SOCIAL CHANGE

Sociologists are uniquely trained for understanding and dealing with social change

Why?
  1. All projects involve social change
    1. Create social change
    2. Evaluate social change (program)
    3. Suggest social change
    4. Others:
      1. Hired to predict social change
      2. Hired to help an organization plan for expected changes

 

Examples: Changes in demography in southeastern NC

Who does this affect?

What organization might hire you?

What might you suggest?

 

How does change come about?
  1. Individuals or small groups begin new behavior

    2.  

  2. Others see it, follow suit

    3.  

  3. Becomes expectation, part of the values a society holds

    4.  

  4. Examples: recycling, nutrition, smoking, ….

    5.  

    5. Most social change occurs because it helps people function, meets needs of society.

    Examples: assisted living, teen pregnancy programs, ...

    6. But, politics and power involved in this process:

    1. Ex’s: celebrities, political leaders, organizational power, and civil rights

 

Creating Social Change

 

  1. Offer/package your ideas as ways to help people’s daily lives
    1. people have to want or need to do the behavior routinely

    b. Wes’s project

     

  2. Increase awareness of needs, wants, rights
    1. Pride Festival
    2. Amy and Jessica’s project

     

  3. Get someone with status to back you (celebrities)

    4. a. "Drink Milk," anti-fur, vegetarianism, environmental issues

     

  4. Get someone with power to back you (organizations, political leaders, church leaders, etc…)
    1. AIDS (epidemiology of and public health assault)

 

 

Trends in Social Change

 

Social change is a dynamic process

Don’t expect immediate results

Life trajectories of social change

Research on Social Change

Historical/ document analysis

Interviews

Surveys

Focus Groups


Examples of Social Change Projects

  1. You are hired to understand trend in ____.
    1. How did it happen? Why? What is the impact?
  2. CNN hired to predict how McDonaldization will impact society.
  3. You are hired to evaluate employee morale and help raise it.
    1. How study it?
    2. How improve morale?

     

  4. You are hired to understand how to help towns maintain new sense of "community" after hurricane Floyd.

    5.  

  5. Hired by UNC system to understand how new drug policy would impact students and the social structure at specific schools in the system.