., & Leicht, K. T. (2018). Exploring social change: America and the
world. Routledge. Chapter 2: The Causes and Patterns of Change. (On Canvas) ............ 3
DONE #2 Harper, C. L., & Leicht, K. T. (2018). Exploring social change: America and the
world. Routledge. Chapter 3: Theories of Social Change. (On Canvas) ........................ 10
DONE #3 Chapter 1 of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2020.
Human Development Report 2020: The Next Frontier: Human Development and the
Anthropocene. New York https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-
2020 ...................................................................................................................... 20
Additional literature: Viterna, J., & Robertson, C. (2015). New directions for the sociology
of development. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1), 243-269. .................................... 25
WEEK 2:..................................................................................................................... 26
DONE #1 Milanovic 2016 Global_Inequality_Chapter1.pdf ......................................... 26
DONE 2 Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. Harvard University Press.
Chapter 3 (On Canvas) ............................................................................................ 32
WEEK 3 .................................................................................................................. 38
DONE 1 Dietz, T., Showm, R.L., & Whitley, C.T. (2020): Climate Change and Society.
Annual Review of Sociology, 46: 135-58 .................................................................... 38
DONE 2 Oxfam (2021): Carbon inequality in 2030. Per capita consumption emissions
and the 1.5⁰C goal................................................................................................... 41
DONE 3 Stoddard, I., Anderson, K., Capstick, S., Carton, W., Depledge, J., Facer, K., ... &
Williams, M. (2021). Three decades of climate mitigation: why haven't we bent the global
emissions curve ..................................................................................................... 43
DONE #4 Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., & McNeill, J. R. (2007). The Anthropocene: are
humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human
Environment, 36(8), 614-621.................................................................................... 50
DONE #5 Jansen, K., & Jongerden, J. (2021). The Capitalocene response to the
Anthropocene. Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies, 636-646.................................. 51
, DONE Dietz Ostrom Stern The Struggle to Govern the Commons.pdf .......................... 52
WEEK 4...................................................................................................................... 55
DONE 1 Vallas, S., & Schor, J. B. (2020). What do platforms do? Understanding the gig
economy. Annual Review of Sociology, 46, 273-294................................................... 56
DONE #2 Stewart, A., & Stanford, J. (2017). Regulating work in the gig economy: What are
the options?. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 420-437. ................. 58
DONE #3 Woodcock, J., & Graham, M. (2019). The gig economy. A critical introduction.
Cambridge: Polity. Chapter 1 – 3 .............................................................................. 59
Downsides of Gig Work: ....................................................................................... 62
Week 5 ...................................................................................................................... 67
JUST READ THIS ONE AGAIN WHEN LEARNING FOR EXAM: Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W.,
Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable
business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, 42-56. ....................... 67
DONE Dembek, K., & York, J. (2020). Applying a sustainable business model lens to
mutual value creation with base of the pyramid suppliers. Business & Society,
0007650320973450. ............................................................................................... 71
DONE Bocken, N. M., & Geradts, T. H. (2020). Barriers and drivers to sustainable
business model innovation: Organization design and dynamic capabilities. Long Range
Planning, 53(4), 101950. .......................................................................................... 76
Week 6 ...................................................................................................................... 79
DONE Ciulli, F., Kolk, A., & Boe-Lillegraven, S. (2020). Circularity brokers: digital platform
organizations and waste recovery in food supply chains. Journal of Business Ethics,
167(2), 299-331. 19 ................................................................................................. 79
DONE Ciulli, F., & Saka-Helmhout, A. (2024). The governance of gig platform
organizations in developing countries. Long Range Planning, 57(1), 102394. ............... 82
Jensen, S. F., Kristensen, J. H., Christensen, A., & Waehrens, B. V. (2024). An ecosystem
orchestration framework for the design of digital product passports in a circular
economy. Business Strategy and the Environment, https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3868 . 87
Sengupta, T., Narayanamurthy, G., Hota, P. K., Sarker, T., & Dey, S. (2021). Conditional
acceptance of digitized business model innovation at the BoP: A stakeholder analysis of
eKutir in India. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 170, 120857. ................ 92
SUMMARIES OF THE LECTURES: ................................................................................. 93
LECTURE 1 (29-08) .................................................................................................. 93
, LECTURE 2 (04-09) .................................................................................................. 96
LECTURE 3 (11-09) .................................................................................................. 98
LECTURE 4 ............................................................................................................. 35
LECTURE 5 ........................................................................................................... 103
WEEK 1: Core Literature
DONE #1 Harper, C. L., & Leicht, K. T. (2018). Exploring social change:
America and the world. Routledge. Chapter 2: The Causes and Patterns
of Change. (On Canvas)
Models and theories always contain assumptions, beliefs about human nature and human
condition that are not testable in strict scientific sense. Assumptions are the building
blocks of these models and theories. Models may be used as heuristics (or an ‘as if’
device) like a metaphor or analogy. When converted into concrete language, they become
hypotheses.
- Macrotheories -> societies, institutions or general processes like conflicts
- Middle-range theories – general theories of organizations, revolutions, etc.
- Micro theories -> face-to-face interpersonal behavior or dynamics of small groups
The most important causes of change fall in 2 categories:
- Materialistic factors: economic production and technology
- Idealistic factors: values, ideologies and beliefs
Materialistic perspective -> argues that new technologies and models of economic
product =ion produce changes in social interaction, social organization and culture values,
beliefs and norms: MOST INFLUENCUAL \THINKER OF THIS -> KARL MARX.
Marxist perspective: Marx says the forces of production (primary production like windmills)
lead to creation of social relation of production (like between windmill owner and his serfs)
- Ideas, ideologies, values and political structures follow from this
- Like in the industrialization, trade made it possible to ship goods, factories were
opened to produce clothes and new ecomomic classes arose (workers and owners)
This shifted power from farmers to factory owners
, - New political forms emerged (parliamentary, democracy), as did new cultural
values and ideologies, like political freedom and free enterprise
- Social reformations like the bloody France riots
- Marx argued that workers would take over the economy and reorganized in their
own interst, ending the domination of the capitalists, although this was oversimpled
but it could be seen that workers gained more rights over time.
Other materialistic perspectives:
- William ogburn: material culture (technology) changes more rapidly than culture
(nonmaterialistic), this cultural lag leads to tension. People are more willing to
accept technology than new cultures.
Technology can cause cahnge in 3 ways:
- Increases alternatives availability in society
- It alters interaction patterns among people (like phones or even Whatsapp)
- Create new ‘problems’ to deal with
Idealistic perspectives -> change caused by ideas, values and ideologies are called
ideational aspects of culture. Ideas are knowledge and beliefs, values are assumptions
about (un)desirabilities, ideology are more or less organized beliefs and values to justify or
legitmize forms of human actions (like democracy, capitalism, socialism) -> MOST
IMPORTANT THINKER = WEBER
Weber's perspective: Weber argued (in contrary to Marx) that industrial capitalism was not
only caused by materialistic causes, as China and India has undergone capitalism as well.
He saw that in Europe in regions were protestants lived, were most deveoped in terms of
capitalism. Especially capitalism encouraged being a free agent and needing more than
the basics
Other ideational perspectives:
Guenter Lewy: further elaborational of relgion as shaping direction of change.
Freedom, self-determination and citizenship helped to stimulate and justify the revolt of
non-western colonies against European rules
Nationalism has a great influence in creating conflict an thus change, like between Ireland
and Northern Ireland and Basque separatists in Spain.
