Chapter 15

Social Change and the Environment

How Social Change Transforms Social Life

• Four Social Revolutions

• From Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft

• The Industrial Revolution and Capitalism– Max Weber traced capitalism to the

Protestant Reformation

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How Social Change Transforms Social Life

• Conflict, Power, and Global Politics– A Brief History of Geopolitics– G-7 Plus– Dividing up the World– Two Threats to Coalition– Africa Connections

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories and Processes of Social Change

• Evolution from Lower to Higher– Unilinear– Multilinear– Cultural Progress

• Natural Cycles

• Conflict Over Power

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Theories and Processes of Social Change

• Ogburn’s Theory– Invention– Discovery– Diffusion– Cultural Lag

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Marx’s Model of Historical Change

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How Technology Changes Society

• Technology is Tools & Skills

• All human groups make and use technology

• Change is rapid

• New technologies allow us to do what has never been done before

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Computers and Social Interaction

• Changes in Social Relationships

• Privacy and the Computer

• Computers in Education

• Computers in Business and Finance

• Computers in International Conflict

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Concerns About the Computer

• Big Brother and Privacy

• Cyberspace and Social Inequality– Access to Libraries of Information– World Linked by Almost Instantaneous

Communication– National and Global Stratification Represents

a Digital Divide

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Social Movements as a Source of Social Change

• Proactive social movement

• Reactive social movement

• Social movement organizations

• Types of Social Movements

• Propaganda and the Mass Media

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The Stages of Social Movements

• Initial unrest and agitation

• Resource mobilization

• Organization

• Institutionalization

• Decline and death

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The Growth Machine vs. The Earth

• The Globalization of Capitalism and the Race for Economic Growth

• A Sustainable Environment

• Environmental Problems in the Most Industrialized Nations– Toxic Wastes

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Worst Hazardous Waste Sites

The Growth Machine vs. The Earth

– Fossil Fuels and Global Warming• Acid Rain• Greenhouse Effect• Global Warming

– The Energy Shortage and Internal Combustion Engines

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Growth Machine vs. The Earth

– The Rain Forests

• The Environmental Movement

• Environmental Sociology– Technology and the Environment: The Goal of

Harmony

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