Social change: summary and key concepts

Changing Institutions in Modernity

The focus of Week 9's reading, Newman's "Architects of change" is on social change. It is pivotal to note that this particular chapter serves as the conclusion for a book based on institutionalism. As such, the author noted that he wanted to end the manuscript on a more positive note that was less bureaucratic, and which provided optimism for change within some of the myriad institutions discussed in this work as a whole. The chapter begins with a prolonged case study about a man in the United Kingdom who was able to effect change in national health care policy to help his son who was suffering from a disease. The anecdote serves as a means of conveying that change is possible in institutions, and that in the process people are actually helping to reconstruct society and the way it functions.

The author then details the context for current changes in the institutions that affect contemporary life, which are all "post-industrial" and benefit from that long ago revolution in which man was able to begin modernization. A good deal of changes that take place in current society are due to advances in science and technology, and have invaded myriad institutions including social, cultural, educational, health care, and even families. The author provides plenty of examples for each of these changes wrought in the face of the technological age in which he lives. Not all of these changes are benevolent the author notes; he provides copious evidence of harmful changes taking place across families in which children no longer have childhoods. However, the author also details some of the factors that actually characterize social change, one of the most salient of which is the speed of change. In general, social change that is too expedient is labeled an "anomie" and frequently results in high crimes and suicides. The author closes out the chapter by discussing factors of change, such as technology and the environment.

The latter is related to environmental pressures and involves changes that the growing population has made to expedite global warming -- which partially stem from the cutting down of forests as a need to plant more food to feed that growing population. However, the changes that are rendered via technology are given a certain prominence by the author. There are numerous different institutions of life that cultural changes of technology impact. In fact, the author does a good job of illustrating the fact that technological changes rarely produce only good. Antibiotics can help in certain instance, while over-prescription of them can harm people in others. The internet and smartphones can facilitate immediate access to information and communication, yet also create a culture in which people are disengaged from their surroundings. A particularly insightful application of the way that technology can facilitate cultural change throughout the various institutions of life examined in this chapter include the notion of "cultural diffusion," in which cultures exert influence on one another. In this respect cultural diffusion is illustrated as another means in which societal institutions change.