Tuesday, February 16, 2010

social change difinitions,characteristics

Unit-4 –D
Social change

Change is continuous and constant in everybody’s life. Every day comes with a change or every moment arrives with a change which is new for all the same as in society change is continuous and constant. and this change is known as social change because this change is social in nature that it means it occurs in society. E.g. change in people’s life-style, change in their behavior, attitude, way of living life, in their culture, tradition, values, set norms etc….So social change is the variation and modification in any aspect of social process, pattern of form.
Definitions-
1] “The basic fact of today is a tremendous phase of change in human life”
- Pandit Jawaharlal nehru

Here pandit Nehru is talking about change in human life. He tries to point out the necessity of change by using the word tremendous and he put emphasis on change must be needed in human life so that an individual / a human being can accept a change as a challenge in his life and he must learn how to cop up with change occur in his life and for this he must be flexible change in an individual’s life is a change in society because he is a part of society and the change occurs in his life would be a social change.
2] “Change in the social structure is social change”
- Maciver and Page
Maciver and Page point out change occurs in social structure. Change in social structure includes change in social rules and regulation, Social values, social organization, social beliefs, way of thinking of social beings etc. And if change occurs in all these then it becomes a social change. So according to Maciver and page social change is a change in social structure which changes the whole society.
3] “Social change is a term used to describe variations or modifications of any aspects of social processes, social patterns, social interaction or social organization”
- Sir James
Sir James is of the opinion that social change is nothing but change in social processes including rules and regulation, social values, social systems etc…..Change in social pattern that means a change in social structure which is based on social norms, values, traditions, culture etc. Change in social interaction that means change in social relations – a way of interaction –one person to another and finally change in social organization that means change in social institution, so social change describes variations in terms of social processes, social patterns, social interaction or social organization.
4] “Social change means that large number of persons are engaged in activities that differ from those in which they or their immediate forefathers engaged in sometime before”
- Merr and Eldredge
Merr and Eldredge put emphasis on social change as a continuous process which run from the existence of man to the present time and it will be run by future generation that means social change is dynamic and inevitable.
5] Johnson covers five kinds of changes under social change.
• Change in social values
• Instituonal change
• Change in distribution of possessions and rewards
• Change in personnel
• Change in abilities or attitudes of personnel.
That means social changes affect a wide range of individual experience and functional aspects of society.
Characteristics of social change
1] Social change is continuous and dynamic. As change occurs in everything, social change is inevitable. It is continuous since the existence of earth or animate things/people in society.
2] Social change occurs in everything and it involves all people,in all places and at all times which may be harmful or fruitful for all so social change is universal.
3] Social change is inevitable and it occurs in everywhere In order to cop-up with new changes or in order to bring novelty in society social change must be needed so so social change is compulsory. We cannot ignore changes that take place in society.
4] Social change is planned change because in order to uplift the society social change must be needed so people plan out many things to bring social changes in society for the development of society. eg Implementation of the five years plans in our country and other development schemes and programmes for fulfilling needs of people. Social change is also considered as unplanned change because society is affected by external and internal forces that means society is influenced by the needs of people ,their life style, norms etc…… so changes occurs in society become unplanned changes which are affected by people and their way of living .eg, Social changes is influenced by natural calamities fashions in society etc…So, social change is both planned and unplanned.5] Social change is purposive that means people brings change in society intentionally.eg In our country in order to make others aware about harmful diseases ie.AI9DS,T.B,CANCER ETC.and for ht e village and community development people meet together and plan out some schemes or programmes which bring social change. That is why social change is purposive.

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