Sunday, January 29, 2012

Long Term Equity Investment: Philosophy, Science and Art

Philosophy

 
Return on equity shares is a risky variable. The data on past yearly returns on equity shares can be seen and the risky nature of return on equity shares can be observed and confirmed. My doctoral thesis was on return on equity shares in India during 1953 to 1987.
 
Theoretically also, we can grasp the variability of return on equity shares. Equity shares represent a part ownership of a business concern organized as a company or corporate concern under the company law of the country. A business owner earns his return through the profit made by the business after paying out all the expenses including rent for the landlords, wages and salaries for the employees, and interest for the capitalists. Hence profit is a residual item and it fluctuates from period to period. Therefore, the return that a company can directly give its shareholder which is dividend can fluctuate from year to year.
 
Equity shares can be sold on the exchange at any point in time. The sale price can result in a capital gain or loss. The sale price fluctuates in the market on transaction to transaction basis depending on the demand and supply. Hence the capital gain or loss can fluctuate from period to period. Thus on both dividend return side and capital appreciation side return on equity shares have variability and hence return on equity shares is a risky variable.
 
If an investor can take the risk and bear with the fluctuations in the return from period to period, he has the opportunity of earning a higher expected rate of return compared to the low risk investments alternatives.
 
If bonds are offered a more certain or less risky returns, the expected return offered on them will be less than that offered on equity shares.
 
To bear the risk of fluctuation from period to period and earn the expected return, an investor in equity shares is supposed to hold it for long term.
 
 

Science of Long-Term Investing in Equities

 
Equities are risky securities. They are entitled to residual income of the company and this residual income fluctuates from year to year. From an income perspective, equity investor cannot be sure of the quauntum of the dividend. An equity investor has to sell his holding in stock market to potential buyers at rates prevailing in the market. Valuation of equity shares is based on expected profitability of companies and riskiness of the profitability. Historically it is seen, that expectations have huge swings. Hence, for any fixed duration, estimating a return on equity shares is an exercise in uncertainty. Any phenomenon, subject to a range of possibilities results in a value close to expected value over repeated number of trials. Hence, the actualy return on equity shares will be more closer to the expected value over long-holding periods.
 

Art of Long term Investment in Equity Shares

 
The practice of any subject based on science is an art. A scientist has to be an artist to communicate his research to other researchers and laymen. When we want to talk about art of long term investment, we have to locate long-term investors. The best and most widely known person is Warren Buffett. He is not into day trading and position trading.
 
The knol will be  further extended. 
 
 
 
 

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Graham-Rao's Method of Analysis for Long-term Investment in Equity shares

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Sociology Articles Index


Sociology: An Introduction
Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
Culture
Social Groups
Socialization
Social Deviance
Social Structure
Social Change
Social Movements
Sociology of Formal Organizations


Written in serial order starting from

Positive Emotion Creating Body Parts - Exercise Them and Make Them Large and Strong

If you can create positive emotion in the work place, there will be energy and engagement.


"...we're not fluent in the language of positive emotions in the workplace. We're so unaccustomed to sharing them that we don't feel comfortable doing so. Heartfelt appreciation is a muscle we've not spent much time building, or felt encouraged to build."

In
Why Appreciation Matters So Much

Book
Positive Psychology at Work: How Positive Leadership and Appreciative Enquiry Create Inspiring Organizations by Sarah Lewis, John Wiley, 2011
http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Positive_Psychology_at_Work.html?id=J9Vo2QcluXcC

You are an Entrepreneur If



You’re an entrepreneur if you feel you have a product or an idea or a vision that stands out among the business firms or people who are presently serving that need.


Based on


You’re an entrepreneur because you feel you have a product or an idea or a vision that stands out among your competitors (if you don’t stand out, pack it in and come up with a new idea).

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/28/why-every-entrepreneur-should-self-publish-a-book/

Sociology: An Introduction

Introduction

 

Sociology is the scientific study of human society and social behavior.

 

Sociology is built on the premise that we are all born into human groups and derive our identities, hopes, fears, troubles and satisfaction from them. The basic insight of sociology is: “Human behavior is largely shaped by the groups to which people belong and by the social interaction that takes place within those groups.”

 

Sociology began to emerge as a separate discipline only around the middle of the nineteenth century. The subject assumed the scientific character after fifty years. Before the mid-1800s social philosophers exerted their efforts on social issues. But they were more concerned with what society ought to be rather than with what society actually is.

