Please refer to Social Change and Social order in Rural and Urban society Class 11 Sociology notes and questions with solutions below. These revision notes and important examination questions have been prepared based on the latest Sociology books for Class 11. You can go through the questions and solutions below which will help you to get better marks in your examinations.
Class 11 Sociology Social Change and Social order in Rural and Urban society Notes and Questions
I. Social Change
Social change is any kind of change in society. Social changes are significant, which alter the underlying structure of an object or situation over a period of time. They are Intensive and extensive changes that have a big impact spread over a large sector of society.
Classification of Social Change
❖ Social Change- Nature/ the Kind of Impact/ Speed
1. Evolutionary Changes
This is the change that takes place slowly over a long period of time. This term was made famous by the natural scientist Charles Darwin. He proposed a theory of how living organisms evolve or change slowly over several centuries by adapting themselves to natural circumstances. Darwin’s theory emphasized the idea of the survival of the fittest.
Social Darwinism
Although Darwin’s theory describes the natural processes, it was soon adapted to the social world and was called social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer).
2. Revolutionary Changes
Revolutionary Changes are the changes that occur quickly and even suddenly. It is used mainly in the political context. When the ruling class is overthrown by its opponents, the power structure of society changes creating revolutionary change. Examples: French revolution (1789-93) and the Soviet or Russian revolution of 1917. The term is also used to refer the other kinds of transformations such as industrial revolution and the telecommunication revolution.
3. Structural Changes
These are the transformations in the structure of society. It includes the changes in the institutions and the rules by which these institutions are run. For example, the emergence of paper money was a structural change in the financial markets and transactions.
4. Changes in values and beliefs
Changes in values and beliefs can also lead to social change. For example, changes in the ideas and beliefs about children and childhood. There was a time when children were simply considered small adults, they did not receive any consideration. It was during the 19th and early 20th centuries that ideas about childhood as a special stage of life gained influence.
❖ Social Change- Causes/ Sources
The causes may be internal and external. There are five types of sources or causes of social change.1. Environmental Causes
2. Technological Causes
3. Economic Causes
4. Political Causes
5. Cultural Causes
1. Environmental Causes
Nature, ecology and the physical environment make significant influence on the structure and shape of society. Technology alters nature and our relationship to it in new ways. Sudden and catastrophic events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, or tidal waves (like the tsunami that hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands and parts of Tamil Nadu in
December 2004) can change societies quite drastically. Environmental or ecological factors need not only be destructive to cause change, they can be constructive as well. A good example is the discovery of oil in the desert regions of West Asia (also called the Middle East). Like the discovery of gold in California in the 19th century.
2. Technology and Economy
Combination of technological and economic change leads to social change. Technology has created impressive changes in the society in combination with the market. Example: Industrial Revolution. The inventions like steam ship, railway, gunpowder, writing paper, textile industry etc. transformed the economy and social geography of the world. Sometimes the non-technological changes in economic organisation can also change society. Example, plantation agriculture.
3. Political Causes
Political forces have been the most important causes of social change. Examples: wars bring various social changes in society. After the Second World War Japanese surrender, the United States occupied and ruled over Japan for several years, bringing about lots of changes, including land reform in Japan. Political changes need not only be international — they can have enormous social impact nationally. A more recent instance is to be found in the Nepali people’s rejection of monarchy in 2006.
4. Cultural Causes
Changes in such ideas and beliefs lead naturally to changes in social life. Max Weber’s study ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ showed how the religious beliefs of some Christian Protestant sects helped to establish the capitalist social system.
II. Social Order
Social order is the tendency within established social systems that resists and regulates change. Every society should maintain its stability in order to stand as a strong and efficient social system. Social stratification is one of the concrete and specific reasons for societies to resist change. The ruling or dominant groups (higher position) generally resist social changes that may alter their status, because they have a vested interest in stability. The subordinated or oppressed groups generally demand changes. Because they have vested interest in change.
– Social order can be achieved in one of two ways
1.When people spontaneously obey rules and norms.
2.When people are compelled to obey such rules and norms.
People willingly obey rules and norms through the process of socialisation. Modern societies depend on other means like power or coercion to ensure that institutions and individuals conform to established social norms.
Domination
– It is the situation in which power become stable and settled and the parties involved have become accustomed to it.
Authority
Max Weber defined authority as legitimate power. It is power considered to be justified or proper. For example, a police officer, a judge, or a school teacher all exercise different kinds of authority as part of their jobs. This authority is vested with them officially. There are written documents specifying their authority.
Law
Law plays an important role in maintaining domination and authority. Law is explicitly norm or rule. It is usually written down. A modern democratic society has a given body of laws created through its legislature, which consist of elected representatives. Laws are applicable to all citizens.
Social Order and Social Change in Rural Areas
Villages are small in size. So there is more personalised relationships. The social structure of villages follows a traditional pattern. The traditional institutions like caste and religion are stronger here. So change is slower in villages than in towns. The new modes of communication particularly the telephone and the television have changed rural areas. The measures like land reforms had an immediate impact on village societies. The changes in the technology of agriculture also have a large and immediate impact on rural society. Sudden fluctuations in agricultural prices, droughts and floods affected the rural society adversely. The recent rise in farmer suicides in India is an example of this. Large scale development programmes aimed at the rural poor have created an enormous impact. A good example of this is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
Social Order and Social Change in Urban Areas
Urbanism as a way of life is a modern phenomenon. Before the modern era, trade, religion and warfare were some of the major factors that decided the location and importance of
cities. Medieval trading towns: Tezpur on the Brahmaputra River in Assam, Kozhikode on the Arabian Sea in northern Kerala. Temple towns and places of religious pilgrimage: Ajmer in Rajasthan, Varanasi (Benaras or Kashi) in Uttar Pradesh, Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Most of the important issues and problems of social order in towns and cities are related to the question of space and high population density. It is the primary task of the urban social order to ensure the spatial capability of the city. Shortage of housing for the poor leads to homelessness, the phenomenon of street people and the emergence of slums.
Changes in modes of mass transport may also bring about significant social change in cities. Cities based on public transport- London, New York. Cities depend on individualised car –based transport- Los Angeles. The new Metro Rail in Delhi changed social life in that city.
Urban Agglomeration
It refers to a city along with its surrounding suburban areas and satellite settlements.
Metropolitan area
It includes more than one city or urban settlement many times the size of a single city. Urbanisation
It is the process by which a larger and large proportion of the country’s population lives in urban rather than rural areas. According to 2011 Census report, 37.7 per cent population of India lives in urban areas.
Ghettoisation
Any neighbourhood with a concentration of people of a particular religion, ethnicity, caste or other common identity. Communal riots and violence strengthen the process of ghettoisation. This has happened in many cities in India, especially in Gujarat following the riots of 2002.
Gated Communities
It is the worldwide phenomenon of gated communities is also found in Indian cities. This refers to the creation of affluent neighbourhoods that are separated from their surroundings by walls and gates, with controlled entry and exit. Most such communities also have their own parallel civic facilities, such as water and electricity supply, policing and security.
Gentrification
It refers to the conversion of a previously lower class neighbourhood into a middle and upper class one. As real estate prices rise, it becomes more and more profitable for developers to try and effect such a conversion.
