Social Change and what we see?

Social Change and what we see?

Social Change

 

  • The alternation mechanism within the social structure, characterized by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behavior, social organizations or value systems. In some areas it indicates the changes that takes place in human.
  • Wikipedia states that …. Alteration in the social order of a society, social change may include changes in nature – social institutions, social behaviors or social relations.
  • Social change is the alteration or modification that takes place in a social structure or function of a society. It is the change in both material and non-material culture.

Social change could be Complete / Partial/ revolutionary or evolutionary 

No change is permanent, it is subject to change and is observed as an activity, may be painful but needful and the change is the law of nature. Even society is not at all a static phenomenon; it is ongoing process and very well changing, growing, decaying, renewing and going on. 

Characteristics –it is not simple but complex, difficult to understand, unsolved problems pressurized for an answer. 

Few of the examples of social change?

Industrial revolution – the abolition of slavery - How do we call the telecom revolution and all of us walking without mobile (just imagine???) we were like that before 1994, and if x y z not communicated the panic button of calls to all!!! Hmmm real change 

Abolition of Slavery – I don’t know how you call the people working in shift and different time to meet Customer demands at BPO a revolution and change – I see people asking for it what the hell is this? But it is           

Civil right movement – RTI every one asking for everything and today politics mostly run with this only to pull one after other – we know due to Lokpal our Delhi CM has come to power and call it civil right movement. 

Women movement – this continue to be a mess around – currently every one used their liberation as benefit to earn and run the home – by way of giving right she becomes the bread winner in most cases!! She is actually suffering in managing 24x7x365 as well as share the earning portion of it… MCP act continue to happen what you call as right!! Yes definitely there is some value but we are also facing female feticide resulting in Male – Female Average is coming down! We could really see the imbalance and impact soon. 

The Factors of Social Change - Could be changes in social order, physical environment (we could literally see the number of operation in Urban vs. Rural and people moving) Population changes (attracted to the life style of urban – population moves – leaves their own and knowledgeable family job. Attitudes and values – we could see changing and the jointly family to nuclear family – economic value changes (not to state and currently the society is divided between IT guys and others!!! Do we agree) - Modernization – alteration of social order with societies. 

Social Mobility

The movement of people from one status to another in the social hierarchy – the shifting of social status is the mobility – there are movement of either a group/community (Ex Yadav’s – Reddy’s) getting a high position in our Society by their community…. is vertically grown and other side of change happens from one group to another…. Example is NRI (this doesn’t bother about other sections in the group). 

Young people and Social Change (Andy Furlong – Fed Cartmel in their book) 

  • There is little doubt in our mind that radical social changes have occurred, yet we are extremely skeptical of the validity of post modernist theories and suspicious of a tendency among fellow social scientist to exaggerate change 
  • We accept that the young people change quite radically over the last three decades, have led to heightened sense of risk and a greater individualization of experiences among young people. 
  • Young people today are growing up in different circumstances to those experienced by previous generations; changes which are significant enough to merit a reconceptualization of youth transition and processes of social reproduction. 
  • The traditional links between the family, school and work seem to have weakened when they embark on journeys into adulthood which involve a wide variety of routes many are uncertain…
  • Class, gender and neighborhood relations once shaped earlier subject understandings of the social world – today everything is presented as a possibility. 

Social Changes in India        

  • Happening since independence however the aggressive step is initiated when we open up our business and market in India…. Thanks to erstwhile PM Narasimha Rao and FM Manmohan – the Market opens and the potential is realized slowly but in steady manner and going on
  • Population increasing and lot of political activities is happening around the caste, community, religion for their own and personal benefits – take advantage of the Democracy weakness people become leader overnight by organizing protest, agitations and goes on.
  • Some good happenings are few caste and communities raised as strong one in political circle while the depressed society continues to be there as always. This may be desirable or otherwise but brought in wide spread changes in society. While Government is pushing this for political reasons the educated and young potential started moving out of this Country. Today we realize and comment that all IIT goes out – Yes scope has never been given for them to work without any barriers – every level the scale and grid brought to bring up the caste system.
  • Modernization, industrialization and scope to explore provide direction to social change. The legislation, education, economic factors, mass media played great role in this scope of change.