 

 

Early Sociologists

 

The title of “father of sociology” goes to August Comte (1798-1857). He was a Frenchman and he coined the word “Sociology”. He advocated the use of scientific method in Sociology. He identified social statics and social dynamics as areas for Sociological investigation and study. Social statics is concerned with issues of order and stability. How and why societies hold together today and endure for long period of time. Social dynamics examines social change. What makes societies change and what determines the nature and direction of change?

 

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) contributed his thinking to both social statics and social dynamics.  Spencer used the analogy of living organism to society. The organs of an animal are interdependent and contribute to the survival of the total organism. Similarly various parts of society such as the state, family, and various other groups are interdependent and work to ensure the stability and survival of the entire system.

 

In the area of dynamics, Spencer argued that societies are changing in the direction of progress.

 

Karl Marx (1818-1883) also contributed to sociological thought. Whereas Spencer saw progress in social change, Marx saw class conflict as responsible for social change. There are people for the stability of current society and there are people for change in the current society. Marx argued that all social arrangements of a time are determined by the people who live off the production of others. The existing social arrangements are chains for the people who are toiling and producing.

 

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) made number of contributions to the science of sociology. He argued that societies are held together by the shared beliefs and values of their members especially as these are expressed in religious doctrine and ritual.  He also pioneered the functional approach of investigating how each part of the society contributed to the maintenance of the whole.  He investigated suicide among various societies using methods of science and came to the conclusion that suicides are influenced by social forces and beliefs of the societies rather than individual thinking.

 

Max Weber (1964-1920) admired Marx and differed with him on primacy of the economic system in a society. He suggested that other factors, such as religious ideas could also play a role in determining social arrangements.

 

Modern sociologists of United States focused on social progress guided by sociological knowledge, an idea of August Comte. Hence American sociologists concentrated on smaller and specific problems of society. George Herbert Mead developed the new discipline of Social Psychology.  Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess studied social problems like the lives of criminals, drug addicts, prostitutes and juvenile delinquents.

 

From this brief introduction to the subject, the next article will describe the three perspectives – functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and interaction perspective.

   

References

 

Ian Robertson, Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York, 1977

 

Francis Abraham and John Henry Morgan, Sociological Thought: From Comte to Sorokin, Macmillan India, Delhi, 1985.
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Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology


Functionalist Perspective

 

Functionalist perspective in sociology is pioneered by Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim. Spencer compared societies to living organisms. In a living organism each part has a role to play in the life of the total organism. Similarly, in a society each part has a role to play. Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton contributed further to this perspective.

 

Merton pointed out that not all elements existing in a society are functional at all times. Some elements can be dysfunctional.

 

Hence a sociologist who uses functional perspective is likely to ask specific kinds of questions about each social element. What are the consequences of the elements being studied and what are its effects positive or negative on the system.

 

Conflict Perspective

 

The conflict perspective in modern sociology derives its inspiration from Karl Marx. Modern conflict theory is developed through contributions of C. Wright Mills, Lewis Coser. It extends its attention from the class conflict ideas of Marx to conflict between many groups and interests in societies. The examples could be farmers and business men, urban population and rural population, racial conflicts etc.

 

Conflict theories see conflict as an existing phenomenon in societies. The conflict between groups brings out the social problems to the fore and forces the society to resolve them.

 

Interactionist Perspective

 

The interactionist perspective was initially influenced by Max Weber. The sociologists following this perspective study every day social interaction that takes place as people go about their daily lives.

 

References

 

Ian Robertson, Sociology, Worth Publisher, Inc., New York, 1977.



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Social Groups

Social Groups


In all societies groups are important components and behavior and personalities of individuals are shaped by groups in which they are members. 

A group is a collection of people interacting together in an orderly way on the basis of shared expectations about mutual behavior. In a group, members expect certain kinds of behavior from one another that they would not necessarily expect from outsiders.  Every group has its own boundaries, norms, values and interrelated statuses. People form groups for a purpose, generally one that they cannot achieve satisfactorily through individual effort.

A collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same is termed as aggregate. The members of the aggregate have not interacted for significant amount of time and hence there is no common sense of belonging that is developed over a period of time. A category is a term used to describe people having common characteristics such as age, education etc. Although, loosely group is used to describe aggregates as well as categories,  group in strict sense refers to only collection of people interacting together in an orderly way.

Groups are classified into primary and secondary groups. A primary group consists of a small number of people who interact in direct, intimate, and personal ways. A secondary group consists of a number of people who identify with the group but may not have any direct contact. A secondary group therefore consists of many primary groups. Some groups may start as secondary groups and over a period of time become primary groups.

