UNIT THREE
3. Social Change
Social change is a long-term process, and as such, it is useful to view it through the lens of
the participatory action research cycle. Social change involves true second-order change in
communities and societies, not just adding a new program or resource. Among other things,
this means that resources and power are being redistributed. These changes can result in
conflict and unintended effects.
Social change may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the
philosophical idea that society moves forward by evolutionary means. It may refer to a
paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure, for instance the transition from
feudalism to capitalism, or hypothetical future transition to some form of post-capitalism.
Prominent Theories
Many theories attempt to explain social change. One view suggests that a theory of change
should include elements such as structural aspects of change (like population shifts),
processes and mechanisms of social change, and directions of change.
Hegelian: The classic Hegelian dialectic model of change is based on the interaction of
opposing forces. Starting from a point of momentary stasis, Thesis countered by Antithesis
first yields conflict, then it subsequently results in a new Synthesis.
Marxist: Marxism presents a dialectical and materialist concept of history, seeing
humankind's history as a fundamental "struggle between social classes ".
Kuhnian: The philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn argues in The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions with respect to the Copernican Revolution that people are likely to continue
utilizing an apparently unworkable paradigm until a better paradigm is commonly accepted.
Heraclitan: The Greek philosopher Heraclitus used the metaphor of a river to speak of
change thus: "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow".
Daoist: The Chinese philosophical work Dao De Jing, I.8 and II.78 uses the metaphor of
water as the ideal agent of change. Water, although soft and yielding, will eventually wear
away stone. Change, in this model, is to be natural, harmonious and steady, albeit
imperceptible.
Four Levels of Action to Create Social Change
Will Grant of the Pachamama Alliance describe "Four Levels of Action" for change:
1. Individual
2. Friends and family
3. Community and Institutions
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4. Economy and policy Grant suggests that individuals can have the largest personal impact
by focusing on levels 2 and 3.
Reasons for social change
One way of explaining social change is to show causal connections between two or more
processes. This may take the form of determinism or reductionism, both of which tend to
explain social change by reducing it to one supposed autonomous and all-determining causal
process. A more cautious assumption is that one process has relative causal priority, without
implying that this process is completely autonomous and all-determining.
The followings are some of the processes thought to contribute to social change:
Natural environment
Changes in the natural environment may result from climatic variations, natural disasters, or
the spread of disease. Changes in the natural environment may be either independent of
human activities or caused by them. Deforestation, erosion, air pollution, and contemporary
climate change belong to the latter category, and they in turn may have far-reaching social
consequences.
Demographic processes
Population growth and increasing population density represent demographic forms of social
change. Population growth may lead to geographic expansion of a society, military conflicts,
and the intermingling of cultures. Increasing population density may stimulate technological
innovations, which in turn may increase the division of labor, social differentiation,
commercialization, and urbanization.
Technological innovations
Several theories of social evolution identify technological innovations as the most important
determinants of societal change. Such technological breakthroughs as the smelting of iron,
the introduction of the plow in agriculture, the invention of the steam engine, and the
development of computers and the Internet have had lasting social consequences.
Economic processes
Technological changes are often considered in conjunction with economic processes. These
include the formation and extension of markets, modifications of property relations (such as
the change from feudal lord-peasant relations to contractual proprietor-tenant relations), and
changes in the organization of labor (such as the change from independent craftsmen to
factories).
Social movements
A change in collective ideas is not merely an intellectual process; it is often connected to the
formation of new social movements. This in itself might be regarded as a potential cause of
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social change. Weber called attention to this factor in conjunction with his concept of
“charismatic leadership.” Charismatic leaders, by virtue of the extraordinary personal
qualities attributed to them, are able to create a group of followers who are willing to break
established rules. Examples include Jesus, Napoleon, and Hitler. In later social theory,
however, the concept of charisma was trivialized to refer to almost any popular figure.
Political processes
Changes in the regulation of violence, in the organization of the state, and in international
relations may also contribute to social change. For example, German sociologist Norbert
Elias interpreted the formation of states in western Europe as a relatively autonomous process
that led to increasing control of violence and, ultimately, to rising standards of self-control.
Types of social change
Social changes can vary according to speed and scope and impetus. Some research on the
various types of social change focuses on social organizations such as corporations.
Different manifestations of change include:
Fabian change: gradual and reformist incremental amelioration after the manner of the
Fabian Society
Radical change: improvements root and branch in the style of political radicalism
Revolutionary change: abrupt, radical and drastic change, with implications of violence and
of starting afresh (perhaps most popular as a political bogeyman).