 We as a Country highly diversified with religion, language, region, culture and caste…. This is ruled with lot of sentiment and intolerance.

Our Country Partition happened with religious reasons and the forces continue to play the card of communalism and play the negative social force in India.   This creates the political entity and they claim rights (Good) but separation (for Power) and wish a split and rule and ruin the future. We see Europe how they suffer the small countries made out due to their own reasons. 

Caste system is a big challenge in India, the cast consideration plays big role and is created for selfish political reasons by few leaders. This is followed by Communal riots etc. happening across religious reasons – anytime such anti – elements could disturb communal harmony in India. 

The Language is another challenge – anti Hindi agitations, English agitations are very common in India. These unwanted barriers create challenges & various inequalities, reservation of seats, posts etc. This has result in exploitation of the potential top contender take other options. 

Models of Social Change 

Sociologists examine historical data to better understand current changes and movements and also rely on three basic theories of social change 

a) Evolutionary Theory Society moves in specific directions, progressing  - To higher and higher levels. – The cultural attitudes and behaviors were more advanced than those of earlier societies.

 b) Functionalist theory believes that society in its natural state as being Stable and balanced, society naturally moves toward a state of homeostasis. Critics argues that functionalists minimize the effects of change because all  Aspects of society contribute in some way to society’s overall health. 

c) Conflict theory because society’s wealthy and powerful ensure the Status quo in which social practices and institutions favorable to them Continue, change plays a vital role in remedying social inequalities and Injustice. 

Karl Marx accepted evolutionary theory and noted that history proceeds in stages in which the rich always exploit the poor and week as a class of people. Slaves in ancient Rome and the working classes of today share the same basic exploitation.   Marx view of social change is proactive; it doesn’t rely on people remaining passive in response to exploitation or other problems in material culture. 

Role of Education in Social Change

Education can initiate social changes by brining about a change in outlook and attitude of man, social relationships and thereby it may cause social changes. 

Education is a tool to empower the individual; learning results in student seeing their transformation.   Education is oriented to promoting values of an urban, competitive consumer society.   The social background of those who are sought to be changed “Students” now educational institutions under the control of different cultural groups reflect the values of those groups which support and control education. 

Women Education, laid emphasis on education for attaining women’s equality, which will foster the development of new values. Education is directly related to the development of individual and the community. To the weaker sections of the society, education has a special significance. 

Continue to be challenge in the medium of instructions; English is pushed strongly by western that could lead to learning their practices and cultural ethics. These groups could influence western culture and social change from the existing practices.

Reading the local news – understand the bonded labor for agriculture is moving from one Area UP to Madhura in 20 “ container – these people are kept in container without any water, light or even sufficient air…. They were sold as bonded labors to take care of Harvest Rice and support the Jamindar’s. India continue to have such practices – Important that the mandatory education and ban child labor could help… but take care of these citizen by way of basic needs.  

There is a say “teach tem to find and drink water then provide water” teach them to swim then save them every time” This is a normal proverb moving here. There is a big provision of CSR for Corporate and Wish the Corporate uses the fund to provide education to all and teach them to learn, survive and overcome challenges…. Yes we may start with technical labor but it is a question of time we overcome and come out of the hurdle and we could see a lot in our middle age millionaires. Let us contribute towards change and provide education – you can also refer to our focus on education to www.rockfundindia.org and it is 14 years old.

Social Media and Its impact in Social Change (Thanks for memeburn Tech Savvy insight) 

Arab Spring – the WikiLeaks publications of diplomatic cables, knowledge of government corruption, human right violations come to the fore. Arab citizens revolted and using social media instead of war room. Four rulers forced from power, two new countries formed.

WikiLeaks – Julian Assange a whistle blower (still on run) use the internet and social media publicize sensitive and secret government material on corruption, human rights violations and underhand dealings of governments. Resulting in secrecy bills and creates lot of changes around the world 

Japan 2011 Tsunami – Social media came to the forefront with a combination of Internet savvy and simple humanitarianism – For Victims – Families the instant access of information – FB, Twitter proved an invaluable tool for those involved in relief efforts, posting reports, alerts, schedules, emergency numbers, shelters…. You tube too added more value to see the actual and extend support. 