Small Groups


A small group is one that contains sufficiently few members for the participants to relate to one another as individuals. Whether a small group is primary or secondary depends on the nature of relationships between members.  The smallest possible small group is a dyad, a two people group. In a group of up to about seven people, all the members can take part in the same conversation. Beyond that point maintaining a single conversation becomes difficult and regulation of interaction by a leader becomes necessary.

Leadership and Groups


Groups always have leader even when no body holds a formal authority. Research found two types of leadership in small groups (Bales, 1953; Slater, 1955). Instrumental leadership proposes courses of action and influences members to follow them. Expressive leadership is the kind necessary to create harmony and solidarity among the members.

Group Decision Making


The process generally proceeds through a sequence of stages. In the first stage members orient themselves to the problem by going through the facts or by presenting the facts. In the second stage they represent their opinions on the facts and react to the opinions of others. IN the third stage of decision making, emotional tensions may rise as coalitions form and efforts are made to collect majority for an alternative. IN the fourth stage after the decision is made, there is an effort to restore harmony in the group. The members react more positively to one another and there may be a certain amount of joking and frivolity to reduce tensions and increase solidarity.

Group Conformity


There is powerful pressure to conform to group expectations in small groups.


For Further Reading



Davis, James, H. (1969), Group Performance, Addison Wesley, Reading.

Robertson, Ian (1977), Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York.
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Socialization

Socialization – The Process


Socialization is the process of social interaction through which people acquire personality and learn the way of life of their society. Socialization is a life long process.

The Results of Socialization

Language Acquisition

One of the results of socialization that anyone can see in virtually in any society is that people learn to use the language of their group.

Sense of Self and Personality

Freud hypothesized an unconscious part of self which has instinctual impulses, a conscious part of self that compares the demands of the unconscious self with the demands of the society, and part of self called superego which understands  and tries to uphold the norms of the society.



Personality


Personality refers to the fairly stable patterns of thought, feeling, and action that are typical of an individual (Robertson, 1977). Personality  includes the cognitive component, emotional component, and behavioral component.  Knowledge consisting of belief and thoughts, memory, perception and other intellectual capacities are the part of the  cognitive component. Love, hate, envy. sympathy, anger, pride and other feelings form the emotional component.  Skills, competences and other abilities are behavioral components. All these components are developed in person in the socialization process.

Debate about “Nature and Nurture”

Now it is agreed the personality is not the product of either heredity or learning alone but rather of a complex interaction between the two. Biology may set the broad outlines and limits to potential of a person, but the use to which the potential is put is determined by the environment in which a person lives. In the process of socialization biology and culture meet and blend.

Result of Lack of Socialization


If the children are deprived socialization by an adult, they do not develop social skills; language etc. and many of them do not survive long. Even in monkeys similar results were observed.


Understanding Theories of Learning


Socialization is a process of learning the ways of society. Hence understanding learning process of humans is a part of understanding socialization process.

Important learning theories are behaviorist approach and developmental approach. Behaviorist approach states that behavior which is rewarded is repeated and behavior which is punished is not exhibited. Hence learning occurs due to rewards. Social learning theory of Bandura argues that learning does not occur due to rewards only. A good deal of learning occurs due to imitation. This type of learning occurs in more people, especially if the person exhibiting this behavior is rewarded. Hence people often learn from their social environments even in the absence of direct rewards to them.

Development approach places greater emphasis on individual’s internal interpretation of situations rather than external factors – rewards and punishments.  The behavioralists tend to see people as essentially passive, and they assume that behavioral of a person is the output of environmental conditioning. The proponents of development approach acknowledge that a good deal of learning occurs because of external stimulus, expected behavior and resulting reward repetitions, but insist that people are essentially active, and not passive in this learning process. People judge, interpret, define and personally create their behavior. The development approach is more humanistic as it places greater emphasis on human free will and choice. Hence, this approach is winning increasing acceptance among social scientists.

The Emergence of Self


Self of person is the conscious experience of a distinct, personal identity that is separate from all other people and things. How does this self emerge in childhood and how is it continually modified throughout the life cycle of an individual? This question is of greater interest to sociologists and psychologists. In sociology this issue is of interest in the context of socialization.
Thee major theories of self emergence and development are proposed by Sigmund Freud, Charles Horton Cooley, and George Herbert Mead. Each of the theories emphasizes that concepts of self are learned through social interaction with others.

