Social Change
From NECSIWiki
The ways societies change is also a complex system.
For example, in recent decades, overall, that is, throughout the world, there have been many improvements in living conditions. For example infant mortality rates (IMR) have declined, illiteracy and percent of population without any schooling has declined, especially among less developed countries, GDP per capita increased and (most likely) poverty has declined (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2004). In addition, at any single time, many indicators of quality of life are highly correlated. For example, satisfaction with life is highly correlated with infant mortality rate, GDP per capita and freedom (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2005).
On the other hand, while improvements happen throughout the world, there was less improvement among less developed countries. For example, in 1960, infant mortality rate (IMR) was more than 4.5 times higher in developing countries than it was among industrialized countries. In 2000, IMR in developing countries was about 10 times higher than was IMR in industrialized countries (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2004).
In addition, while there are correlations among quality of life indicators at any single time, these relationships may not hold over time. For example, if countries with the largest declines in quality of life are examined, looking at infant mortality rate, education and political freedom, none of the countries that had the largest declines in any one of these had the largest declines in any of the others (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2004). At the specific country level, that is, a decline in living conditions in one area does not necessarily relate to a decline in other areas.
Thus, global social change seems to happen at least partly as a system, but not a simple system. That is, changes may be systematic on a larger global level, and relatively simple. But on a country level, changes are much more complex.
References
Shackman, Gene, Ya-Lin Liu and Xun Wang. 2004. How Societies Change Over Time: Summary. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/repsum.html
Shackman, Gene, Ya-Lin Liu and Xun Wang. 2005. Basic Guide to the World: Quality of Life Throughout the World. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/reports.html
Additional Information
Haferkamp, Hans, and Neil J. Smelser, editors Social Change and Modernity. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6000078s/ Available free on line from University of California Press Scholarship Editions http://content.cdlib.org/ucpress/
CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: A Review of Themes, Concepts, and Perspectives. http://www.cas.sc.edu/socy/faculty/deflem/zClassics.htm This part reviews Marx and Weber. A second page, linked here, reviews Durkheim, Simmel, and Mead.
Social Change lecture notes, from Russel Long http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/intro/change.htm brief reviews of theories of change.