Transformational change: a New-age version of radical change, and thus difficult to define
Continuous change: change (allegedly) for the sake of change
Top-down change: reliance on leadership
Bottom-up change: reliance on the huddled masses
Creating and Sustaining Social Change
The followings are major basics in creating and sustaining social change
Social Justice
Social justice is structural change that increases opportunity for those who are least well off
politically, economically, and socially. Social justice is grounded in the values and ideals of
equity, access, and inclusion for all members of society, particularly for poor communities
and communities of color that historically and structurally have experienced social inequities.
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Social Activism
Social activism refers to action to make change that ensures inclusion, equity, fairness, and
justice. It is intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental
change.
Civic Engagement
Civic engagement refers to the many ways in which people participate in civic, community,
and political life and, by doing so, express their engaged citizenship. From proactively
becoming better informed to participating in public dialogue on issues, from volunteering to
voting, from community organizing to political advocacy, the defining characteristic of active
civic engagement is the commitment to participate and contribute to the improvement of
one’s community, neighborhood, and nation.
Civic Dialogue
Civic Dialogue is dialogue in which people explore matters of civic importance and consider
the dimensions of a civic or social issue, policy, or decisions of consequence to their lives,
communities, and society. Engaging in civic dialogue is a form of civic engagement.
Sometimes civic or public dialogue is considered an important end in itself.
Community Building
Community building has been defined in various ways. It may refer to the process of building
relationships that helps to cohere community members around common purpose, identity, and
a sense of belonging which may lead to social or community capital.
Social Capital
The building of social capital is a common outcome named in arts and social change work.
Social capital is the collective value of all “social networks” (who people know) and the
inclinations to do things for each other that arise from these networks (“norms of
reciprocity”). Specific benefits that flow from social networks include trust, reciprocity,
information, and cooperation.
Community Development
In community development, the economic, social, and physical dimensions of community are
considered. Community development agencies often focus on ensuring low and mixed-
income housing, job training or workforce development, commercial real estate development,
and small business start-up.
Professional Change Agents: Consultants
A change agent also referred to as change champion or change facilitator is someone who is
employed to improve organizational effectiveness through utilizing planned, deliberate
strategies.
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The change agent aims to enable system-wide change within an organization. Several
organizational science researchers have argued that the ability of change agents to stimulate
change within organizations is an integral dimension of organization success.
Organizations appoint change agents to transform the methods used to manage the way in
which business is conducted. These change agents can be managers, employees, or external
consultants, who are hired to facilitate change initiatives.
How do change agents support change management initiatives?
If an organization utilizes internal change agents then these individuals can be effective
through having knowledge of the organization’s history, operations, and human resources.
External change agent can also enable change management initiatives through providing a
novel perspective to the firm and not showing bias based on previous knowledge of the
organization’s history.
However, this lack of knowledge of the firm can hamper an external change agent’s effort.
One way to overcome this limitation is for the organization to pair an external change agent
with an internal change agent. This internal agent can, for instance, be recruited from within
the human resources function. Change agents support change initiatives through consulting,
training and research
Change agents can support change management initiatives in three ways: consulting,
training, and research:
In the role of consultant, the change agent can connect employees with critical data external
to the organization or can involve employees in data collection from within the organization.
Data can be a useful source of information in creating change within the organization because
it allows employees and management to build predictive models. Change agents can enable
employees to solve problems through statistical analysis of valid and reliable data.
In the role of trainer, the change agent can facilitate learning, through educating employees
how to use the data to initiate change. As a trainer, the change agent can help employees
initiate action through data analysis and provide employees with a new skillset such as the
ability to collect and use new data to solve organizational problems.
The change agent can also take the role of researcher through development of evaluation
systems that assess the effectiveness of action plans.
What Are the Characteristics of Effective Change Agents?
Openness to change: First, effective change agents are flexible in that they are open to
change and are able to be creative through identifying non-traditional methods to help
organizations grow. Through being flexible, change agents can connect with people of
different generations, hierarchical levels and business (functions) to identify the skillset of
each employee.
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Openness to experience: Second, effective change agents display diversity in their
knowledge and are not rigid in their thinking. Instead, they gain knowledge through finding
techniques that are appropriate for their industry and organization.
Focus on results linked to strategy: Third, successful change agents are efficient in that they
prioritize and have a results focus. Moreover, this results focus is tied to the firm’s objectives
and is integral to the strategic plan.
Effective communication and listening skills: Fourth, effective change agents also have
effective communication skills such as good listening and are able to empathize with
employees. Effective change agents are also open and are willing to listen and take advice.
Education and Information Dissemination
Education: - the act or process of teaching or being thought. Way of gaining knowledge,
skill and development through learning and training. Education is the process of facilitating
learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, moral beliefs, and habits. Educational
methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion, modelling, experiencing from
one’s own life, observations and direct research.