Freud’s Theory


Freud argued that people are born with basic drives, such as those for sex and aggression. Social order would be impossible unless these drives are controlled and hence society imposes its will on the individual suppressing and channeling the drives into socially acceptable outlets. There is a conflict in this process and this conflict is explained using concepts of id, ego and superego.

Freud proposed that personality of a person can divided into three interacting parts. The id is the reservoir of drives present in the individual at birth and throughout life. It is entirely unconscious and demands continual, instantaneous satisfaction.  But as the child is growing, the child learns about the demands of society form other people, particularly from parents and internalizes them into his personality in the form of super ego. The superego is thus an internal version of the moral authority of the society, and it works through feelings of shame and pride to influence the decisions of the person. Ego is another part of the personality that continually mediates between id and superego to decide on actions to be taken.

The ego or conscious self (id is unconscious self) has two tasks. The first is to counterbalance the demands of id with the demands of superego.  Demand for instantaneous self gratification needs to be balanced with demands for socially acceptable behavior by superego. The second task is to mediate between the personality as a whole and the social environment. If the conscious self achieves a harmonious balance within the personality, and between the entire personality and society, the individual is well adjusted, if not; an impaired personality is the outcome. According to  Freud, most of the personality development takes place in early child hood.

Cooley’s Theory


The central concept in Cooley’s theory is the looking-glass self. Society acts as a looking glass for every individual. People observe reactions of other to their actions in this looking glass. If the image they see is favorable, the self concept is enhanced and behavior is likely to be repeated. If the image they see to an action is unfavorable, self concept is diminished and the related behavior is likely to change.

Like Freud, Cooley also advocates that the self-concepts formed in childhood are more stable and lasting than those formed later in life. However, he has emphasized the the process of self-evaluation is a continuous process throughout the life and personality evolves. In Colley's theory, there is no conflict between individuals and society on a continuous basis. There is more cooperation and interaction.

Mead’s Theory


Mead proposed that people anticipate what others expect by role taking – pretending to take or actually taking the roles of other people, so that one can see oneself from their perspective. There is a thinking or cognitive process involved in self development. Children internalize the expecations of particular persons or specific individuals. But adults learn to anticipate the reactions and expecations of the society in general and control their behavior accordingly.
According to Mead, socialization process is never perfect or complete. He distinguished between ‘I” (the unsocialized self) and “me" (the socialized self that is conscious of social norms, expectations, and the individual’s social responsibility). According to Mead the “I” is never completely under the control of “me”. The socialized self is usually dominant, but we all have the capacity to break social rules and violate the expectations of others.

Socialization Through The Course of Life


Erik Erikson identified eight stages in human life where society has a role to play in the development of people.

These stages are:

1. Infancy
2. Early childhood
3. 4 to 5 years
4. School age (6 to 12 years)
5. Adolescence
6. Young adulthood
7. Middle age
8. Old age


At each stage society can play a beneficial role or a negative role. Old age can be satisfying for a person who feels he has done his best and he is proud of what he has created. Otherwise he is a dissatisfied man full of despair.

Agencies of Socialization


Some of the important socialization agencies are family, school, peer group and mass media.

The Family


Family is where children establish their first close contacts; learn language and being internalize cultural norms and values. While a great deal of socialization that takes in the family is conscious, a good amount unintended socialization also takes place.

The School


The school is an agency formally charged by the society with talks of socializing the children in particular skills and values. The curricular activities as well as extracurricular activities like sports and games contribute to socialization. Children learn from the school that they must be neat and punctual. They learn to sit still, keep quiet and focus on their assigned work. They learn to respect authority and obey commands the persons who have social authority over them. The involvement of the child in the school activities lessens the dependence on the family and creates new links to the wider society beyond.

The Peer Group


As children grow older, they spend more and more time in the company of their peers. In peer groups, most socialization takes place without any deliberate design based on temporary interests and concerns.

The Mass Media


There is a TV set in most of the American homes and in many other countries also. The average child between the ages of three and sixteen spends more time in front of the TV set than in School. The social norms and values reflected in the media may be adopted by the people who might not otherwise be exposed to them.

The other agencies of socialization are religious establishments, children organizations like scouts, youth organizations, employment providing organizations, voluntary associations, and political parties etc. From socialization agencies or socialization processes, all will not learn what they are supposed to learn. The socialization process may fail in certain respects, and people may come to behave in ways that were never anticipated or intended. Thus social deviance is often observed in various societies. 



