Forces of Change and Continity in Societies

  Personal experience and public knowledge

Personal experience refers to those experiences you have as you grow and develop as a human being. That personal experience is unique to you as an individual, and can be referred as knowledge gained from things you have actually done. To properly use personal experience, one must engage in personal reflection. This requires you to think about who you are, what you do and why you are living, that nature of the culture you are experiencing and the specific environment you experience.

Public knowledge refers to the collection of knowledge assembled through research and analysis of a wide range of personal experiences. It includes knowledge found in books, lectures and documentaries and using computer technology. Public knowledge is knowledge you have learned from consulting sources.

Role of power and authority in social and cultural continuity and  change

A government can have the power to introduce and manage change, particularly if it has the authority derived from an election win. The Whitlam government win in Australia in 1972 is a good example of this. It was the first federal labor win in an election since Ben Chifley had been prime minister in 1949. The liberal prime minsters from 1949 to 1972 had held power continuously for twenty three years. Their authority to maintain much social and cultural continuity derived from their election victories. Each election gave them the authority to maintain what their previous government had done.

Whitlam’s election in 1972 was seen as a mandate to introduce change. The fact that the labor party had won the election gave them the authority to institute a program of change that was a break from much of the continuity of the years of conservative government between 1949 and 1972.

Theories of social change and evaluating their role in explaining continuities and changes in society

People have theories of social change as social change and progression is clearly evident over time and these theories help people to “explain, develop or account for social change.” The human world is complex and theories are developed in order to “simplify the complexity of the real world and help us to make comparisons”.

Evolutionary theory

Darwin’s theory of biological evolution in the 19th century was also used to interpret and develop concepts of social change. According to the evolutionary theory, the process of social change was natural and constant and over time. This explained that all societies began as small and simple scales to increasingly large and “complex” scales. This change was considered necessary and was due to uniform causes. Social evolutionists made two important assumptions that argued all change represents progress and that all societies will eventually represent those of western societies in their cultural values, ideologies and institutions. This represented a very ethnocentric view of change and explained how the terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft was adopted. Ferdinand Tonnies adopted these terms to differentiate between pre-industrial (traditional and simple) societies and the new industrial (complex) societies. Gemeinschaft societies where ones in which social life was governed by personal, informal considerations, with traditions and customs prevailing while gesellschaft were those societies characterised by specialisation, individualism, rationality and impersonality. This theory goes some way to explain the rapid changes that have occurred following industrialisation and globalisation of the world economy. However, it also suggests that these developments are both inevitable and desirable since it links the process of modernisation in a positive way with western notions of “progress” and “individual liberation”.

Conflict Theory

Social conflict theorists argue that social change arises as a result of conflict amongst different power groups. According to these theorists conflict is a common feature of all societies even though social order (continuity) demands the control of some individuals by others. It is based on the idea that social changes comes about because of inequalities within society. These inequalities cause conflicts between the dominant group who maintain values and norms through their economic and social power, which ensures they retain prestige and wealth, and those in society who have no real access to power. The main originator to the is theory is Karl Marx, who saw society progressing towards socialism because of the conflict between those who owned the means of production and those whose labour provided production.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A SELECTED COUNTRY

 Nature of traditional society and culture in that country

Throughout Chinese history, traditions have played an important role in the influences of chinese culture and political power. These traditions have brought about continuities and changes in one of the world’s oldest civilisations. There are three key features of chinese history which has brought about these influences on present and future generations: the importance of agriculture, Confucian philosophy and the chinese belief in the superiority of chinese culture.

The teachings of Confucianism in the chinese history engraved many of the values and beliefs of the chinese people. It stressed the belied in an ordered society of supriors and subordinates, respect for elders and filial piety of father-son relationships. This led to great influence on gender and family roles I n chinese culture. Traditionally, the extended family had been an important determinant factor, not only in marital and identity, but also in political and economic affairs. Family connection was often a main reason for success in office position and commercial life. The family values were patriarchal and patrlineal, where males were seen as superior to females.

 Nature of power and authority in that country

Power refers to the ability to influence people to some point of view or action which the might normally have or do, authority refers to people and groups given the right to determine, adjudicate and settle issues in society.

Confucius regarded government as an extended family. He blamed the strife and conflict of the age in which he lived on the breakdown of authority. He recommended the give relationship be based on mutual obligations; love and protection on the part of superiors and loyalty and obedience on the part of the inferiors.

Historically chine was dominant in east asia for two thousand years both culturally and politically. It regarded itself as the middle or centra kingdom whose duty it was to rule under heaven.

The cultural revolution illustrates some examples of power and authority in chine. Instigated by mao as a means of strengthening china’s socialist revolution and protecting it from capitalist within the party. Schools and unis were closed, students compelled to join the red guards and urban youth sent to work in the countryside. The cultural revolution was based on an ideological power struggle between mao and his supporters and the righest party leads. The nature of this power struggle can perhabe be best explained. This according to dahrendorf’s theory the cultural revolution can be viewed as the product of mao zedong’s ideological conflict with the right and the quest to exercise absolute control over the population thus eliminating those forces wo had the potential to undermine their power. This was ideological rather than economic conflict.

Tianamen Square Massacre 1989, students protests for democracy, human rights., against corruption. Red army/red guard brought in hundreds killed, missing. There is little doubt that many of those who participated in the tainamen square protests were agitating for increased personal freedom of expression and movement. However, I would seem naïve to suggest the the pro-democracy voice was not also based to some extent on the desire for increased access to the economic benefits seen to be derived from a capitalist economy.

Theory of social change appropriate to the selected country

Evolutionary theory attempts to explain the rapid social changes which have occurred in western society and now appear to be spreading throughout the globe, in terms of a general evolutionary movement. According to eh evolutionary theory societies develop from “tradition” to “modern” involving increasing complexity. In contemporary China there is evidence of the emergence of some of these features and it has been suggested that china is in a transitional stage in the evolutionary process. The emergence of western style social institutions is evident in developments such as the trend towards urban nuclear families as individuals realise the economic benefits to be derived from smaller household units. The growth of towns and demographic shifts from rural areas conform to patters of modernisation experience in western modernised nations. The establishment of special economic zones such as Beijing and shanghai have also facilitated this demographic change. There is currently 10 million unemployed floating population within these two cities. Increasing population in the areas of “coastal capitalism” has made new bureaucratic structure cope with the demands of increasingly complex social organisation. This growing bureaucratisation of urban china could also be interpreted as conforming to the characteristics of changing social institution as identified in evolutionary theory.