Examples of Social Change

In sociology, history and anthropology, we speak of social change to refer to appreciable modifications of the social structure of a community determined: alterations in the rules of conduct, the emergence and growth of social organizations, value systems and/or cultural symbols. Social change is a paradigm shift in the way societies are.

Social change is part of the evolution of societies, and can occur for many reasons and bring with it very varied consequences. The latter do not always have to do with the idea of ​​progress or improvement: social change can be due to the success of systems social or economic, to the emergence of new political regimes or even to events as traumatic as war and revolution; and they can manifest themselves in radical changes in the way of being of society, or else affect only its most superficial layers.

The study of social change took its first steps with the work of the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who distinguished theoretically between social dynamics, that is, the study of the continuous movement towards the progress and transformation of societies; and social statics, which studies the ordering mode and stability of societies. Both perspectives were necessary, according to Comte, to understand social change: some aspects of society are dynamic and changing (like fashion or language, for example), while others are static and balanced (like the political system or the

values transcendental).

On the other hand, there is the idea in the field of politics that social change can be led, managed and unleashed. This is a common idea among the sectors that yearn for a transformation of society in certain senses. Generally, in this context, the term "social change" is interpreted as an improvement, something positive, desirable.

examples of social change

Some examples of social change can be the following:

1. The Neolithic Revolution. One of the great social changes in human history occurred sometime in the Neolithic period (around 9,000 years ago), when human beings, hitherto nomadic or semi-nomadic hunting, fishing and gathering, domesticated the first species from plants and gave rise to farming. This allowed them to produce much more food more stable and with less effort, which put an end to the need to err and change habitat continually. Sedentary life began, and with it the hamlets that would soon be the first cities in history were born.
2. The fall of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century AD C., the largest and most powerful empire of antiquity collapsed, causing its dissolution into a set of lesser kingdoms. This prompted the transformation of European and Western society, which lost forever the Roman citizenship and began to think of herself in other terms: Franks, Germans, Hispanics, Gauls etc. In addition, this collapse marks the beginning of the transformation of Latin into new Romance languages ​​and made Christianity the only unifying element in Europe.
3. The industrial Revolution. This is the name given to the emergence of a new production model driven by early capitalism and sustained by the technology as an element to facilitate and enhance the production of goods and services, transforming the raw material in manufactured products. This new model was born in Great Britain in the 18th century and opted for machines to create a new world: that of mass production and the consumer society. From then on, manual labor and animal traction would give way to machines and automation, thanks in no small part to the invention of the steam engine in 1769. New social classes were born then: the proletariat or working class and the bourgeoisie that owns the means of production.
4. The October Revolution. In November 1917, Tsarist Russia fell to the Bolsheviks, who built the first communist nation project of history: Soviet Russia, prelude to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In this new country model, not only was the monarchy and aristocracy annihilated, but new measures were enacted that transformed the economy and Russian society forever: 8-hour working days, the declaration of the fundamental rights of peoples of Russia, the end of religious education and the abandonment of the Julian calendar in favor of the Gregorian, among many others.

References:

• "Social change" in Wikipedia.
• "Social change - sociology" (video) at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of Rio Cuarto (Argentina).
• "Social change" in Tech Institute.
• “Social change (sociology)”in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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