What is SOCIAL CHANGE ?

What is SOCIAL CHANGE ?

Change is the law of nature. The changes that took place over a period of time have resulted in the evolution of human society. Social Change depends on the major changes that have happened in the human behavior, moral and cultural values and social rules and regulations. It also indicates the modifications of social process and socio-cultural development. The Mobility found in human society is basically due to social change.

Change occurs due to two reasons. The first is the natural reasons. Natural calamities like floods and earth quakes bring some inevitable changes in human behavior. These changes the human being to alter their behavior to get adjusted with the changed circumstances. We can notice the changes that have occurred due to global warming. The secon reason is the change that takes place due to human inventions and thinkings which are the result of dynamic nature of human beings. For example, freedom from slavery and bonded labor is the result of many movements. Later, many legal provisions were introduced to protect women rights, dalit rights and civic rights. This has brought in many changes in the social structure and functions of the society. These changes are called Social Changes.

Social change can be defined as the transformation that takes place in the lifestyle of common people. According to sociologist Mac Iver ‘Social change is the change that takes place in the human social relationships’.

Characteristics of social change

1] Social change is a continuous process.

2] Social change is universal.

3] Social change varies in its form and speed.

4] The chain of social process create social change.

Social change and social process

Social process causes social change. The sociologist Park and Burgess explains social process in four main types. Usually, the following five types of social process are discussed: (i) Conflict (ii) Adjustment (iii) Cooperation (iv) Coexistence and (v) Competition. Here competition is also named as social process.

Conflict: In social change conflict is the most important and effective way social process. Any clash of ideas that appear in a group or team that desires to achieve a desired goal is called as conflict. For example, in Kabbadi game, both the teams would be trying hard to earn more points. The team which employs effective tactics finally wins. Similarly, if the individual or a group is denied of certain rights and facilities, the assertions to claim those rights and facilities appear either at individual level or at group level in the form of strike or movement. Here conflict takes place. For example, when the rights of women or Dalits are violated, the entire society opposes this violations. Now the issue is not only between the violators and the victims. It is a conflict between two groups about the implementation of the rights. This is the basic issue in social change.

Adjustment: For social change, adjustment is equally important as conflict. People and groups in every society come to certain decision based on their thoughts. These decisions cause many kinds of clashes. These clashes are solved through adjustment. If there is no harmony between adjustment and conflict, there will be chances of increasing group friction. Therefore, it needs natural understanding between the groups. This we call as adjustment. This adjustment leads to many changes in inside and outside the family, in society, between the social movement and the principles. It is also a way of respecting the others existence and leads to peace and coexistence in the society.

Cooperation: Cooperation is the way adopted by human beings to fulfill their basic needs. Most of the social relationships in the society are based on giving and taking. This is called cooperation. There are two types in cooperation 1. Direct co-operation 2. Indirect co-operation. This can be explained like this: In school when a child learns, the teacher who is teaching in the class is co-operating directly in the learning process. The other members of the school like headmaster, other teachers, mid day meals cook, and cleaning staff are indirectly co-operating in the learning process. With the help of these co-operations, the school contributes positively for the community by brining in many changes. Learning provides the lesson of co-existence to all.

Co-existence: Co-existence is the most important element for the existence and development of the human society. Like our constitution, co-existence has the secular, socialist and democratic intention. It means all should have equal opportunity, independent, social, economical, political and justifiable life. In order to understand this, we can look at Article 14 of constitution says “all are equal before law”. It is related to equality with reference to caste, religion, race, gender, region and other aspects. It says no one should be discriminated in any name. Co-existence is need in a country like India to achieve Unity in Diversity. If Indians who have innumerable castes, religions, languages and culture could achieve co-existence, it becomes an ideal to the world in general. A conflict less society supports peace and non violence. With this, one can think all are one.

Competition: Competition began along with the human evolution. While presenting his evolutionary theory, Darwin said, “The evolution of life takes place on the basis of conflict and competition. As the competition increases, only the fittest beings survive and weak beings perish”. We all know that there is competition among birds and insects for food. Similar type of competition is found among the human beings as well. A natural competition will never have groupism and favoritism. But, these days competition is becoming increasingly inhuman. This leads to conflicts in society. Hence, we need to formulate rules of the competition in a healthy way. Competitions with rules and without rules affect the society in both positive and negative way. The Globalised economy is pushing people to earn more at the cost of health, in the name of competition. This has changed the attitude of human life totally.