Causes Of Social Change

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In order to understand contemporary social change at all, you must first understand what causes social change and what the consequences could be of social change in a society. Most of the time we do not experience social change happening in real time, with the exception of a traumatic event or a life changing social movement. It is more likely however that we only realize social change once we step back and realize how different our society is now from what it used to be. I personally believe that in order to understand social change you must also understand social movements. Social movements create faster, more apparent changes to society, even if they are not successful in reaching their ending goal. Once someone can understand the causes …show more content…

This change is even seen in completely isolated civilizations because sustainable human habitation alters the environment, once the environment around the civilization has changed, it forces the society to find new ways of doing certain things. There can also be change when there is a shift in the population, if there is a rise or drop in the birth or death rates of a society, there may have to be changes made in the distribution of food and resources as well as the size and availability of the job market. One of the largest general ideas of social change is the evolutionary theory. When the evolutionary theory was first proposed, it stated, "the social system (society) is made up of parts that must fit together in order to work effectively. Change in one component necessitates change in the others"(Massey, 86). Throughout time the theory itself has changed and become more advanced, but these early understandings can still be used to understand contemporary social change as well as past social change. In the same aspect of society, humans are constantly learning and creating, every year there is a new advance in technology and medication and because of this society is constantly adapting and evolving to work with these new innovations to further society. All these changes can be grouped into generations and help to …show more content…

Social movements have become part of everyday life in the twenty first century, they are seen as an effective, impactful, and relatively cheap way to express distaste or rally for change. Movements are a way for everyday citizens to make their issues and wants know by the higher levels of power. They are also an impressive way to show those in a place of authority along with the rest of the world how many supporters a cause has and how far they are willing to go to reach their goal. Social Movements are universal and used by every type of group, from students fighting the school 's sexist dress code to a religious group opposing the passing of a marriage equality bill. The new age of technology has connected the world and created an even stronger wave of movements by allowing people from anywhere to show their support through a common hashtag or signing an online petition. Over time movements have changed and adapted to how the society is functioning, currently for example, it is common for movements to have Facebook pages or twitter accounts allowing supporters to be kept up to date on events and progress. They also have been able to help create tags that people can use to share their personal beliefs and stories. For example, currently in America

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