Notes on Social, Political, and Cultural Change

OBJECTIVE OF THE DAY

• At the end of the lesson, learners are able to:
  • 1. Analyze social, political and cultural change

QUOTES ABOUT CHANGE

• "The only constant in life is change." – Heraclitus
• "Change is inevitable" — No society remains the same all throughout its history.

SOCIAL CHANGE

• Social change refers to variations or significant modifications in the patterns of social organization, of sub-groups within a society, or of the entire society itself.
• It may include changes in:
  • nature, social institutions, social behaviors or social relations
  • examples: cultural symbols, rules of behavior, social organization or value system

SOURCES OF SOCIAL CHANGE

• 1. INNOVATION

  • Definition: the development of something new whether an idea, a practice or a tool.
  • TYPES OF INNOVATION
  • Invention: a new combination or a new use of existing knowledge; it can produce mechanical objects, ideas, and social patterns that re-shape society to varying degrees.
  • Material Inventions: e.g., bow and arrow, mobile phone, airplane.
  • Social Inventions: e.g., alphabet, texting, jejemon.
  • Discovery (as a type of innovation): taking notice of existing elements of the world in a new way, contributing to a new paradigm or perspective and re-shaping worldviews.
  • Example:
  • Carrageenan usage: not only for gelatin production but also as an important ingredient in anti-retroviral drugs in HIV prevention and treatment; signals a change in perspectives about ocean resources.

• 2. DIFFUSION

  • Definition: the spread of culture traits from one group to another.
  • It creates changes as cultural elements spread through trade, migration, and mass communication.
  • Culture spreads through the process of enculturation, socialization, association, and integration.
  • ENCULTURATION: takes place when one culture spreads to another through learning; education is the most popular form of enculturation.
  • SOCIALIZATION: learning through constant exposure to a culture that imbibes our system of values, beliefs, etc.
  • ASSOCIATION: establishing a connection with the culture thereby bridging areas of convergence and cultural symbiosis.
  • INTEGRATION: total assimilation of culture manifested by change of worldviews, attitudes, behavior, and perspective of looking things.

• 3. ACCULTURATION

  • Process in which the people of one culture adopt the culture of the other that is not originally their own.

• 4. ASSIMILATION

  • Occurs when the minority group loses its distinctive cultural traits and adopts or absorbs those of the dominant culture. (Robertson, 1987)

• CULTURAL CHANGE

  • Refers to all alterations affecting new traits or trait complexes and changes in culture’s content and structure.
  • Causes include: physical environment, population, war and conquest, random events, technology.

CAUSES OF CULTURAL CHANGE

• A. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
  • Surroundings determine livelihoods and practices; e.g., seaside residents depend on fishing; scarcity of fish may push for new livelihoods and cultural adaptation.
• B. POPULATION
  • Movements caused by migration and transnational origins; dislocation, deterritorialization, urban explosion; increases or declines in population perpetuate change.
• C. WAR AND CONQUEST
  • When a state conquers territory, the population and culture within that territory are influenced.
• D. RANDOM EVENTS
  • Examples: oil price hikes create domino effects in public services, transport, and prices of basic commodities and utilities (electricity, water).
• E. TECHNOLOGY
  • The application of scientific knowledge to the making of tools to solve specific problems.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT (DETAILED EXAMPLE)

• People in different environments adapt livelihoods; changes in resource availability lead to shifts in culture, behaviors, and institutions.

POPULATION (DETAILED EXAMPLE)

• Migration and urbanization reshape social structures, values, and institutions; demographic shifts influence demand, policy, and culture.

WAR AND CONQUEST (DETAILED EXAMPLE)

• Conquest blends cultures, leading to syncretism, assimilation pressures, or resistance movements.

RANDOM EVENTS (DETAILED EXAMPLE)

• Prices, policy shocks, or disasters can rapidly alter social patterns and economic organization.

TECHNOLOGY (DETAILED EXAMPLE)

• New tools and systems transform daily life, governance, and knowledge production.

POLITICAL CHANGE

• Includes all categories of change in the direction of open, participatory, and accountable politics.
• It is the change that occurs in the realm of civil and political societies and in the structure of relations among civil society, political society and the state.
• Defined as a significant change in government, surrounding leadership and policies; aims to restore balance from mismatches between ideas/values of government and the people it leads.

PROCESSING QUESTIONS

• 1. How does innovation become an agent of social change in the context of Philippine society at present?
• 2. Who among our political leaders had an impact to our society as an agent of change? Why did you choose him/her among other leaders?

ACTIVITY (CATTLEYA)

• Identify whether the concepts given are sources in Cultural Change, Political Change or Social Change.
• Concepts:
  1. Religion
  2. Facebook
  3. Surrogacy
  4. K-Pop
  5. Teenage-Pregnancy
  6. TRAIN Law
  7. Feminist movement
  8. Video Gaming
  9. Selfie / Selfieing
  10. Death Penalty
• Additional items listed: 11. SKelection 12. Construction of roads for automobiles 13. Leftist/rebels in the government 14. Tsismis 15. K-12 Curriculum

AGENTS OF CHANGE

• 1. Innovation

  • Ferrante (1995): innovations are syntheses, refinements, new applications and reworking of existing inventions; innovations also include discoveries—the uncovering of something that existed before but was unseen, hidden, unnoticed, or undescribed.
  • Innovations are significant for understanding and identifying social change because they alter how people think and relate to one another.
  • Leslie White (1949): rate of change is tied to the size of the cultural base, i.e., the number of preexisting inventions.
  • If a new invention is to come into being, the cultural base must be large enough to support it.
  • Question raised: “Are people in control of their inventions or do our inventions control us?”
  • White’s conclusions:
  • The old adage “Necessity is the mother of invention” is naïve; in many cases, the opposite is true: “invention is the mother of necessity.”
  • When the cultural base can support an invention, it will come into being whether people want it or not.
  • Extra:
  • “Inventors may be geniuses, but they also have to be born at the right time.”

• 2. Actions of Leader

  • Leaders’ actions act as triggers for social change.
  • Max Weber defined power as the probability that an individual can realize his or her will even against the resistance of others.
  • Charon: “the influence of an individual on an organization is the element of social power.”

• 3. Conflict

  • Social conflict is the struggle for agency or power in society.
  • Occurs when two or more actors oppose each other in social interaction, exerting social power to attain scarce or incompatible goals and prevent the opponent from attaining them.
  • Conflicts highlight problems and often signal necessary change.
  • Any change can trigger conflict between beneficiaries and those who lose; conflict can lead to new and more efficient technologies.

EFFECTS OF THE CHANGES IN SOCIETY

• Change our mode of living and lifestyle
• Development
• Modernization

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The material emphasizes that change is a multi-faceted process driven by innovations, diffusion, cultural interactions, and political dynamics.
• Understanding the distinctions among social change, cultural change, and political change helps in analyzing real-world scenarios from communities to national levels.
• Real-world relevance: applications to technology adoption, migration patterns, policy reforms, and cultural adaptation in a rapidly globalizing world.