Exploring Social Change: America and the World

by Harper; Charles

• ISBN13: 9780205748082
• ISBN10: 0205748082
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-27
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This introduction to social change focuses on theories that explain social change, innovation, social movements, and revolutions. The last part of the book shifts explicitly to the global level to analyze population and environmental issues and globalization. Within this framework, the book discusses topics about change and its problems familiar in sociology and social science.

Author Biography

Charles Harper, Ph.D. is a Professor of Sociology at Creighton University. His academic interests include social change, globalization, religion, environmental sociology, social theory, and food issues. His publications include journal articles related to those interests, and he has published university-level texts including Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues (2007), Exploring Social Change: America and the World (2006), and Food, Society, and Environment (2007).  Professor Harper has been a consultant for many religious and community organizations, and is an active contributor to departmental policy, personnel, and curriculum matters for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Creighton University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Environmental Educator Achievement Award, presented by the Nebraska Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Burlington Northern Award, to the Outstanding Creighton University Scholar of the Year, awarded by the Creighton University Graduate School.

 

Kevin Leicht, Ph.D. is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa, where he teaches courses in the sociology of work, organizational theory, economy and society, political sociology and social stratification. He has co-authored five books, including Postindustrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity (2006), Professional Work (2001), and Current Issues in the Study of Labor Force: Concepts, Measures and Trends (2001). He has contributed chapters and articles to edited works, including the Encyclopedia of Social Theory, and published research articles in journals such as American Journal of Sociology and Law and Society Review. Professor Leicht is Editor of Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, official journal of the Social Stratification Section (RC-28) of the International Sociological Association, Director of the Institute for Inequality Studies and Director of the Social Science Research Center. His current research examines gender inequality among professionals, transaction-cost approaches to career decision-making, the development of economic development programs by the U.S. states, and the causes and consequences of corporate restructuring.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
By Way of Introduction	p. 1
What Is Social Change?	p. 5
Sociology and Social Change	p. 10
What you Can Expect from This Book and How It Is Organized	p. 10
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 11
Explaining Change
The Causes and Patterns of Change	p. 13
Theory in Sociology	p. 14
The Causes of Change	p. 15
Materialistic Perspectives	p. 16
Idealistic Perspectives	p. 18
Patterns of Change	p. 24
In Conclusion	p. 40
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 40
Social Theory and Social Change	p. 43
Functionalist Theory	p. 44
Conflict Theory	p. 50
Multiple Perspectives and Change: Reconciling Agency and Structure	p. 62
In Conclusion: Large-Scale Change and Human Agency	p. 64
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 64
Social Change in the United States
American Social Trends	p. 66
Structural Trends	p. 67
Changing Cultural Themes	p. 72
Countertrends and Reactions to Modernity: Antimodernism and Postmodernism	p. 78
In Conclusion	p. 80
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 81
Change in the Settings of Everyday Life: Populations, Families, and Work	p. 83
Demographic Change	p. 84
Changing Families	p. 89
Transforming Work	p. 96
In Conclusion	p. 103
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 103
Economics, Politics, and the American Prospect	p. 105
The Changing Economy	p. 106
Change in the Political System	p. 113
Change, Problems, and the American Prospect	p. 123
In Conclusion	p. 128
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 131
Processes of Social Change
Social Movements	p. 133
What Are Social Movements?	p. 134
Types of Social Movements	p. 136
Explaining the Origins of Social Movements	p. 139
In Conclusion	p. 157
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 158
American Reform Movements and Social Change	p. 160
The Social Context of Twentieth-Century American Reform Movements	p. 161
Social Class and Reform Movements at the Turn of the Twentieth Century	p. 162
Social Status and Reform Movements in Mid-Twentieth Century	p. 171
In Conclusion: What Kinds of Changes Do Reform Movements Produce?	p. 185
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 187
Revolutions	p. 189
What is a Social Revolution?	p. 189
Theories of Revolution	p. 190
The Outcomes of Revolution	p. 202
Successful and Failed Revolution in the Contemporary Context	p. 203
A World Revolution: The Collapse of the Communist System	p. 209
But Was It a Revolution?	p. 224
In Conclusion: The Inevitability of Revolutionary Surprise	p. 226
Thinking Personality about Social Change	p. 227
Technology, Innovation, and Networks	p. 229
Innovations as a Change Process	p. 230
The Act of Innovation	p. 232
Sources of Innovation: Social and Cultural	p. 233
Diffusion: How Innovations Spread	p. 239
Adoption of Innovations: Social Systems and Individuals	p. 243
Instutional Change and the Spread of Innovations	p. 245
Social Networks	p. 247
In Conclusion: Back at the Information Technology Revolution	p. 256
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 259
Creating Change	p. 260
Creating Change in Omaha: Muddling Through and Planning	p. 263
Basic Change Strategies	p. 268
The Role of Violence in Creating Change	p. 274
Mixed and Complex Strategies	p. 278
Being a Change Agent	p. 283
The Ethics of inducing Change	p. 284
In Conclusion: Some Final Thoughts about the Feasibility of Creating Change	p. 286
Thinking personally about Social Change	p. 289
Global Change
The Emerging Global System: Development and Globalization	p. 291
Two Worlds	p. 292
What is Development?	p. 294
Uneven Development	p. 295
Developmentalist Thinking: Perspectives and Dimensions	p. 300
Explaning Failed Development	p. 304
Dependency and World Systems Theories	p. 306
Structure and Dynamics of the World System	p. 307
Globalization	p. 314
In Conclusion: Development, Globalization, and Human Progress	p. 322
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 324
Society, Environment, and Change	p. 325
Ecological Perspectives on Change and Problems	p. 326
Aspects of Ecological Change and Problems	p. 328
Human Impacts and Global Environmental Change	p. 339
In Conclusions: Societies, Environment, and Global Stability	p. 351
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 355
World Futures	p. 356
New World order or New World Chaos?	p. 358
Looking at the Next Fifty Years	p. 359
Prophetic Visions: Some Longer Views	p. 370
In Conclusions: The Third Revolution and Power from Below	p. 379
Thinking Personally about Social Change	p. 381
Epilogue: Living in a Rapidly Changing World	p. 383
References	p. 387
Author Index	p. 415
Subject Index	p. 418
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