Tunisia’s Virtual Voices - Dictatorial Rule of President – citizen had no voice – social platforms blocked – monitored (like Current China of-course most of the countries) – any comments are treated badly - this creates Tunisians found any way possible to remain on line, raising awareness and activisms among them and give venue to political issues and push freedom of speech

 Twestival (Twitter Festival) - Organized globally using the power of social media offline events – mobilizing local communities in support of a local cause. In US $ 1.75 M has been raised for various community issues. Local events are coordinated by volunteers, all funds raised directly support these individual causes.

 Vigilante Hackers - Hackers mostly not associated with good intent, no superior group or leaders, work very randomly – Child Pornography. Oct 2011 Anonymous started attacking child pornography websites shutting down more than 40 sites and published 1569 pedophiles on line. This hacker groups take an undercover route in the deep dark spaces of the darknet to implement moral and social change

2011 London Riots- BBM used for looting – how social network can have a negative influence. And at the same system used by Police to counteraction. 

2010 Haiti Earthquake - Ushahidi an open source social media platform used for crisis map creation, during earthquake disaster, the largest worldwide crisis manage map. Social media platform like Skype and twitter contributed to the information needed, relaying information of food, aid, shelters, closures, cellphone-recharging stations etc. 

Occupy Wall Street - 17 Sep 2011 protestors marched down to lower Manhattan Zuccotti Park – sparkling numerous other protests across US, didn’t receive much media attention (THIS IS HOW THEY SLOW DOWN THE PROCESS for Good Country COMPARE TO NOISE BEING MADE BY INDIAN MEDIA) the three weeks that wall street was occupied dissent of people 

Save the Rhino- Un-noticed Poaching of Rhino for many years, FB and Twitter played crucial role and garner massive support against poaching. Updates and statistics on daily basis, several causes linked together. 

In India we are at the beginning and growing very fast – but unfortunately it is being used for lot of wrong doings and few good things too… the Commerce used these media for better tomorrow for themselves and some uses positively and many are miss-guided and we will go through the phases and come out of it sooner. 

Today more than half of the world population lives in urban areas, and at the present rate, 70% o people will live in the citifies by 2050. What are the ramifications that happen when we move away from regular contact with nature? Study researcher Gregory Bratman, an environmental psychologist at Stanford University, said in an interview with Business Insider. 

Despite the benefits of city life, urban populations tend to have higher rates of mental illness, especially anxiety and depression. Several other studies have also suggested that there’s just something about being in nature that can give our moods a boost. But it hasn’t been clear exactly what’s going on in our brains when we’re exposed to natural environments, 

One possibility is that nature decreases “rumination” or Patterns of negative thoughts that swirl in our heads and seem to take over. Increased rumination has been linked to a higher risk for depression and other mental illness. 

One Child Policy and Impact - (Reference Indian Journal of Medical Ethics) 

China in 1979 recognizing the population control to raise living standard – One Child Family policy was introduced. The fertility rate decreased from 2.9 in 1979 to 1.7 in 2004 – mostly in urban areas.  The sex ratio has comes to challenges as the urban families have preference compare to Rural as they have choice to go for second child after sufficient gaps. Female infanticide resulted in a high sex ratio in China and a traditional male preference also shows impact on ratios.   The Ultrasonography provides easy access to evaluate the choices, change in attitudes towards offspring. 

Rate of Old age Dependency

Decrease in birth rate combined with improving life expectancy, led to increasing proportion of elderly people and increase in the ratio between elderly parents and adult children. There is no old age pensions and estimate of > 70% parents are financially depended on their offspring, meaning that a couple (two) is responsible for the care of one child and four parents. 

Chinese government is aware of the need to balance and relaxation of the massive socioeconomic change of the last 25 years. The increasing number of elderly people, risk associated with medical care, and relaxed the one child policy now. 

