Nature and trends of social change

Nature and trends of social change – a contemporary view From Bangladeshi society Introduction The emergence of new social classes in Bangladesh was the direct consequences of the establishment of a new social economy, a new type of state system administrative machinery and the spread of new education during the British rule. The process of the rise of new social classes in different parts of the country and among various communities was, however, an uneven one. This is due to the fact that the new social economy spread both in time and tempo. Society is dynamic. It is in continues flux. Our society is always changing. It changes our attitude, behavior and social structure. Change is an ever present phenomenon everywhere. An ancient Greek Philosopher Heraclitus in an emphatic way hinted at this fact when he said that it is impossible for a man to step into the same river twice. It is impossible, because in the interval of time between the first and the second stepping both the river and the man have changed. Neither remains the same. “This is the central theme of the Heraclitean philosophy – the realty of change, the impermanence of being, the inconstancy of everything but change itself.” The order that is society is after all the changing order. Ever since Comte, sociologists have faced two large social questions- the question of social states and the question of social dynamics, what is and how it changes. The sociologist is not satisfied when he has outlined the structure of society. He seeks to know its causes also. Thus the Roman poet Lucretius remarks, “Happy is he who can know the cause of things.” the casual curiosity of a sociologist never rests; nothing still his desire to know and to understand. He is engaged in an endless endeavourer to unravel the mystery of social change. Social change is indeed a perplexing problem. Nothing social remains the same, nothing social abides. Social change is simply a change in the human relationships. Social change refers to the basic alterations over time in the behavior pattern, culture and structure of society. For example a socialization process is family and the child care centre is different. If there is developed the child care centre it may be indicated of social changes. By social change we can understand a change in social structure, the size o a society the composition or balance of its parts or to the types of its organization. Nature of social change: Social change is social. It is the result of the specific of the society of the social life. Social change involves the elements of predictability as well as unpredictability. These changes can not be stopped. Society can not be preserved in a museum to save it from the ravages of time. From the dawn of history, down to this day society has been in continuous flux. Society is undergoing endless changes. Social change is a person of synchronization. Social change happens through time. Social change is temporal in the sense it denotes the time-sequence. In fact, society exists only as a time-sequence. As Malvern says, “it is a becoming, not a being; a process, not a product.” innovation of new things, modification and renovation of the existing behavior and the discarding of the old behavior patterns take time. Speed and rate of change is not uniform. Change in modern society is rapid but ancient society was also slow. It must take place within a geographic or physical and cultural context. Both these contexts have impact on human behavior and in turn man changes them. A social change never takes places in vacuum. Social change is calmative and follows a chain reaction pattern. The sociological significance of the change consists in the fact that it involves the human aspects. The composition of society is not constant, but changing. The fact that people effect change and are themselves affected by it makes changes extremely important. Social change is ubiquitous. Society is not static that is economics, politics and all aspects are change. In most discussions of social change some directions determined ideally. Change towards such a destination is more appropriately regard as progress. In actually, social change may tend towards any directions. The tempo or the rate of change is also not governed by any universal laws. The rate of change varies considerably from time to time and society to society demanding upon its nature and character- open and closed, rural and urban and others. Some social changes may bring about immediate results while some others may take years and decades to products results. Social change is comparative. This distinction is significant because a change which appears to be very vital today may be nothing more than a temporary oscillation having nothing to do with the essential trends of life, some years later. This is what historians mean when they say that time alone can place the events of the day in their true perspective. The direction and tempo of social change are often conditioned by human engineering. Plans, programmers and projects may be launched by man in order to determine and control the rate and direction of social change. Social change involves shocked. Unplanned changed refers to change resulting from natural calamities such as famines and floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; etc. The term of social changes describes one of the categorical processes. It has no value- judgments attached to it. To the sociologist social change as a phenomenon is neither moral nor immoral, it is amoral. It mans the study of social change involves no-value-judgments. Meaning and definition of social change: “The fact of social change has fascinated the keenest minds and still poses some of the great unsolved problems in social