Download Explaining Social Change

Chapter 18, Section 1
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Remember, sociology stemmed from the
Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1800s.
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Social change= alterations in various
aspects of society over time.
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Led to the formation of four major theories to
explain the process.
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Views change from a historical perspective.
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States that societies pass through stages of
emergence, development, and then
decline. Social change is a natural offshoot of
that cycle.
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Oswald Spengler and Pitirim Sorokin.
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Spengler
 4 stages of societies: childhood, youth, adulthood
and old age.
 Western civilization reached ‘adulthood’ around
1700…. so now it is on the decline and will eventually
disappear.
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Sorokin
 Societies fluctuate between two extremes–
ideational culture (belief/truth in religion) and
sensate culture (belief/truth in science).
▪ The balance is known as idealistic culture.
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Views change as a process that moves in
one direction, and grows in complexity.
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As members in a society adapt, they push
society to develop more extensively.
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Difference between early evolutionary
sociologists and modern ones.

Early Evolutionary
 Comte, Spencer
 Justified social and political conditions;
 Distinction between weaker and stronger
countries.

Modern Evolutionary
 Societies have a tendency to be more complex
over time;
 Progress does not mean the same in all
societies.

Change in one aspect of society yields
changes in all aspects– societies maintain
balance

Functionalist Talcott Parsons

As a society encounters new norms, it
differentiates between old and new, and
the new ones become institutionalized.
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Change results from conflicts between
groups of opposing interests.
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Karl Marx and Ralf Dahrendorf
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Marx’s class conflict differences between
classes lead to revolutions (an extreme form
of social change).
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Agreed with Marx in that conflict is central to
all societies.

Social conflict is not just between classes, but
race, gender, etc. as well.
Also believed that revolution does not yield
all social change within modern, industrial
societies– interest groups.
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