Chapter 2 Social Change And Social Order In Rural And Urban Society

Social Change

Social change refers to transformations that significantly alter the underlying structure of a society or situation over time. Not all changes qualify as social change; it must be both intensive (big impact) and extensive (affecting a large part of society).

Sociologists classify social change based on its sources, nature, and pace.

• Pace/Speed:
  • Evolutionary Change: Slow, gradual change over long periods, adapting to circumstances (term popularised by Darwin).
  • Revolutionary Change: Comparatively quick, even sudden, and often total transformations, primarily in power structures (political revolutions) but also used for rapid transformations in other areas (industrial revolution, telecommunications revolution).
• Nature/Impact:
  • Structural Change: Transformations in the fundamental structure of society, institutions, or their rules (e.g., the shift from metallic currency to paper money transforming financial systems).
  • Changes in Ideas, Values, and Beliefs: Shifts in societal thinking that lead to behavioural and structural changes (e.g., evolving ideas about childhood leading to laws against child labour and promoting compulsory education).
• Sources/Causes: Social change can be caused by various factors, sometimes classified as internal or external. Five broad types of sources are identified.

Environment

Nature, ecology, and the physical environment significantly influence society, particularly historically when humans had less control over nature (e.g., desert societies vs. river valley societies). Technology has reduced direct environmental constraints, but also alters the relationship with nature in new ways. Environmental factors can cause social change in both destructive and constructive ways:

• Destructive Events: Sudden catastrophes like earthquakes, floods, or tsunamis can drastically and irreversibly alter or destroy societies.
• Constructive Factors: Discovery of valuable resources (like oil in West Asia, gold in California) can completely transform societies economically and socially.

Technology And Economy

The combination of technological advancements and economic organisation has been a major driver of social change, especially in the modern era.

• Technology's Impact: Enables humans to resist, control, adapt to, or harness nature. Its impact can be immediate (Industrial Revolution driven by steam engine transforming industry and transport) or become apparent retrospectively when combined with specific economic contexts (e.g., gunpowder/paper's limited impact in China vs. transformative impact in modernising Europe; new textile machines destroying India's handloom industry). Activity 3 suggests identifying technological changes in one's life with social consequences.
• Economic Organisation's Impact: Changes in how economies are organised, even without direct technological innovation, can drive social change. Plantation agriculture's labour demand contributed to the transatlantic slave trade. Today, international trade agreements and tariffs can cause industries/occupations to disappear or boom.

Politics

Political forces are significant causes of social change. Historically, actions of rulers and warfare led to immediate social changes (conquest, transformation of societies). Modern political changes, like shifts in power structures, can also have enormous social impact.

• International Politics/Warfare: War can lead to direct social change through conquest and occupation, but also indirect changes as societies learn from each other (e.g., US occupation of Japan after WWII leading to land reform, but Japan later transforming US industry through economic/technological competition).
• Domestic Politics: Political movements (independence struggles), revolutions (overthrowing monarchies), and changes in governance systems (universal adult franchise) bring about social change by redistributing power among different social groups.

Universal adult franchise ("one person, one vote") is seen as a profound political change, challenging older power structures based on birth, wealth, or status and forcing governments to seek public approval for legitimacy, leading to massive social transformations.

Culture

Changes in cultural ideas, values, and beliefs are powerful drivers of social change.

• Religion: As a major cultural institution, religious beliefs and norms significantly shape social organisation. Changes within religious beliefs or conflicts between religions can transform societies (e.g., impact of Buddhism in ancient India, Bhakti Movement in medieval India). Max Weber's work showed how specific religious ethics (Calvinism) influenced economic development (capitalism).
• Social Values/Beliefs: Evolving ideas about social groups or practices can lead to change. Women's struggles for equality have transformed societies, sometimes aided by external circumstances (e.g., WWII enabling women to enter traditionally male factory jobs, strengthening claims for equality). Women's changing roles as consumers also influence industries like advertising and media.
• Popular Culture/Sports: Elements of popular culture like sports can become symbols of identity and rivalry (e.g., cricket expressing national or racial pride, influencing commercial aspects).

Social change is complex, rarely due to a single factor. Causes are often interrelated (economic, technological, cultural, political, environmental influencing each other), can be internal or external, and result from deliberate action or chance events. The pace of change is accelerating in modern times, making it crucial to understand its dynamics.

Social Order

Social order refers to the aspects of social systems that resist or regulate change, providing continuity and stability. Change is understood in contrast to continuity; social change is meaningful only when some things remain unchanged.

Societies need social order to reproduce themselves over time and maintain stability, requiring predictable behaviour from individuals and institutions.

Reasons for social order/resistance to change:

• Stability is Functional: Predictability and consistency are necessary for society to function and for individuals to navigate daily life (Activity 4 prompts reflection on the discomfort of constant, unpredictable change).
• Vested Interests: In stratified societies, groups who benefit from the existing inequalities (dominant groups) have a vested interest in maintaining stability and resisting changes that might alter their privileged position. Subordinated groups have an interest in change.
• Active Maintenance: Social order is actively maintained and reproduced through specific patterns of social relations, values, and norms.

Social order is achieved through a combination of:

• Spontaneous Consent: People willingly abide by rules and norms because they have internalised shared values through socialisation. However, socialisation is not perfect; individuals can question norms and seek change.
• Coercion: Societies rely on power and force to ensure conformity to established norms when spontaneous consent is insufficient.

