Week 1
The causes and patterns of change
Aim of the chapter Discussing change in light of more general explanations (theories) that explain
how societies work and how change comes about
Why is it important
to investigate this?
Important concepts/ Causes of change - two categories
definitions 1. Materialistic factors (such as economic production and technology)
→ New technologies and modes of production produce change in social interaction,
social organisation and, ultimately, cultural values, beliefs and norms
- Most classical thinker is Karl Marx: “forces of production are central in
shaping socity and social change” & economic classes form the basic
anatomy of society
- As economic and structural basis of society changed, new political forms
emerged as did new cultural values and ideologies
Technology can cause change in three different ways: 1) technological innovations
increase the alternatives available in society, 2) new technology alters interaction
patterns among people, 3) technological innovations create new problems to be
dealt with.
2. Idealistic factors (such as values, ideologies and beliefs)
→ Ideas, values and ideologies as causes of social change
- Ideas = knowledge and beliefs, values = assumptions about what’s
desirable and undesirable, ideology = combination of beliefs and values
that serves to justify or legimise forms of human action.
- Most classical thinker is Max Weber: values of Protestantism produced a
cultural ethic that sanctified work and worldly achievement, encouraged
frugality and discourages consumption
Idealistic culture can cause change in three different ways: 1) it can ligitimise a
desired direction of change, 2) ideologies can provide the basis for the social
solidarity necessary to promote change, 3) highlighting contradictions and
problems.
Interaction of materialistic and idealistic causes
- Mutual feedback: various factor affect each other
- Multiple causation: cause X and cause Y both have an independent and
incremental effect on outcome Z
- Combined causation: a variety of factors must be present for a particular
outcome or change to occur
- Path-dependent causation: prior actions or factors (paths) shape the
possibilities for what happens next
, Patterns or directions of change
1. Linear: change is cumulative, nonrepetitive, developmental and usually
permanent
- Classical thinking of Lenski: the historical development of human
societies
2. Cyclical: the long-termpattern or direction of change is repetitive and
history repeats itself
3. Dialectical: social life has inherent stresses or contradictions that develop
because every social development, even successful ones, taken to its
ultimate conclusion, carries within it the seeds of its own destruction (or
modification)
- It contains elements of both linear and cyclical change
- Marx: change resulted from class struggles betwoon those with
material interest in existing systems of production and those with
interes in new and emerging ones
- Three common sources of contradictions in contemporary society:
a. Dialectic of equality in modern societies → societies are
egalitarian in the aspirations of people but hierarchical in
structure and organisation
b. Dialectic of socialisation → contradiction regarding
socialisation; massification and increasing indivduation and
uniqueness at the same time
c. Dialectic of universality → desire for higher levels of autonomy
at the same time the world is increasingly interrelated and
interdependent
Methodology
,Social theory and Social change
Why is it important
to investigate this?
Important concepts/ Three perspectives in contemporary sociology
definitions 1. Structural functionalism: assumes that a society is a system of interrelated
parts that function in ways that promote the survival of the whole system →
defines activities necessary for survival
- Every social system must be concerned with: 1) the replacement of
individuals, 2) socialisation, 3) production of goods and services, 4)
provision of social order, 5) maintenance of culture.
- Four basic functions of society: 1) adaption, 2) goal attainment, 3)
integration, 4) latency
- Functionalism and social change: change begint by asserting that in the
actual world, integration and balance in society are always incomplete
and in constant struggle → social change as the maintences of dynamic
components of a social system
2. Conflict theory: the inherent scarcity of certain goods and values is the source
of strains and contradictions in the social system
- Inequality is the source of conflict and struggles of actors or groups to
control scarce resources are engines of change
- Conflict theory and social change: focus on the accumulation of
contradictions and the transformation of systems, often with concrete
historical referents
3. Interpretive theories: bundle of loosely connected theories that have some
similarities in the way they understand social action and social change → they
all focus on the way actors define their social situations and the effect of these
definitions on ensuing action and interaction.
- Interpretive theories and social change: in compex systems there is a
plurality of definitions of social reality relfecting differentiated reference
groups. Change begins when such meanings or definitions of the
situation become problematic → when they don’t work, new ideas, values
and ideologies arise
Two levels of social reality: 1) individual actors or agents as concrete members of
communities, groups or movements, 2) structures made up of abstract wholes
such as organisations, institutions, societies, cultures, socioeconomic classes and
systems.
Methodology Historical resources and different theoretical perspectives
, Week 2
Carbon Inequality in 2030 (Oxfam, 2021)
Aim of the article Providing estimates of the impact of NDC’s on the per capita consumption
emissions of different global income groups in 2030 → revealing inequality between
people who are likely to reach the 1.5C Paris goal and those who won’t reach that
goal
Why is it important The climate and inequality crises are closely interwoven → over the past 25 years,
to investigate this? the richest 10% of the global population has been responsible for more than half of
all global carbon emissions = injustice and inequality
Important concepts/ * NDC; Nationally Determined Contribution of emissions
definitions * 1.5C Paris goal: limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C compared to pre-industrial
levels
* Paris effect: a major turnaround in emissions trends
* Fair share
Governments are mainly focusing on lowering emissions in middle and lower
classes, instead of the higher/richer classes.
The poorest people in the Global North will have the greatest emissions cut → due
to inflation much less money to consume (no car, less electricity, vacations) = lower
carbon emissions
Methodology Deriving a global distribution of per capita consumption emissions by income
groups → usage of: national territorial emissions estimates and other national
policies from Climate Action Tracker & countries net imported emissions
(reductions)