Impact in India - Traditional male preference in North India is 1: 20, impact increased in the sex ratio – currently while we are reading this most of the Guys are coming to South Especially from Kerala marrying the girl and moving to north… such condition need not continue and respect for Female Child require to come on its own. 

Country realize the importance of population control and the essential to increasing the per capita GDP, This country strong cultural preference for sons, declining sex ratios and use of sex selective abortions. In China and India the gender preference seems to be exercised not only through sex –selective abortions, but also through maltreatments and/or neglect of female infants. Appreciated the efforts of NGO successfully lobbied the government of India to enact law to ban this test.   However continued decline in the number of female births of north India indicates that the law is not very effective.   Creating the law and arresting people is not going to change to improve society needs to reduce the dependence of parents on sons and enhance social economic values of daughters. 

Enhance the economic and social value of women will need innovative programs, improved education, greater accessibility to better paying jobs and greater share in parental property will all add to the enhanced status of women, in addition social practices will also need to change. In many parts of Country parents consider it inappropriate to even have a meal at the married daughter’s house in their old age? 

Recently China has announced preferential policies for girls and women in healthcare, education and employment – are we next to these steps? India two child policy has been in force but never it could be a law as our country has too many cultural barriers, challenges – But Urban family follows one child policy for their comfort, social status, managing the family, etc. 

India’s One-Child Families (Ref - Alaka M Basu- Cornell Uni- Middle Class Dreams) 

Rapid fertility decline in India – small segment of Urban Middle class family stopping at one Child, also provides a window into the role of demographic behavior in shaping the future of social inequality in a society undergoing rapid transition. This shows the transition of first in developing countries followed by industrialized countries. One Child is a real phenomenon and that it reflects a conscious and deliberate choice. Whether it could be constraints of natural fertility through delayed marriage, or marriage patters like the practice of inbreeding. 

Motivation for a One-Child Family

Very low fertility as a response to constraints on childbearing. As a response to new opportunities (upwardly mobile families) desire to invest in children and distinct from the classic neo-classical economic approaches to the trade off between child quality and quantity and achieve social mobility for parents. This has impact a in distinct feature from the growth of middle class in Europe or US.

  • Indian middle class constraint by limited employment opportunities, high skill jobs, here the opportunities haven’t kept pace with the educational growth.  
  • Second phenomenon of poor quality of education with wide range of educational institutions and the parents seek alternatives to government schools and the private tutoring cost increased.
  • The data from the Indian Human Development survey of 2004-5 (IHDS) shows that Families that have a single child and appear to have stopped having more children in 5% compare to two children 18% and three or more 53%.
  • This has increased to 8% over last few years

Characteristics of One-Child Families

They are mostly concentrated among the more privileged sections of Indian Society, Urban, and upper caste/class. Highest level of one child family exists in the Southern and Eastern parts of the Country. 

  • Constraints of Childbearing – incompatibility between women’s employment and fertility – rising consumption aspiration & family size and desire for personal fulfillment. 
  • Route to Social Mobility – Invest in children and obtain family social mobility, educational investments – (education spend 40% higher now) most of the children study in private school of one child families 
  • Life style of small families helps in building strategies in investments in children education is highly significant. 
  • Rather than placing a greater value on parental desires and freedoms, seems to focus even more on investing in this single child, raising of highly qualified children, who are better groomed to thrive in this qualitatively new economic environment.
  • This middle class created by the economic reform of the last quarter century need to reformulate their strategies for successful entry into and mobility within the new economy 

 No Siblings – A side effect (Celia Halton-BBC News) - Grow up in a world where no one has brothers or sisters? Are they really important? China changed from 1979, Children growing up under the policy without aware of it. There are forced relations with their cousins but in reality their lives have been affected by growing up without siblings. It is difficult to use the word Bro or Sis to Cousins, and they find that they never encountered genetic siblings. 

New singletons were more educated than generations before them, relentless attention from parents, grand parents (4 of them) that altered the course of their life. Too much focus never allows them to do things interested to them. Couldn’t decide anything of own and a lot depends on parents, grand parents, it is too much. 

