Sociology Ch. 15 Social Change and the Environment

Social Change

the alteration of culture and societies over time

Modernization

the transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies

Dialectical process (of history)

Discusses how each arrangement of power (a thesis) has contradictions (antitheses) that make the arrangment unnstable.

New arrangement of power (a synthesis) contains its own contradictions: this process of balancing and unbalancing continues throughout history as groups struggle for power and other reasources

Invention

combining existing elements and materials to form new ones; identified by William Ogburn as one of the three processes of social change

discovery

a new way of seeing reality: another one of ogburns three processes of social change

diffusion

the spread of an invention or discovery the third process of social change

Cultural Lag

Ogburns term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations

environmental injustice

refers to how minorities and poor are harmed most by environmental pollution

eco-sabotage

actions taken to sabotage te efforts of people who are thought to be legally harming the environment

environmental sociology

focus is how humans affect the environment and inverse