sciences.” The phenomenon of social change is not simple but complex. It is difficult to understand this phenomenon in it’s entirely. The unsolved problems are always pestering and pressuring us to find an appropriate answer. Some such problems are as follows- What is the direction of social change? What is the form of social change? What is the source of social change? What are its causes? Its consequences? What are its conditions and limitations? What is the rate of change? Wheatear the changes are due to human engineering or the uncontrollable commix design? Is it necessary to control social change? Can man, regulate it to suit his conveniences? Can he regulate and decide the direction of social change to satisfy his desires? Any alteration, difference or modification that takes places in a situation or in an object through time can be called change. The term ‘social change’ is used to indicate the changes that take place in human interactions and interrelations. Society is a “web of social relationships” and hence ‘social change’ obviously means a change in the system of social relationships. Social relationships are understood in terms of social process and social interactions and social organization. Thus the term ‘social change’ is used to desirable variations in social interaction, social process and social organization. It includes alterations in the structure and functions of the society. Definition According to M.E.Jones: “Social change is a tern used to describe variations in , or modifications of, any aspects of social process, social patterns , social interaction or social originations”. According to Davis: “By social change is meant only such alterations as occur in social organization that is structure and functions of society”. According to Majumdar, H.T. “Social change may be defined as a new fashion or mode, either modifying or replacing the old, in the life of a people- or on the operation of society”. According to Maciver and Page: “ Social change refers to ‘a process’ responsive to many types of changes; to changes in the manmade conditions of life; to changes in the attitudes and beliefs of men and to the changes that go beyond the human control to the biological and the physical nature of things”. Social change is a complex phenomenon in which the cause and effect relationship is not always clear. No single cause produces a single effect in the social world. There is always the plurality of causation. Several factors or causes operate together to produce the same results. According to Harry M. Johnson the causes of social change are of three types: Firstly, the causes of social change are inherent either in social system in general or in particular kinds of social system. Secondly, the change may also be due to some impact from the social environment of the social system of references. Finally, change may also be due to some impact from the non-social environment. He is of the opinion that these combined in various ways. One change may lead to a series of changes. The component parts of the social system are so interrelated that any change in one causes adjustive changes in the others. Internal causes of Social Change Strain and Conflict: Conflict of interests is always present to some extent in all the social system. It is more evident in the political field. The concept of power virtually implies the idea of conflicting purposes. In the stable social systems conflicts of interest are settled largely within institutionalized rules. No society is free from conflicts. Any attempt to resolve the conflict would lead to some kind of change or the other. A latent conflict is always present at all times between those whom the existing system is benefiting less. This conflict will become manifest if the disadvantages are made to feel that the existing order is not the only realistically possible order. Social problems: problem such as caste prejudices, prostitution, juvenile delinquency, over ‘population’ unemployment, poverty, beggary, the need for slum clearance, etc. involves a good deal of social conflict, in the course of which social change occurs. These are social problem. They arise mainly due to some internal deficiencies. Therefore, if they are to be solved or reduced, the existing social order will have to be changed to some extent. Thus, an attempt to tackle social problem may contribute to social change. For example, in order to reduce the size of the growing population in India, people may have to be convinced of the importance of following birth control measures, family planning and etc. this may affect the value system, marriage and family system and moral system of India. Revolutions and Upheavals: the most intense conflict in a society is found during a revolution. Various internal factors may contribute to it. For example, the American Revolution, the French Revolutions and the Russian Revolution took place due to several factors such as – exploitation, suppression of liberty, hungers, tyranny, bad roads, commercial restrictions, corruption, military or diplomatic defeat, famine, high prices, low wages, and unemployment and so on. These revolutions brought about far-reaching changes. Cultural change: cultural innovation also contributes to social changes. An innovation is a new combination of old elements which may come from the innovator’s own society or from some other. The diffusion of culture within society and from one society to another has been a great source of social and cultural change in every society. Theories of social change Some social change is almost always occurring, but many different theories have attempted to explain significant social changes in history. These theories include (but are not limited to): the idea of decline or degeneration, or, in religious terms, the