Social change

Social change

any modification in the social organisation of a society in any of its social institutions or social roles

types of collective behaviour

riots, mass hysteria, lynchings, panic, fads, fashion, rumours

sources of social change

• internal sources of change (revolutions)

• technological innovation (industrialisation)

• ideology (conservative, liberal and radical)

• external sources of change

• diffusion

• forced alculturation

crowd

a temporary concentration of people who focus on some thing or event but who are also attuned to each other’s behaviour

Herbert Blumer 4 types of crowd

• acting

• expressive

• conventional

• casual

Hebert Blumer

came up with the four types of crowds

acting crowd

a group whose tempers are aroused by something

e.g. crowd at a football match

sub category - threatened crowd

expressive crowd

brought together by the promise of personal gratification

conventional crowd

gathering, conforms to established norms and values

casual crowd

any collection of people who are temporarily in a crowd; happened to be there

e.g. accident or unusual event

crowd vs social aggregate

social aggregate; happened to be there

crowd; focused on something

dispersed collective behaviour

actions or reactions by people spread across wide geographical areas

dispersed collective behaviour examples

fads (viral trend that comes and goes)

rumours (information shared informally)

public opinion (strongly held belief)

mass hysteria & panic

occurs when large amounts of people are overwhelmed with fear and emotion

social movements

an organised collective activity to bring about or to resist fundamental change in an existing group or society

• can be political or not (e.g. the renaissance)

cause of social movements

1. relative deprivation approach

2. resource mobilisation - using resources at their disposal

new social movement

(post 1960s)

not based on economics or class warfare

e.g. feminism

globalisation

advocating for greater dependency on one another

vested interest

Thorstein Veblen

control of the industry

resistant to change