Topics in Sociology: Social Change

Shifts in various aspects of society, including both large-scale transformations in social structure, culture, and institutions and small-scale changes in local meanings and interaction.

General Theories of Large-Scale Social Transformation

• Historical materialism: Marx’s theory of historical development. Class conflicts produce revolutionary societal transformations that yield higher and higher stages in the development of the mode of production. The last revolution is by the capitalist proletariat against the bourgeoisie, producing a classless communist society.

• Rationalization:See Classical Sociological Thinkers >Social Theories > Max Weber > Iron Cage. Weber saw the general trajectory of Western society as one in which logic and reason were coming to dominate faith and emotion in most areas of social life.

• From mechanical to organic solidarity:See Classical Sociological Thinkers > Émile Durkheim. Primitive societies were characterized by mechanical solidarity; as these societies grew they developed complex divisions of labor, giving way to organic solidarity.

• From Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft:Ferdinand Tonnies (1855–1936) used these two terms to describe pre-modern and modern societies, respectively. Others argue that elements of both are present in all societies.

• Gemeinschaft: Community. Relationships are personal, enduring, and based on kinship or status; individuals are motivated by obligations, customs, and loyalty.

• Gesellschaft: Society or association. Relationships are impersonal, contractual, and short-term; individuals are motivated by rational self-interest.

• Differentiation: Functionalist Talcott Parsons described long-term social change as a process of increasing differentiation among the various elements of society, due to elaboration of the social division of labor and increasing separation of social functions and institutions. Parsons saw differentiation as a form of evolutionary process.