Domination, Authority And Law

Domination is a stable and settled form of power where a social entity (person, institution, group) routinely exercises decisive influence, often appearing smooth and without friction in normal times, even if it involves unequal relationships and enforced cooperation.

Domination is often maintained through legitimate power or authority.

• Legitimacy: The degree of acceptance that power relations involve. Something legitimate is considered proper, just, right, and part of the prevailing social contract.
• Authority (Max Weber): Defined as legitimate power – power that is considered justified. Examples include the authority of a police officer, judge, or teacher within their defined domains, often explicitly codified in written job descriptions or laws. Authority requires the consent and obedience of those subject to it within its legitimate scope.

Law: An explicitly codified norm or rule, usually written down, with procedures for creation/change and penalties for violation. In modern democratic societies, laws are enacted by elected representatives, apply to all citizens, and form the formal framework of governance. Law provides a strong backing for authority and facilitates routine consent and cooperation.

Domination is thus often maintained through a combination of legitimate, lawful authority and other forms of power. The mix determines the nature and dynamics of a social system.

Contestation, Crime And Violence

The existence of power and authority does not mean constant obedience. Contestation refers to broad forms of insistent disagreement within society, more general than specific competition or conflict.

Examples include youth counter-cultures, protests against norms or authorities, and political competition through elections. Open societies tolerate different degrees of dissent, but explicit and implicit boundaries exist; crossing these boundaries (defiance) can lead to reactions from society, typically law enforcement.

Social order does not require complete unanimity; disagreements and differences can exist. However, the extent to which difference is tolerated is a crucial boundary marker in society, distinguishing legitimate vs. illegitimate, legal vs. illegal, acceptable vs. unacceptable.

Crime: An act that violates an existing law. It is distinct from the moral judgment of the act. Individuals may commit crimes (like civil disobedience) for perceived moral reasons, challenging unjust laws. But legally, it's still a violation of law.

Violence: At the broadest level, the state is supposed to have a monopoly over the use of legitimate violence within its jurisdiction. Any other instance of violence is technically illegal and seen as a challenge to state authority. Violence is an enemy of social order, an extreme form of contestation indicating social tensions and problems, and a failure of legitimation, leading to open conflict.

Social Order And Change In Village, Town And City

Societies can be divided into rural (villages) and urban (towns, cities) sectors, which have different living conditions, social organisation forms, and patterns of social order and change.

Villages emerged with the transition from nomadic life to settled agriculture, which enabled surplus production, wealth accumulation, social differences, and occupational specialisation.

The distinction between rural and urban is primarily based on population density and the proportion of agriculture-related economic activities.

• Villages: Lower population density, larger share of agricultural activities.
• Towns/Cities: Higher population density, larger share of non-agricultural activities.
• Town vs. City: Differentiated mainly by size (cities are larger).
• Urban Agglomeration: A city plus surrounding suburban/satellite areas.
• Metropolitan Area: Continuous urban settlement covering more than one city.

Urbanisation: The global process of increasing proportion of a country's population living in urban areas. It's a major trend in both developed and developing countries.

Social Order And Social Change In Rural Areas

Rural areas typically have different social dynamics compared to urban areas:

• Social Order: Often more traditional, with stronger influence of institutions like caste and religion. Relationships are more personalised due to smaller size. Lack of anonymity and dominant groups' control over resources limit scope for dissent. Power structures are often more resilient and difficult to challenge.
• Social Change: Tends to be slower than in urban areas due to stronger traditional order, less anonymity for dissenters, and dependence on dominant groups. However, improved communication and transport links are reducing cultural lag and isolation. Changes related to agriculture (land reform, technology, prices) have major and immediate impact on rural societies. Land reforms altering ownership structures (e.g., giving rights to intermediate castes, creating 'dominant castes') or technological changes affecting labour demand can significantly alter social relations and power dynamics. Development programs can also bring change.

Activity 5 encourages learning about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) as an example of a development program's potential impact on rural social change.

Social Order And Social Change In Urban Areas

Urban life is closely linked to modernity, characterised by high population density and anonymity, offering both opportunities and constraints. The city fosters individuality and provides amenities, but freedom and opportunity are often distributed unequally based on social class and group membership.

Urban life also intensifies group identities (race, religion, ethnicity, caste, class, region) due to the concentration of diverse populations in close proximity, influencing strategies of survival, resistance, and assertion.

Challenges to social order in urban areas are often related to space and high population density, creating complex logistical problems (housing, transport, planning, governance, public services, policing) that interact with social divisions (class, ethnicity, religion, caste).

• Housing Issues: Shortage for the poor leads to homelessness and slums (congested, lacking basic services, often dominated by informal power structures).
• Segregation: Residential areas are frequently segregated by class, and often by identity factors (race, ethnicity, religion, caste), leading to "ghettoisation" and exacerbating tensions, particularly in contexts of communal violence. 'Gated communities' are a form of affluent segregation (Activity 6).
• Transport: Urban transport systems are crucial for linking residential areas to workplaces, impacting quality of life. Reliance on private transport causes congestion and pollution. Long-distance commuters can form influential political constituencies and subcultures.

Urban social change is shaped by these spatial dynamics and social divisions. Neighbourhoods experience cycles of decline and revival ('gentrification'). Changes in transport modes or infrastructure also impact urban life. A key challenge for rapidly urbanising cities like India is coping with continuous population growth through migration and natural increase.