Welcome back to my inquiry research! For this blog post, I will create the foundation of my inquiry question as it will be my first round. To create this foundation I will be breaking down my first big question into smaller pieces of information and a summary to make the basis of my next blog post. Specifically, I will be researching what drives society and the changes within them.
Sociologists and researchers of the like have accustomed the different factors of society into five categories. The environment, technology, social institutions, and population among many others. This is to say that sociologists have been theorizing and updating this topic for as long as the field has existed as many different philosophers and scientists have different ideas of what drives society, however, here are some basic ones that can be looked upon the best (1).
Environment
When referring to the environment this is referring to human ecology. Scientists have already proven that there is a direct link between humans, how we progress, and our environment. This is because so much of what we do and how we act is based off of where we live and the ecology of that region (this is also a gateway to how cultures interact with each other and what distinguishes them from others) (2).
The environment’s effect on society comes in many different forms. These include pollution, climate change, freshwater decline, and natural disasters among many others. Due to these circumstances, society may favour a certain topic or a certain ideal over others just for pure survival. In a simpler context, we can apply this idea to weather. Social changes within different regions that have different weather conditions happen in more characteristic ways. For example, those who live in warmer climates may favour a society change to adhere to the warmer climate. Whether that is moving towards houses which are built in a specific way so that there is more insulation, or even physically evolving to withstand more heat and symptoms like that. Hence a sub-society like those in the Caribbean has evolved differently than those from an Icelandic society (3).
Technology
Though many factors allow us as a society to move forward as a product and reflection of our image, it is without any argument that technology is the essential key in comparison to the other factors. Without technology to help us move forward, even with the weather, the number of people, and the interrelationships from that, as a society we wouldn’t have moved forward. It is periods in history like the industrial age and the current technological era that give society the chance to move forward. The advancements made in technology surrounding medicine, civil environments, and social media have allowed us to interact as a society and continue to do so in the future (2).
Technology has also allowed us as a society to focus more on self-actualization as well as interpersonal connections, as opposed to physiological and safety needs. By progressing more towards a level of comfort where we can attain our needs, as a society we can focus more on ‘unnatural’ things like our image, self-esteem, our career, how others see us, and ultimately the cultural trends that we popularise and partake in (4).
Social Institutions
Social institutions refer to anything that exists to meet a society’s or culture’s needs (as well as some wants). This includes that that bring structure, order, guidance, and lie within five categories family, education, religion, government, and economy (5).
By having changes made in social institutions, as a society we must change because the aforementioned changes will directly affect us as a society in one way or another. Whether that is the difference in how a government might run itself, or a change in the education system of your country, these changes directly affect some if not all institutions (the five mentioned before). In fact if one institution changes, they all do, and if the institutions change, as a society we change to, even if its not how we progress. For example, once same-sex marriages were legalized (a change in government institutions), a change in family institutions were made as more people had the opportunities to become a family, and educational institutions changed as we began to incorporate the historical move into our education system for more awareness, religious institutions changed as certain beliefs were changed, and even economical institutions were changed as a direct result of more families. By having these factors change, society has adopted a new stage in moving forward hence it is important to understand the relationship between social institutions and societal change (6).
Population
A factor that researchers and historians alike can always rely on for a change in society is population. This is because population composition changes at every level type of demographic we face, whether it be developing countries or those that have already developed. Furthermore, society’s drive to change is also a direct force of the people in it who force that change, hence the more we have (or the less we have) in population will cause some sort of change moving forward (or even backwards) (2).
Populations themselves can also be a direct result of social change. For example, if society changes towards a career-forward trend, then many may choose to stop having kids hence reducing their population, however, it can also work the opposite way as we have seen with the boom and the baby boom during the mid-20th century. Furthermore, by having more children there are more opportunities for them to make changes within our society, though this can also work against societal change if the said country is unable to handle the increase of population (6).
By understanding the factors that cause societal change and make our society move forward, we can better understand the trends that affect them as well as how we also revert back to certain trends which I will be exploring more in my next rounds of research.
Thanks for reading!
Sanam M.
SOURCES
1. Wilterdink, N., & Form, W. (2024, March 26). Social change | Definition, Types, Theories, Causes, & Examples. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-change
2. Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Causes of Social Change | Introduction to Sociology. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-introductiontosociology/chapter/causes-of-social-change/#:~:text=We’ve%20mentioned%20that%20four,%2C%20social%20institutions%2C%20and%20population.
3. Environment & social development. (2021, December 17). Center for Social Development. https://csd.wustl.edu/areas-of-work/environment-social-development/#:~:text=Global%20environmental%20changes%E2%80%94such%20as,%2C%20health%2C%20and%20sometimes%20survival.
4. How does technology enable social and cultural change? | 5 Answers from Research papers. (n.d.). SciSpace – Question. https://typeset.io/questions/how-does-technology-enable-social-and-cultural-change-2rjzrzm6ul
5. United Way of the National Capital Area. (2024, February 14). What Are Social Institutions? Learn with the Definition & Examples. United Way NCA. https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/what-are-social-institutions/#:~:text=Social%20institutions%20are%20the%20established,%2C%20religion%2C%20education%20and%20government.
6. Little, W., & Little, W. (2014, November 6). Chapter 21. Social Movements and Social Change. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/
Hello Sanam,
I liked your blog post as many subtopics were given. When I read the part about technology, I realized that all the new inventions that were made very recently gave us new perspectives on how we can use them to our benefit that would make our lives easier. Like the industrial revolution, inventions such as AI and quick creations of vaccines to cure diseases has really protected and helped our society. One question I have is do you think society would repeat bad history? People say, “history repeats itself”. With all the wars and drama of all sorts happening in the world, do you think we would revert to the past most positively or negatively? Keep up the good work!
Here is a source that may help your research:
https://definingmomentscanada.ca/education/historical-impact-how-the-past-can-shape-us/