Social change refers to any significant change in the structure of society. Temporary changes within a society, such as fads and fashions, do not constitute social change. The election of a new president is not social change. But replacement of the presidency with a dictatorship changes the structure of government and is thus a social change. Most sociologists recognize four main types of social change.
One type of social change involves changes in the number and variety of positions and social roles. For example, as a society becomes more industrialized, the discovery of new technologies creates new and different jobs. The invention of the computer, for example, led to the creation of several new types of jobs, such as programmers, to help support its various uses.
A second kind of change occurs in the obligations or duties attached to positions. For example, as some societies have become more complex and parents have moved into the work force, the job of educating children has shifted from parents to schools.
These two types of change often lead to a third type of social change—new ways of organizing social activities. The establishment of child day-care centers and kindergartens, for example, occurred partly because families with working mothers and fathers needed help caring for their children. As new jobs become available, individuals who want them often need further education. Community, or junior, colleges were established in part to address this need for local, affordable advanced education.
A fourth kind of social change involves the redistribution of facilities and rewards, such as power, education, income, and respect. In 1950, for example, 30 percent of all students enrolled in colleges in the United States were women. Today, that number has nearly doubled.
Sometimes societies evolve gradually. Other times, they change abruptly, as in times of revolution or war. Change can result from planning, or it can be unintentional. It may or may not involve violence. Every society changes, but not all change at the same rate, in the same direction, or by the same means.
The German social philosopher Karl Marx claimed that the economy is the prime source of social change. Today, many sociologists think of societies as having multiple systems that influence one another. Change in one system may lead to change in others. For example, the introduction of the automobile and related forms of transportation are technological changes in the transportation system. These changes affected other social systems. Faster transportation allowed increased production and distribution of food, which helped advance the growth of grocery stores and reduce the need for people to grow their own food on family farms. City dwellers began moving to suburbs because transportation allowed people to live farther from city centers while still working there. Transportation advances have also affected where family members live in regard to one another. Family members often live farther apart than in the past, but improved transportation enables them to visit one another fairly easily.
