Transcript Scenario of the Changing World, Social Change and the Impact of Environment

Topic 1
Scenario of the Changing World,
Social Change and the Impact of
Technology on Society and the
Environment
Assoc Prof Dr Sharifah Norazizan Syed Abd Rashid APPM
Department of Social and Development Science
Faculty of Human Ecology, UPM
[email protected]
Content
• The History of the Changing World
• Social Change Processes and the Role of
Technology
• The Advancement of Technology and its Impact
on Society and the Environment
• A Summary
• Discussion
• References
History of the Changing World
Complexity
Planetary Phase
100 years ?
Modern Era
1,000 years
Stone Age
100,000 years
20,000
Early Civilization
10,000 years
10,000
0
Years Before Present
Planetary Phase of Civilization
…..refers to a current historical transition from a world
of capitalist states and consumerist societies to a world
of increased global connectivity with new global
institutions (like the United Nations and the World
Trade Organizations), new information technologies,
the age of biotechnology, environmental change in the
biosphere, economic globalization, and shifts in culture
and consciousness.
Economic Base
Globalization
Industrial capitalism
Settled agriculture
Hunting &
gathering
105
104
103
102 Years Before Present
The Three Era Of
Technology
•
Technological Revolution
• From hunter-gatherer societies requiring only
simple portable technologies for:
– Shelter
– Hunting
– Gathering
– Cooking
– Transportation
– Defense
Agricultural Revolution
8000 BC
Allowed settled, communities (civilization)
• Advantages:
– More food, so greater population density
– Greater population density allowed for coordinated efforts
and specialized skills
– No need for portability
• Disadvantages:
– More work to maintain higher, more complex standard of
living
• Emergence of morality, law, religion, records, mathematics,
astronomy, class structures, patriarchy
Industrial Revolution
1700s
• Steam engine, then gasoline-driven combustion
engine
• More specialized division of labour and of
knowledge — each worker needed fewer skills
• Less expensive goods, so increased standard of
living
• Infrastructure for transportation
Communication
Internet
Printing
Writing
Language
105
104
103
102 Years Before Present
Global Connectivity
World Transition
•
•
•
•
•
Global environmental change
Information technology
Hegemony of capitalism
WTO, multinationals,
Earth Summit, NGOs,
Take-off
1980-
1950
2000
2050
Dimensions
Technology
Governance
Economy
Social
Demography
Values
Knowledge
Social Change and the Role of
Technology
• Understanding Society
• The Meaning of Social Change
• Why Social Change happens?
• Technology as a Source of Social Change
Understanding Society
• Society is a group of people living in the same
locality or place with a definite ways of life (Kamus
Dewan, 2000).
• Society is also a group of people involved in similar
activities even though they are not living in the same
locality as an eg. Society of farmers in Malaysia,
Africa, America and many other countries.
cont
• Generally, society is a group of people with a definite life style,
norms, values, culture, language, communication system and
structure where each member has a role and function to
ensure the existence of the group whose characteristics differ
from other groups.
• Unique characteristic that differentiate one society with another
eg differ in terms of their food, dressing ie the eastern and
western ways..
Definition of Social Change
• Generally, social change is defined as the movement
of society from one level of livelihood to another
level.
• Social change is also defined as the framework of
change and new social behavior that benefits the
society.
(Triandis dalam Rozali, 1991)
Definition of Social Change Moore
….“significant alteration of social structures” where
social structures means “patterns of social action and
interaction” (Moore 1967: 3).
Social Change Concept
• Change is important in social behavior or changes
in the social system.
• Social change refers to changes in terms of existing
social relationships eg in the family, economy,
politic and religion
• Social change also refers to permanent changes to
the cultural components, social structure and social
bahavior.
cont
• The changes involved changes in cultural values,
norms and roles.
• It also involved leading social institutions like the
family institutions, religious, education etc.
• Social change is also a qualitative and quantitative
processes of change to both planned and
unplanned social phenomena
Evolutionary & Revolutionary
Social Change
Evolutionary Social Change
An evolutionary view of social change implies a
gradual transformation through a series of stages of
increasing complexity (as distinct from the
revolutionary view of social change, which assumes
that a revolution is necessary for social change to
occur).
Social Revolution
A social revolution involves a fundamental
change in social practices (as distinct from a
political revolution, which involves the
overthrow of one type of political regime by
another).
Toffler’s Three Waves of
Social Development
• Agricultural age (began about 10,000 years ago)—
Social Significance: people moved away from
nomadic wandering/hunting to villages and
cultures.
• Industrial age (began in the eighteenth century)—
Social Significance: People began to leave the
peasant culture of farming to work in city factories
with machinery.
