Understanding Social Change

"Ways of Social Change is very readable and has great discussion questions and suggested activities. It is one of the few books where I have had students volunteer praise for the book!" - Connie Robinson, Central Washington University The world is at our fingertips, but understanding what is going on has never been more daunting. Ways of Social Change is a primer for making sense of both rapidly moving events and the cultural and structural forces on which social life is built, while teaching critical thinking skills needed to understand social change. With an approach that is fresh, timely, challenging, and engaging, Ways of Social Change shows students how social change is both a lived experience and the result of our actions in the world. It invites the reader into the realm of social science, where clarification, understanding, and inquiry provide for both informed opinions and a path to effective involvement. The core of the book focuses on five forces that powerfully influence the direction, scope and speed of social change: science and technology, social movements, war and revolution, large corporations, and the state. A concluding chapter encourages students to examine their own perspectives and offers ways to engage in social change, now and in their lifetime.

This book assesses how theorists explained processes of change set in motion by the rise of capitalism. It situates them in the milieu in which they wrote. They were never neutral observers standing outside the conditions they were trying to explain. Their arguments were responses to those circumstances and to the views of others commentators, living and dead. Some repeated earlier views; others built on those perspectives; a few changed the way we think. While surveying earlier writers, the author’s primary concerns are theorists who sought to explain industrialization, imperialism, and the consolidation of nation-states after 1840. Marx, Durkheim, and Weber still shape our understandings of the past, present, and future. Patterson focuses on explanations of the unsettled conditions that crystallized in the 1910s and still persist: the rise of socialist states, anti-colonial movements, prolonged economic crises, and almost continuous war. After 1945, theorists in capitalist countries, influenced by Cold War politics, saw social change in terms of economic growth, progress, and modernization; their contemporaries elsewhere wrote about underdevelopment, dependency, or uneven development. In the 1980s, theorists of postmodernity, neoliberalism, globalization, innovations in communications technologies, and post-socialism argued that they rendered earlier accounts insufficient. Others saw them as manifestations of a new imperialism, capitalist accumulation on a global scale, environmental crises, and nationalist populism.

These essays not only describe the major changes in British society in recent years, but seek to understand and explain what is happening. While there have been rapid changes in overall levels, there have been slower changes in relativities, and this distinction is fundamental to a proper understanding of contemporary society. The book considers the wide variety of mechanisms that underlie these changes, in particular processes of social interaction. The complex and often ill-understood nature of these mechanisms may be a major reason why so much social reform has proved ineffective. The verdict on social reforms in education, gender inequalities and ethnic inequalities is rather negative; sociologists have been concerned about the unintended consequences of social action.

The essential guide to the theory and application of the Social Change Model Leadership for a Better World provides an approachable introduction to the Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM), giving students a real-world context through which to explore the seven C's of leadership for social change as well as a approaches to socially responsible leadership. From individual, group, and community values through the mechanisms of societal change itself, this book provides fundamental coverage of this increasingly vital topic. Action items, reflection, and discussion questions throughout encourage students to think about how these concepts apply in their own lives. The Facilitator's Guide includes a wealth of activities, assignments, discussions, and supplementary resources to enrich the learning experience whether in class or in the co-curriculum. This new second edition includes student self-assessment rubrics for each element of the model and new discussion on the critical roles of leadership self-efficacy, social perspective, and social justice perspectives. Content is enriched with research on how this approach to leadership is developed, and two new chapters situate the model in a broader understanding of leadership and in applications of the model. The Social Change Model is the most widely-used leadership model for college students, and has shaped college leadership curricula at schools throughout the U.S. and other countries including a translation in Chinese and Japanese. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the model, with a practical, relevant approach to real-world issues. Explore the many facets of social change and leadership Navigate group dynamics surrounding controversy, collaboration, and purpose Discover the meaning of citizenship and your commitment to the greater good Become an agent of change through one of the many routes to a common goal The SCM is backed by 15 years of research, and continues to be informed by ongoing investigation into the interventions and environments that create positive leadership development outcomes. Leadership for a Better World provides a thorough, well-rounded tour of the Social Change Model, with guidance on application to real-world issues. Please note that The Social Change Model: Facilitating Leadership Development (978-1-119-24243-7) is intended to be used as a Facilitator's Guide to Leadership for a Better World, 2nd Edition in seminars, workshops, and college classrooms. You'll find that, while each book can be used on its own, the content in both is also designed for use together. A link to the home page of The Social Change Model can be found below under Related Titles.

Understanding Social Change - Political Psychology in Poland

This book re-establishes the relevance of mainstream anthropological (and sociological) approaches to development processes and simultaneously recognizes that contemporary development ought to be anthropology‘s principal area of study. Professor de Sardan argues for a socio-anthropology of change and development that is a deeply empirical, multidimensional, diachronic study of social groups and their interactions. The Introduction provides a thought-provoking examination of the principal new approaches that have emerged in the discipline during the 1990s. Part I then makes clear the complexity of social change and development, and the ways in which socio-anthropology can measure up to the challenge of this complexity. Part II looks more closely at some of the leading variables involved in the development process, including relations of production; the logics of social action; the nature of knowledge; forms of mediation; and ‘political‘ strategies.

This publication deals with societies and their constituent parts.