Structure;
Introduction: Define Social change and social Movement.
Body: Explain how a movement can bring changes in the social practices of the people. Provide with examples. Also explain the functionalist approach to the social change.
Conclusion: Conclude that social movement is way in which the society moves towards a new normal.
Content:
Introduction:
Social change refers to any significant alteration over time in behaviour patterns and cultural values and norms.
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out, resist or undo a social change. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations or both.
Body:
Social movements do not necessarily bring solutions to the social problems. They may champion the cause of social problems but cannot always promise a lasting solution. Social movements may promise to bring about social change and they do bring it. But it is not a one way process. Not only do social movements bring about change, but social change sometimes gives birth to movements. Social change often breeds social movements, and movements, in turn, breed additional change.
There are movements to demand more and more reservation for the SCs and STs and other backward classes and there are counter movements demanding its cancellation or at least the status quo.
There are movements to “save environment”, to “save world peace “. There are movements for and against the construction of Temple at the disputed different places. There are Fascist Movements, Communist Movements, Naxalite Movements, Tribal Movements, Peasants’ Movements, Women’s Movements, Youth Movements, Labor Movements, Civil Rights Movements, Human Rights Movements, Afforestation Movements, and so on. A social movement is collective effort to promote or resist change.
Functionalist Perspective
Functionalism emphasizes the consensus and order that exist in society, focusing on social stability and shared public values. From this perspective, disorganization in the system, such as deviant behavior, leads to change because societal components must adjust to achieve stability. When one part of the system is dysfunctional, it affects all other parts and creates social problems, prompting social change.
Functionalist sociologists emphasize what maintains society, not what changes it. Although functionalists may at first appear to have little to say about social change, sociologist Talcott Parsons holds otherwise. Parsons (1902–1979), a leading functionalist, saw society in its natural state as being stable and balanced. That is, society naturally moves toward a state of homeostasis. To Parsons, significant social problems, such as union strikes, represent nothing but temporary rifts in the social order. According to his equilibrium theory, changes in one aspect of society require adjustments in other aspects. When these adjustments do not occur, equilibrium disappears, threatening social order. Parsons' equilibrium theory incorporates the evolutionary concept of continuing progress, but the predominant theme is stability and balance.
Critics argue that functionalists minimize the effects of change because all aspects of society contribute in some way to society's overall health. They also argue that functionalists ignore the use of force by society's powerful to maintain an illusion of stability and integration.