 References

Robertson, Ian (1977), Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York.
Persell, Caroline Hodges (1984), Understanding Society: An Introduction to Sociology, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, New York
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A Debate: Socialization: Homeschooling vs. Schools

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/144135.aspx
May 2, 2007
  Approximately 4 million children currently being homeschooled in the US.
Dr. Thomas Smedley believes that homeschoolers have superior socialization skills, and he did research to verify this theory. He conducted a study in which he administered the Vineyard Adaptive Behavior Scales test to identify mature and well-adapted behaviors in children. Home learners ranked in the 84th percentile, compared to publicly schooled students, who were drastically lower in the 23rd.
NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute) reports that home educated students participate in approximately five different social activities outside the home on a regular basis. Researcher Dr. Linda Montgomery found that 78 percent of high school home learners were employed with paying jobs.
Research presented at the National Christian Home Educators Leadership Conference divulged that homeschool graduates far exceeded their public and private school counterparts in college by ranking the highest in 42 of 63 indicators of collegiate success. They were also ranked as being superior in four out of five achievement categories, including socialization and  they were assessed as being the most charismatic and influential.
School teachers and administrators contest these ideas and argue that proper socialization does not take place in home education.

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Originally posted in Knol
Knol not available for public access after 30 April 2012

Social Deviance

Social Deviance – Explanation

 

Deviance refers to behavior or characteristics than violate significant social norms and expectations and are negatively valued by large numbers of people as a result (Robertson, 1977).

 

 

Undermost conditions society its processes are remarkably orderly and predictable. This predictability comes of rules of society. But when rules are there, there will always be some people who have the temptation to break them. Socialization may not always succeed in making every body conform to the rules.  Hence societies have further processes to enforce its rules. Societies have rewards for conformity and punishments for deviance.

 

Why people exhibit deviance?

 

Theories of Deviance

 

Four main theories are offered.

 

1. Biological theories

2. Anomie theory

3. Cultural transmissions theory

4. Labeling theory

 

Biological Theories

 

Italian criminologist Cesare Limbroso (1911) identified certain body features as typical to criminals. William Sheldon (1940) came to the conclusion that muscular and agile types comprise higher proportion of criminals. Owen (1972) found that XYY chromosome males are often more criminal.  But still, sociologists are not happy with using inborn nature as responsible for deviant behavior.

 

Anomie Theory

 

Anomie is condition wherein a person cannot identify his contribution to the output of the group. Individuals in a state of anomie lack guidelines for behavior, for they feel little sense of social discipline over their personal desires and acts. As the society or group does not recognize or notice the contribution of their activities to the output of the group, the group does not discipline them. Robert Merton (1938, 1968) has modified the concept of anomie developed Durkheim [   ] and applied it to social deviance.

 

To Merton, in society, anomie is the situation that arises when there is a discrepancy between socially approved goals and the availability of socially approved means of getting them. In such a situation deviance will take place. Merton (1968) explains:

 

“It is only when a system of cultural values extols, virtually above all else , certain common goals for the population at large, while the social structure rigorously restricts or completely closes access to approved modes of reaching these goals for a considerable part of the same population, that deviant behavior ensues on a large scale.”

 

People who accept the goal of success but find approved avenues to success blocked may fall into a state of anomie and seek success by disapproved methods.

 

 

Cultural Transmission Theory

 

According to Sutherland (1939), deviant behavior is learned through a process of differential association. The ordinary person does not have the knowledge, the techniques, or the justifications that are available to the deviant. These things must be learnt, and they can only be learned from others. Hence, as deviants are more close friends, the contact occurs at young age, contract frequency is more, duration of contact is more, and number of contacts is more, there is more deviance on the part of normal person.
 

Labeling Theory

 

This theory states that a primary deviance, an act of deviance is discovered by the society and a punishment is given. This punishment may become a label and the person is identified with the label.  The person so labeled may be forced to more deviance as other options are closed to him. Thus some persons are thrown into a deviant career.

 

 

 

The Social Consequences of Deviance – Dysfunctions

 

Deviance has a number of social consequences. It has many dysfunctions in society.

 

The widespread violation of significant social norms can disrupt social order. Deviance diverts social resources into efforts to control it. Deviance undermines trust. Many forms of deviance are pleasurable and profitable to the individual but disruptive for the society.

 

References

 

Robertson, Ian (1977), Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York.

 

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Social Structure

Social Structure: Explanation

 

Social structure refers to the organized relationships between the basic components in a social system. The most important of the components are statuses, roles, groups and institutions. These concepts are of fundamental importance in sociology, and these basic components are found in all human societies, although their precise character may vary from society to society (Robertson, 1977).