• Information age (current era)—Social Significance:
Wealth is increasingly contingent on the
possession of knowledge/information.
Cultural Lag
The phenomenon whereby cultural elements, such
as religious beliefs, change more slowly than
structural elements, such as technological
innovations.
(The term cultural lag was coined by William
Ogburn.)
Social Evolutionary
Theories
• Viewed social change as advancing gradually
through certain basic stages of development, such
as from “military society” to “industrial society,” and
from simple agrarian forms to more complex
industrial-urban ones
• Developed in the nineteenth century by Auguste
Comte, Herbert Spencer, and Emile Durkheim
Theories of Revolutionary
Change
• Emphasized increasing conflict among different
parts of society—particularly different economic
groups (classes)—as the fundamental source of
social change
• Mainly associated with Karl Marx who viewed
modern industrial society as a socioeconomic
system in which the manufacturing firm was central.
• For Weber, the manufacturing firm typified the
modern form of organization, which was highly
rational and bureaucratic
Post-industrial Society
• Daniel Bell popularized the concept of postindustrial society in the early 1970s
• The term signifies an intermediate stage between
industrial society and a future form of society, the
precise nature of which was still to be established
• Bell’s three Social Sphere : Social (or technoeconomic) structure; Polity, i.e. the state and
political institutions; and Culture
Sources of Social Change
• Environmental
- natural disaster
• Population
- Fertility, mortality, longevity and consumption.
• Modernization is a process of social change initiated by
industrialization process.
- industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization
• Human interactions
- Human actions. Collective behavior, environmental factors,
declining norms. Social control breakdown.
sambung
• Global development
- developed countries @rich
- undeveloped countries @poor
• Technological factors
- automation
- cultural lag
- Cultural innovation, inventions, diffusions
Agents of Change
Government
Organizations
Civil Society
Multi Nationals
Concerned Public
Understanding
Technology
• Technology is created by members of society to
make life more comfortable and safe
• Technology is influenced by two factors
- local culture
- Environment
• Evidence can be seen by looking at the forms of
shelters/homes and tools used by a society for their
daily routines.
cont
• Contrast with nature
• Means to an end / purposeful / functional: having a
purpose, end, or value for which it is intended or
used
• Most generally: intended and used to increase
freedom and power
The Scope of Technology
1.
2.
3.
4.
End-product: artifacts
Tools: machines and processes
Agents: scientists, engineers and technicians
Social support: purposeful organization
Technology =df the organization of knowledge,
people and things to accomplish specific
practical goals
Technological systems
consist of …
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Human activity form: techniques and practices
Resources, tools & materials
Artifacts
Ends/ functions/ valences
Background knowledge and skills
Social organization
NOTE: 4 & 5 provide background to the 4
elements of the scope of technology
Four Kinds of Ethical Concerns
Arising From Technology:
• Whether and how new technologies should be used
(esp. medical)
• Aggregate responsibility (e.g. pollution, depletion of
resources)
• Distributive justice: certain groups alone may be
advantaged
• Changing relationship to nature and other animals
Five Characteristics of
Technological Dangers
• Result of aggregate action
• Not direct harms, but increased risks that are hard to
detect
• Impact far into the future
• Affect not only humans but other forms of life and the
environment
• Affect no particular communities, but all of humanity.
Summary
• Rapid increase in the rate of population growth and the wealth
of society.
• Tensions created in society, the natural environment and
ecology.
• Technology and engineering becoming more important in
creating and providing solutions to problems.
• Technology brings about social change on human lives in terms
of culture, lifestyle, communication and interactions among
them.
• Technology influence peoples’ lives either positively and
negatively.
• People needs to plan and in control of the changes to ensure
security and that the future generation live sustainably
sejahtera
Discussion
1. What do you understand by Social Change?
2. What are the factors that cause Global Social
Change?
3. Define Technology and explain how technology
able to change the world?
Cont.
4. What is the difference between evolutionary and
revolutionary social change? Are they mutually
exclusive? How is social revolution different from
political revolution?
5. What are Alvin Toffler’s three “waves” of social
development? Briefly describe each of these
stages by identifying its dominant form of
economic production, its basis of wealth, and its
social significance. Which stage are we in now?
References
• Giddens, A (2006). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity
Press.
• Haralambos, M and Holborn, M (2004). Sociology:
themes and perspectives. London: Harper Collins
Publishers Ltd.
• Harper, CL (1993). Exploring social change.
Engelwood Cliffs: New Jersey.
• Macionis, John J.; Ken Plummer (2008). Sociology
(4th ed.). Pearson Education. ISBN 0132051583.
Thank You