1.6

• Social change


  The transformation of culture, behavior, social institutions, and social structure over time
• Sources of social change

  • Modernization
  • Population growth and composition
  • Culture and technology
  • Natural environment
  • Social institutions
  • Social movements
• Modernization


  The process of increased differentiation and specialization within a society, particularly around its industry and infrastructure
• Urbanization


  The rise and growth of cities
• Urban residents tend to be more tolerant than rural residents of nontraditional attitudes, behaviors, cultures, and lifestyles
• Immigrants from more traditional societies who move into urban settings also experience modernization and urbanization which in turn has a ripple effect on family dynamics and one's home country
• Population growth factors


  • Fertility
  • Mortality
  • Net migration
• The U.S. population is projected to exceed 400 million before 2050

  
• Millennials outnumbered Baby Boomers in 2019
• Millennials are more educated, more racially and ethnically diverse, slower to marry than previous generations were at the same age, and are putting off childbirth
• The immigrant share of the U.S. population is nearing an all-time high percentage of the U.S. population, at 13.6% in 2017
• The numbers of undocumented immigrants have been decreasing over the past decade
• The U.S. is projected to become more racially and ethnically diverse in the coming years, thus a majority people of color nation, or a plurality nation
• Among those under 18, the U.S. is already a majority people of color country
• Globalization


  The creation of the world-spanning free market and global reach of capitalist systems resulting from technological advances
• Globalization has the unintended consequences of connecting every person in the world to each other
• People are developing multiple identities apparent in their local and global linkages
• Cultural identity is becoming increasingly contextual in the postmodern world where people transform and adapt depending on time and place
• Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults are online connecting with others, working, studying, or learning
• The increasing use of the Internet makes virtual worlds and cybersocial interactions powerful in constructing new social realities
• Amateurs are now cultural creators and have the ability to control dissemination of their creations
• Technology can create positive change leading to advances in medical technology, agricultural technology, or educational technology
• Drawbacks of technology include the increasing gap between the technological haves and have-nots, loss of privacy, risk of total system failure, and added vulnerability created by technological dependence
• Climate change is the term now used to refer to long-term shifts in temperatures due to human activity and the release of greenhouse gases into the environment
• One effect of climate change is more extreme weather, such as major hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters
• Natural disasters and environmental racism/injustice have a more dramatic impact on communities of color and poor populations
• Social institutions


  Family, education, politics, economics, religion, mass media, health care, and the criminal justice system
• Changes in a single social institution lead to changes in all social institutions
• The industrialization of society led to a shrinking of average family size and men being separated from their families for longer time periods
• The cradle-to-prison pipeline has most severely impacted African American families due to mass incarceration and the rise of the illicit drug market
• Being raised in a low-income, single-parent family has a high potential to impact quality family time and educational outcomes
• Web of institutional racism


  The interrelated impact of substandard housing, poor schooling opportunities, lack of job opportunities, and inadequate health care
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests, and authorized federal supervision of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such tests were being used
• Social movement


  An organized effort by a large number of people to bring about or impede social change
• Social movements often work outside the system by engaging in various kinds of protest, including demonstrations, picket lines, sit-ins, and sometimes outright violence
• Social movements can have profound changes throughout U.S. history, such as the abolitionist movement, women's suffrage movement, Civil Rights Movement, and more recent movements like immigration rights, Occupy Movement, #metoo, and Black Lives Matter
• People who take part in social movements during their formative years are often transformed by their participation, with their political views changing or being reinforced, and they are more likely to continue to be involved in political activity and to enter social change occupations
• Reform movements


  Seek to change something specific about the social structure, including political, economic, or social elements
• Social movements


  May have biographical consequences - people who take part in social movements during their formative years are often transformed by their participation, with their political views changing or being reinforced, and they are more likely to continue to be involved in political activity and to enter social change occupations
• Types of social movements

  • Reform movements - seek to change something specific about the social structure
  • Revolutionary movements - seek to overthrow the existing government and bring about a new one and even a new way of life
  • Reactionary movements - seek to prevent or undo change to the social structure