 

Status

 

A society consists of individuals. Socially defined position of each person in the society is termed as status.

 

A person can occupy several statuses simultaneously. For example, son, father, husband, chairman of a co-operative society, university professor, etc. All these statuses are occupied simultaneously by the same person.

 

Certain statuses are given to a person by the society by birth. One cannot determine his parents and relatives. Race also cannot be determined by a person. These statuses are termed as ascribed statuses. Certain statuses are earned by the individuals. Their job, friends, wealth, various hobbies are also choices and individuals and these statuses are termed achieved statuses.

 

Role

 

Every status has one or more roles attached to it. Role refers to the part or parts that a person plays in society.

 

The distinction between status and role is one occupies a status and plays a role (Linton, 1936). Every position or status carries with it a set of expected behavior patterns, obligations, and privileges-in other words norms specifying how the role attached to the status should be played.

 

Group

 

In a society, interaction takes place between individuals, but group formation takes and a lot of interaction takes place between individual with in a group. A group consists of people interacting together in an orderly way on the basis of shared expectations about each other’s behavior. A group has well defined or well understood interrelated statuses and roles.

 

Groups are categorized as primary and secondary. Primary groups consist of small number of people who interact over relatively long period on an intimate, face-to-face basis. Examples are family, kinship group etc. Secondary groups consist of people who interact on a fairly temporary and impersonal basis. An example could be a group of people attending a training program for five days.

 

Most social behavior takes place in groups. Groups are therefore a vital part of social structure and they have to be identified and studied in sociology.

 

Institution

 

Institutions are the stable clusters of values, norms, statuses, roles and expectations that develop around the basic needs of a society.

 

Examples are family, state, military etc. All of them take care of needs of society.

 

 

References

 

 

 

Linton, Ralph (1936), The Study of Man, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.

 

Robertson, Ian (1977), Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York.
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Social Change

What is Social Change?

 

Social change is the alteration in patterns of social structure, social institutions and social behavior (culture) over time. No society could successful resist change in history, but the rate, nature, and direction of change differed greatly from one society to another.

 

To understand social change, the dynamic aspect, we need to understand social order and stability, the static aspect.

 

Theories of Social Change

 

A number of general theories of social change have been proposed by sociologists, historians, and anthropologists. The theories can be grouped into four main categories: evolutionary, cyclical, functional and conflict theories.

 

Evolutionary Theories

 

The assumption is that societies gradually change from simple beginnings into more complex forms.

 

Cyclical Theories

 

This group of scholars focused on the fact civilizations had risen and fallen. Civilizations are compared to organism which has a life. It has birth, maturity, old age and death. All creativity takes place in the early stage of the cycle. The civilization matures as it loses its original inspiration and declines. Arnold Toynbee (1946) explained the change in societies in terms of challenges and responses. Sorokin (1937) came out with the thought each societies cyclically swing between ‘sensate’ culture which emphasizes materialistic things and ‘ideational’ culture which emphasizes those things that can be perceived by mind only – things like faith and ultimate truth. Cyclical changes take place in response to the changes in preferences of people of society between ‘sensate’ and ideational’ cultures.

 

Functionalist Theories

 

New institutions come up as society becomes more complex. Formal school system maintained by government is an example.

 

Conflict Theories

 

Karl Marx declared that “violence is the midwife of history.’ Mao said “change comes from the barrel of a gun.” According to Marx, history is story of conflict between the exploiting and exploited classes. Authors who support conflict theory, now argue that class conflict is an oversimplication and there are other varieties of conflict that occur in societies – like conflict between racial groups and conflict between religious groups etc. Social changes are a result of social conflict is an accepted fact.

 

Sources of Change

 

The problem of finding the specific sources of social changes is easier than finding a general theory of social change. Some of the important sources of social change are describe below.

 

The Physical Environment

 

The physical environment of a place changes very slowly. Hence its effect may not be significant.

 

Ideas

 

Ideas are important in social change. Marx argued that social conditions shape people’s ideologies, not the other way round.  But Weber gave prominence to ideas. Durkheim stated that social conditions give rise to ideas but ideas once expressed develop a life of their own and they act on society and create change.

 

Technology

 

Technology is a major source of social change. The more advanced a society’s technology, the more rapid social change tends to be.

 

Population

 

The size of a population has a strong influence on social organization.

 

For Further Reading

 

Robertson, Ian (1977), Sociology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York.
 
 
A Very Detailed Web Resource on Change Theories
 
 

 

 

 

Comments and editing to improve the article are welcome
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