Social_Change

Social Change/Modernization Social change as a sociological term which is defined as, alterations in the basic structures of social groups and society. Social change is a present phenomenon in the social life, and has also become highly intense in the modern era. The origins of modern sociology is traced to attempt the understanding of dramatic changes which shatter the modern world and promote new forms of social orders. For example globalization, human history with the vast majority of people producing their own food and shelters and lived in groups or small villages. The height of developed civilizations like ancient Rome and China, less than 10% of the people lived in urban areas. Today the United States only 2%-3% of the people work in agriculture and 90% of people live in urban areas. Urbanization for the rest of the world is changing at a great pace due to the economic activity. Should be by 2030 60% of the world population will be expected to live in urban areas with more developed regions, 81% of people are expected to be urbanized. Examples of social change are also Technology influx such as email, cell phone, online social networks, etc. In past communication with others was held to constraints like mail and/or face to face interaction. The voting rights in the United States for women and people of other cultures. Everyone is required to go to school. All education should be free, at least within the elementary and fundamental stages. Modernization Modernization is a concept of spheres in social sciences that refer to processes in which society goes through industrialization, urbanization among other social changes which completely changes the lives of individuals. The concepts of modernization is from a wide view of societies which have a standard evolutionary pattern, which is described in the social evolutionism theories. According to this theory each society would evolve from barbarism to even greater levels of developments and civilization. The modern states should be wealthier and more powerful, the citizens which have a higher standard of living. This being the standard view in social sciences for many many decades with the foremost advocate being Talcott Parsons. The theory stressed the importance of societies being more open to change and saw the reactionary forces as restricting development. Maintaining the tradition for tradition's sake was also thought to be very harmful to progress and development. The approach has been heavily criticized, due to its conflated modernization with Westernization. In the model, the modernization of society required destructions of the indigenous culture and the replacement of a Westernized one. Modernity refers to the present, any society in existence is therefore modern. The proponents of modernization typically views only Western society being modern and arguing that others are primitive or unevolved by comparison. The view states unmodernized societies which is inferior even if they have same standards of living as western societies. Opponents of the view will argue that modernity is an independent culture and could be adapted to any society. Japan is an example by both sides. Some would say that it is proof that it is a thoroughly modern way of life which can exist in a non-western society. Others would argue that Japan has become more western as a result of its modernization. This view is accused of being Eurocentric, when modernization began in Europe and which has long been regarded as reaching its advanced stage in Europe and in Europe overseas (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc). According to Social theorist Peter Wagner modernization can be seen as a process and as an offense. The views of modernization is offensive therefore it sees as a product of human planning and action, which can be an active process capable of being both changed and criticized.