fall from an original state of grace, connected with theology; the idea of cyclical change, a pattern of subsequent and recurring phases of growth and decline, and the social cycles; the idea of continuous social progress; Marx's historical materialism; Evolutionary theories (how one social form evolves into another), including social Darwinism; 1. Theories of sociobiology A currently popular author on social change is Jared Diamond. It is claimed that a primary agent of social change is technological advancement, such that the wide adoption of a new technology leads to imbalance in the economic relationship between economic agents. This in turn leads to changes in the social balance of power, therefore leading to social change. Historical precedent shows that major social changes have taken place during "cusp" periods, defined by changing relations among human formations, nature, and technology. Examples Some recent trends in global change are that the world population has become more concentrated in the less developed world and in cities, there has been a tremendous growth in internet use, infant mortality rates have declined, illiteracy has declined, more people are living in freedom, GDP per capita has increased in some areas of the world, and poverty has declined in some areas of the world. Western society changing values on trends such as the birth control pill, voting rights for non-land holders, and the ups and downs of acceptance of homosexuality are also examples of social change. The Impact of the Social and Non-social Environment The environment, whether social or nonsocial, has its own influence on social structure. As far as social change is concerned, the impact of the social environment is more important than the impact of the nonsocial environment. The impact of the non-social environment on the social structure is relatively slight under normal conditions. Changes in the non-social environment (which are due to human engineering) such as- soil erosion, deforestation, exhaustion of mineral resources, etc. may bring about some social changes. Changes in the non social environment due to nature itself such as – floods and famines, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, cyclones and hurricanes, etc. may sometimes cause adoptive social changes. The influence of the social environment is more significant in bringing about social changes. Shifts of political alliances, military invasions, peaceful immigration, and trade shifts etc. can present difficult problems of adjustment to the social system. Any one of these changes is likely to affect some parts of the social structure first and then have effects in other parts later. Technical factors Technical factors also responsible of society. In narrow sense technique refers to the application of science for industrial use. In sociological sense, technology with it also implies on appropriate organization and systematic application of the scientific knowledge to meet human requirement. Though the stimulate change of thought and knowledge for life change. Technology after the people mote of gratifying physical, psychological as well as technological changes. So causes of technological changes of society have a very important role for our society changes. Technical innovation Technical innovations in the field of space and navigation have worked as crucial against peoples fair. Change in the production economy, change in the whole society such as social, economy and political life and if also played for a communication. The history of the agricultural techniques change in the transportation and communication technology also for the socio-culture. Technologies improve the transport and our traditional system has broken down the relational for the advancement of technology innovation. Demographic factors Demographic factors has been changed the socio-economic or political life of people. The principle component of the natural reproduction also changed our life. Migration also changed our life. Rural people migrate from village to urban. New social classes The new commercial classes which grew out of the new economic situation are of a different type from their counterparts in Bangladesh. The new merchant classes traded in all production, rural and urban, agricultural and industrial in the country. Industries are established and developed at a rapid rate only in the later decades of the nineteenth century and thereafter. The industrial bourgeoisie and the working class grew in number in proportion as these industries development. The professional classes comprising modern lawyers, doctors, teachers and professors associated with modern educational institutions, managers and clerks working in modern commercial and other enterprises, officials. Modern professional classes which developed on the basis of the requirements of new society and they spread of the rich modern culture and education in Bangladesh. As a result of the insufficient industrial development, remnants of the old economy such as pre-capitalist handicrafts and village artisan industries survived in the country. Social mobility Social mobility also impart on the social change. If the society are mobile than it will change the society. Social Sustainability Social sustainability is a complex issue. It may be defined as an orderly progress. Of society, which can be disturbed (made vulnerable) by continued political, economic, and market differentiation. Climate change by accentuating these disparities, by affecting Different groups differently, may exacerbate social disruptions and undermine social sustainability. One needs to evaluate various aspects of social sustainability in order to measure its overall present status and future prospects. The purpose of this paper is limited