Page 503 - Essencials of Sociology

476 CHAPTER 15 Social Change and the Environment

would give them a sign that they were predestined to
TABLE 15.1 Comparing Traditional and
heaven. That sign, they decided, was prosperity. An
Industrialized (and Information) Societies unexpected consequence of the Reformation, then,
was to make Protestants hard-working and thrifty. This
Industrialized created an economic surplus, which stimulated capital-
Traditional (and Information) ism. In this way, Protestantism laid the groundwork for
Characteristics Societies Societies the Industrial Revolution that transformed the world.
The sweeping changes ushered in by the Industrial
General Characteristics
Social change Slow Rapid Revolution, called modernization, are summarized in
Size of group Small Large Table 15.1. The traits listed in this table are ideal types
Religious orientation More Less in Weber’s sense of the term, since no society exempli-
Education Informal Formal fies all of them to the maximum degree. Actually, our
Place of residence Rural Urban new technology has created a remarkable unevenness in
Family size Larger Smaller the characteristics of nations, making them a mixture of
Infant mortality High Low the traits shown in this table. For example, Uganda is
Life expectancy Short Long a traditional society, but the elite have smaller families,
Health care Home Hospital emphasize formal education, and use computers. The
Temporal orientation Past Future characteristics shown in Table 15.1 should be inter-
Demographic transition First stage Third stage preted as “more” or “less,” not “either-or.”
(or Fourth)
When technology changes, societies change. Consider
Material Relations how technology from the industrialized world trans-
Industrialized No Yes forms traditional societies. When the West exports med-
Technology Simple Complex icine to the Least Industrialized Nations, for example,
Division of labor Simple Complex
Income Low High death rates drop while birth rates remain high. As a
Material possessions Few Many result, the population explodes, bringing hunger and
uprooting masses of people who migrate to cities that
Social Relationships have little industrialization to support them. The photo
Basic organization Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft essay on pages 456–457 and the Cultural Diversity box
Families Extended Nuclear
Respect for elders More Less on page 465 focus on some of these problems.
Social stratification Rigid More open
Statuses More ascribed More achieved Social Movements
Gender equality Less More Social movements often reveal the cutting edge of social
change. Upset by some aspect of society, people band
Norms
View of morals Absolute Relativistic together to express their feelings, even their outrage.
Social control Informal Formal They organize to demand change, or to resist some
Tolerance of differences Less More change they don’t like. Because social movements form
around issues that bother large numbers of people, they
Source: By the author.
indicate areas of society in which there is great pressure
for change. With globalization, these issues increasingly
cut across international boundaries, showing areas of discontent and sweeping change
that affect many millions of people in different cultures. Although the issues can simmer
for generations, a social movement can explode onto the scene, spread quickly, and, gen-
erating huge enthusiasm, topple governments. Such was the case with the Arab uprisings
across North Africa in 2011.

Conflict, Power, and Global Politics
In our fast-paced world, we pay most attention to changes that directly affect our own
lives or that make the headlines. But largely out of sight lies one of the most significant
changes of all, the shifting arrangements of power among nations. Let’s look at some of
these changes.
A Brief History of Geopolitics. By the sixteenth century, global divisions of power
had begun to emerge. Nations with the most advanced technology (at that time, the
modernization the transformation swiftest ships and the most powerful cannons) became wealthy through colonialism,
of traditional societies into industrial conquering other nations and taking control of their resources. With the beginning of
societies
the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, those nations that industrialized