Historical social revolutions driven by technological change and processes of adaptation

Revolutions

Ogburn identifies four social revolutions that have occurred as the result of new technologies. The first was the move from the hunter-gathered model to pastoralism or horticulturalism, where people settled either to raise animals or to grow plants for food. Technologies for hunting or agriculture made such moves possible. As we were able to learn enough about food production to remain in one place for extended periods, we chose to do so.

The next step was the move to an agrarian society. Using both animals and machinery, we were able to make significant improvements in food production, not just for food but for other uses as well. This allowed for much greater population density, as well as excess production for winter months. The third social revolution was the development of the industrial society. Machinery that dramatically increased productivity brought about industrial society, which incorporated a stronger division of labor. This lead to a dramatic restructuring of social relations, as instead of relationships or kin relationships, people's value was based on what they could do or produce.

In the final stage, we have the post-industrial society. In this society, service is the primary occupation, rather than agriculture or industry. Improved transportation and especially communication helped to develop the post-industrial society, but so did advancements in industrial and agricultural production that allows most people to leave those fields (Boundless.com, 2007).

2. Ogburn identifies three processes of social change as well. These are hard determinism, soft determinism and cultural lag. Hard determinism argues that technology develops independent of social concerns. This technology drives the development of social structure and cultural values. The innovation of mobile communications was not intended to bring about social change, but rather to solve other problems. However, mobile communications have brought about social change in the way that we relate to one another.

Soft determinism holds that there is still room for human societies to make decisions with respect to the outcomes that are associated with new technology. Thus, while something like mobile communications will change us, we have the power to guide that change process. This theory can be seen at work with, for example, the Chinese economy. While the changes that brought about globalization may be inevitable, the Chinese have specifically sought to guide these major societal changes in specific ways. They did not accept the idea of hard determinism that globalization is something that will be done to them, but rather decided to take control of how those changes affected society. The Chinese control over the Internet is a good example -- while many predicted the Internet would bring about the downfall of strong centralized societal control in China, that has not happened because the government exerts significant influence over how the Internet will affect Chinese society.