The Definition of Social Change

The Definition of Social Change
Jo Hazelhurst
When I looked this up on the internet there were not many variations on the definition of social change. What is lacking is what it might mean practically. So I would like to invite you to make contributions of what it means for you, and how you see these changes making a difference to the lives of your own community.
For now here is a summary of the Wikipedia definition. It defines social structure as:
* change in social structure: the nature, the social institutions, the social behaviour or the social relations of a society, community of people, and so on.
* When behaviour pattern changes, in large numbers and is visible and sustained it results in a social change. Once there is a deviance from culturally inherited values, it may result in a rebellion against the established system, causing a change in the social order.
* any event or action that affects a group of individuals that have shared values or characteristics.* acts of advocacy for the cause of changing society in a normative way (subjective).
Others speak about it as any change that alters cultural or social patterns of a society.
This includes patterns of behavior influenced by a system and people in different social positions in relation to: patterns of modus operandi; the patterns that emerge as a result of belief systems; the goals and aspirations; the communication modes
Another interesting site I found offers visitors a chance to say what they think it means. You may have to wade through some rubbish and vulgarities. Go to Grace.evergreen.edu
What I would be interested to explore is what changes you would like to see in the social structure.
If you were president how would you go about creating change in a social context?
What is the ideal? What is missing? How would we know change has happened? i.e. In order to say change has taken place - enough to change the world - what would need to look and feel different?
Give practical examples. Try to look at it from Wilbur's model. i.e. What would need to change internally and externally in both the individual and the social context?

Social Change

Social Change
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social change is a general term which refers to:
change in social structure: the nature, the social institutions, the social behaviour or the social relations of a society, community of people, and so on.

When behaviour pattern changes, in large numbers and is visible and sustained it results in a social change. Once there is a deviance from culturally inherited values, it may result in a rebellion against the established system, causing a change in the social order.

any event or action that affects a group of individuals that have shared values or characteristics.
acts of advocacy for the cause of changing society in a normative way (subjective).

The term is used in the study of history, economies, and politics, and includes topics such as the success or failure of different political systems, globalization, democratization, development and economic growth. The term can encompass concepts as broad as revolution and paradigm shift, to narrow changes such as a particular cause within small town government. The concept of social change imply measurement of some characteristics of this group of individuals. While the term is usually applied to changes that are beneficial to society, it may result in negative side-effects or consequences that undermine or eliminate existing ways of life that are considered positive.
Social change is a topic in sociology and social work , but also involves political science, economics, history, anthropology, and many other social sciences.
Among many forms of creating social change are theater for social change, direct action, protesting, advocacy, community organizing, community practice, revolution, and political activism.
Models 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 but subsequently results in a new Synthesis.
Kuhnian-- Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions argued with respect to the Copernican Revolution that people are unlikey to jettison an unworkable paradigm, despite many indications that the paradigm is not functioning properly, until a better paradigm can be presented.
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." (DK22B12) What Heraclitus seems to be suggesting here, later interpretations notwithstanding, is that in order for the river to remain the river change must constantly be taking place. Thus one may think of the Heraclitan model as parallel to that of a living organism, which, in order to remain alive must constantly be changing.
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, though soft and yielding, will eventually wear away stone. Change in this model is to be natural, harmonius, and steady, though imperceptible.
References:
Gene Shackman, Ya-Lin Liu and Xun Wang. Measuring quality of life using free and public domain data. Social Research Update, Issue 47, Autumn, 2005. Available at http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/
Cited from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_change, date of citation:02-04-2009.

Preface for the 4th Issue

The title of the present issue is On Social Problems in this we will discuss about some social problem. We will find here some collection of articles by different thinkers on different issues. They will give us the right direction to understand social problems. How we define them and what is the right way to find them as a basic problem. The following articles are:

1. Defining Social Problems Dr. John S. Mahoney
2. Corruption in Education system in India – A UNESCO Report
3. Domestic Violence Against Women
4. Corruption is a Violation of Human Rights -Justice K. G.
Balakrishnan

We have a first article on defining the problems, second and fourth about the Corruption with special reference to Education and Human Rights. The third article is related to the violence against women in family.May this collection of articles give us a good understanding about the social issues. We will continue it to the next issues of the Journal also.
-Desh Raj Sirswal