to connections between climate change and social sustainability. What is attempted here, therefore, is to identify the implications of climate change on the social fabric and suggest indicators which will reflect changes in relation to the base conditions. Human systems, given their economic and social circumstances, may be able to absorb a great deal of adversities, damages, and losses. In the 1990s, many events have taken place across the globe, causing colossal losses of human lives, assets, infrastructure etc. A severe cyclone caused deaths of 138,000 people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh in 1991, while another similar cyclone about the same time along the coast line of South Carolina and Georgia States in USA caused damages worth about US$8 billion. In Japan a severe earthquake destroyed significant parts of Kobe city. Social vulnerability Widespread occurrence of both droughts and floods caused famines in Ethiopia, Sudan and Angola. In all cases people showed tremendous resilience to cope with the hardship and the affected societies managed to survive. There have been internal and external assistance to facilitate resurgence of social resilience in the affected areas. Even in a small area, which experienced natural or manmade havoc, kinship and sympathy of others, helped the victims to come out of despair and to dream for a better future. In each case people have suffered, but they have also overcome adversities. The threshold for complete unsustainability of a society under stress is difficult to define. In fact, the more fortunate people within a country or from other countries may continue to come forward to help restore/safeguard the sustainability of an affected society in any part of the globe. Social sustainability That is, human conscience may work in favor of providing necessary resources by those Who can afford to do so to enhance the capacity and endurance of the affected people to Cope with adversities. But the prospect of such humanitarian assistance cannot be a Parameter in the planning exercise. It can at best be considered as the last straw Providing succor to people unable to cope with the impact of a disaster despite all their Efforts to do everything possible to mitigate and adapt. Under conditions of climate change, social sustainability is a reflection of the society’s ability to reduce social vulnerability caused by the induced changes. The indicators of sustainability would, therefore, refer to how well a particular society could perform the task of reducing vulnerability. If a society is well prepared in terms of human, physical (infrastructural), and financial capacities; well positioned in terms of general awareness and institutional capabilities; and possesses a high resilience (moral, kinship and otherwise), then it should be able to effectively lower its vulnerability. The indicators of climate change, socio-economic impact indicators and their relationships. The answer to the question how good is the knowledge base of the concerned people regarding societal vulnerability? Would provide a basic indicator. It would not always be possible to quantify various aspects of the problem; but a good knowledge base, quantitative where possible and qualitative in other respects, would allow both the local people and the planners to devise necessary actions well in advance. Number of lives at risk would provide a quantified measure of physical vulnerability. An absolute number or a proportion of people likely to be relocated due to certain physical effects would give a good indication. Similarly, the number of people who do not have access to minimum requirement of food/dietary intake would give a direct indicator about food vulnerability of a society. Any deviation from the present trend would indicate the level of adverse impact caused by climate change. Change the number of people likely to lose employment and/or income due to climate an induced impact provides another social indicator. It might, however, be difficult to separate the warming-induced losers from the rest. One straight forward indicator might be the total number of work-days lost due to extreme weather events. Number of School-days lost per academic year could be used as a similar indicator. Social indicators The indicators that are expressed by monetary terms are informative, but those might be misleading for the purpose of interpreting social vulnerability. The costs of almost anything in the developed countries are higher compared to that in the developing Countries. How much being spent to take care of something or to provide insurance to the same would have a northern-bias. Similarly, how much could have ensured protection against certain problems would have southern-bias? Unless the issue of equity is built Into such estimations, it would tend to misguide its users. For planning purposes, however, such indicators could be useful as starting points. To understand loss of social cohesion one may use indicators that express the state of social peace. For example, one may estimate the increased number of anti-social activities recorded by the law enforcing agencies in the most vulnerable areas. Estimations of international, intra-regional and local migration are already considered as indicators of livability within a society. In many countries, however, such events are forced by sheer economic stress and marked by perception of higher levels of opportunities in the countries/areas of destination. Table-3 provides a checklist of elements of vulnerability in a typical disadvantaged country. Conclusion Social change is dynamic process. It exists in all society whatever it is ancient or at present. The change is not so firstly but it is very slowly. 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