Couple of research and studies happened in China and few details are

  • Single children grown up without close ties to many
  • Very few long term friends
  • Grow up self centered
  • More pessimistic and less conscientious 

Delayed Marriage- It was a trend in 1990 in US now 21st Century a practice across globe.   Whatever it may be it impact the couples.   Currently the delayed marriage may be more union timings then marriage timings. Marriage timings and marital stability follows a) Maturity (including qualities of patience, experience, calmness under stress, willingness to co-operate) comes when live more years of their adult before marrying b) men who marry later tend to do a more significant share of housework c) highly educated individuals marry late and tend to have low rates of marital dissolution d) more time to locate highly compatible marriage partner 

  • Mostly reported that the delaying marriage significantly increases married women’s wages, it is very difficult to identify the direction of the causal links. 
  • Delayed marriage may have an impact s) physical appearance (age impact) b) severely depleted marriage market
  • In summary, delayed marriage appears to be associated with marital stability and better marital quality.

Social Change and the Feminism (ref Angela Mccrobbie – Book) - Feminist activism starts from 1970 and steered better in 1980, the vocabulary like “Empowerment” and “Choice” much more individualistic and media popular. Feminism brought forward and instrumentalised by Western governments, this is what freedom means. The young women are offered a notional form of equality, concretized in education and employment and through participation in consumer culture and civil society, in place of what a reinvented feminist politics. 

In another way se this – women constitute half of the world’s population and their sub-ordination and experience of inequality, though changed, remains unequivocal and substantial. Self declared feminists have always been small in number; this small force for change nevertheless has had enormous potential to influence. 

What about these feminists in area of pro-censorship and anti-pornography campaigning - it is simply noticeable that they are only in page 3 celebrities and project for their personal mileage. Wide spread participation in sex entertainment by women means for the now out-of-date feminist perspectives on pornography and their entertainment in contemporary feminist media and studies.   Women being increasingly invited, by the forces of consumer culture, catwalk for capitalist (highly paid super models) for self-consciously sexist ad.

Female Success – Feminist values are indeed taken on board within a range of institutions, including law, education, to an extend medicine, likewise employment and the media, high profile or newsworthy achievements of women and girls in these sectors shows the institutions to be modern and abreast with social change.   It is very important that we people require enhancing to scope of women studies to the next level. 

Young women never condemn the enormous growth of clubs, journals creates women to flash …… in public, here the female individualization steps in, as freedom of choice or many cases survival. 

Why Culture Matters? 

Link between Values and Progress

  • Universality of values and western cultural imperialism
  • Geography and culture
  • Relationship between culture and institutions
  • Cultural change 
  • Culture is difficult to deal with both politically and emotionally. It is also difficult to deal intellectually and the variables like policies, institutions and economic development. 
  • Culture and economic performance are linked; change in one will work back on the other. 

Social change and culture of online shopping - Another great change is happening in this era is big players Amazon, Flipkart and name a few working in area of online shopping in very competitive pricing with door delivery – it is likely to change the culture and practice of Indian youth and they are influencing the same across their elders, living in North of India order required items for delivery in South and it is so convenient. Come and watch what it could be an impact in display, window-shopping and trial etc.   

This is another impact in various trade – are we ready to go? Globalization likely to happen in very easy way as the social sites are quite popular and most of the apps are being generated here, practiced easily, adopted and jumped to do, right freedom, liberalizing trade, new government and the top man is Social  

Submission

  • Large scale social changes accompanying industrial development is on its way in India, there is likely to be definitive power struggles, political conflicts, young generations identity claims, desire for quality life.   All expectations justified with western influence and feasibility of sustenance. 
  • The divided legacy of various barriers by way of sect classification may move off for better India. The national economic growth and increasing income level became the measure of development, the market will be opened up for consumers and others come here to utilize the capability market. 

Poverty continue to accompanies this growth, top 40-50% income and raise their level but only 10% may be wealthiest – the balance manages, struggle, some kind of society survives. 

Bala A Kumar

Bala@kumarbangalore.com

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