Information Dissemination: - It is the means of communication and a process of
broadcasting, availing and forward information and messages to the public without direct
feedback from the audiences. Information dissemination (diffusion) has been a key social
process, but especially in modern information-centric societies, it has become one of the most
critical ones. In general, with respect to the manner that each piece of information is received
by human users, information may be distinguished in three types, characterized of useful,
malicious, or indifferent content and denoted accordingly. Each type is analyzed in more
detail in the following.
Useful information consists of many diverse types of data, all of which are expected to be of
some immediate or later use by the end-users. It may consist of news, multimedia content,
financial, healthcare, educational data, etc. People are willing to accept such types of
information, and usually store it for further use, e.g. e-books and health examinations.
Consequently, with respect to useful information, a single state transition takes place for a
user, namely, from the state of not having it to the state of having received and stored the
information.
On the other hand, users may receive malicious information, most prominently malware.
The users are, in principle, reluctant to accept and/or use this type of information. Frequently,
the producers and distributors of malicious information devise ways to have their information
accepted by some users, e.g. by hiding it in other types of useful or indifferent information,
such as email viruses.
Indifferent information: finally, indifferent information describes cumulatively multiple and
diverse types of information that disseminates in societies, nowadays mostly through the
Internet and social networks, that the user is not willing to follow, but at the same time the
user does not consider harmful. Characteristic cases of indifferent information include spam
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email (typically unwanted advertisements, etc.), pop-up advertisements in various websites,
leaflets in the general case, and other email targeted for general promotional purposes. The
user typically discards such information, but relevant messages are of recurrent nature,
namely, they are repeated at frequent rates in order to achieve their goal. Sometimes users
can be bothered by very frequent recurring indifferent information; however, most of the
times the user cannot do much to restrict or discard them. Characteristic examples include
phishing email messages and promotional/discount pop-ups are various electronic shopping
websites.
We should note that although malicious and indifferent types of information are essentially of
different nature in terms of context, in many occasions, their diffusion nature is identical, or
at least very similar. Thus, later in this chapter, we use the same SIS infection model to study
their propagation. The reader should keep in mind their diverse contextual nature and use the
corresponding models appropriately given the specific application framework they emerge.
Policy Changes as a Means of Social Change
Policies are the written or unwritten guidelines that governments, organizations and
institutions, communities, or individuals use when responding to issues and situations. They
are generally shaped both by logic (e.g., get a medical history before you prescribe
medication) and by people's assumptions about reality, including:
Assumptions about the way things should be: These are formed by a combination of the
values people learn as children, conventional wisdom (what "everyone knows"), local custom
and community norms, cultural factors, religion, and "common sense" (which may be neither
common nor sense). People's conceptions of gender roles, relationships among groups,
appropriate behavior, etc., are usually subject to this set of assumptions.
Assumptions about what works: These assumptions guide ideas about how to address a
particular issue. They can determine, for instance, whether a community drug problem is
approached with stricter enforcement and harsher punishment, or with an increase in funding
for treatment and follow-up programs.
Assumptions about people: What people think they know about other people in general or
about members of other ethnic, racial, or social groups? Sensitivity to other cultures - or its
absence - has a lot to do with these assumptions, as do empathy and exposure to a variety of
cultures and situations.
Assumptions about what's good for the community: These assumptions may not reflect
reality, or the needs and wishes of everyone in the community but bases the need of average
of the community.
Why Try to Change Policies
There are a number of excellent reasons why changing policies is worth the trouble. In
general, it's the difference between sweeping problems under the rug, and actually cleaning
them up so they don't appear again.
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Because policies are the basis for community decisions: If you can change the policy, you
may be able to affect - for the better, we assume - community decisions about an issue well
into the future.
Because changing policy is easier in the long run than fighting the same battles over and
over again: Even if you're successful in gaining concessions on a particular issue, if you
haven't changed the policy toward that issue, you may have to work to gain those concessions
again each time the issue arises.
Changed policies can change people's minds and attitudes: One theory of child-rearing that
seems to work reasonably well in practice is that if the child behaves in an acceptable way for
long enough, that behavior becomes internalized as part of the child's self-image. It is, in
other words, no longer merely behavior, but part of what the child conceives as her and the
way she is. The same can be true of a community: once an issue is addressed in particular
ways, the new policies themselves become part of the community's self-image, and lead to
long-term change.
Changed policies have effects on the next generation: As proponents of civil rights hoped,
and racists feared, integration had its greatest effects on schoolchildren. A whole generation
grew up feeling that having friends of different races was normal
Policy change is one path to permanent social change: For all of the reasons above, changing
policies is really a way to change society. The policies in question may come from above, in
the form of official government policies translated into laws or regulations.
