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Book No. – 24 (Sociology)
Book Name – The Social System
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1. THE PROBLEM OF THE THEORY OF CHANGE
2. THE GENERAL NATURE OF CHANGE IN SOCIAL SYSTEMS
3. THE DIRECTION OF CHANGE IN SOCIAL SYSTEMS
4. SOME SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF PROCESSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
4.1. Institutionalized Rationalization and “Cultural Lag”
4.2. The Ascendancy of the Charismatic Revolutionary Movement
4.3. The Adaptive Transformation of a Revolutionary Movement
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The Processes of Change of Social Systems
Chapter – 11
Table of Contents
- The work has focused on two major theoretical problems: structural components of the social system and the analysis of motivational processes within the system.
- The first area addressed the development of a conceptual scheme to identify, describe, and analyze the interrelations of the structural components of social systems.
- The second area dealt with the motivational processes within the system, aiming to understand how motivations influence the functioning of the system.
- A third set of problems concerns processes of change within the system, specifically changes in the structure of the social system.
- The discussion of system change logically comes after the other two areas, as it presupposes an understanding of both social structure and motivational processes.
- It is possible to theorize about particular processes of change within social systems without developing a comprehensive theory of system change.
- The theory of social system change requires prior theories of social structure and motivational processes within the system.
THE PROBLEM OF THE THEORY OF CHANGE
- It is essential to distinguish between processes within the system and processes of change of the system.
- The term “dynamic” is often confused with these two concepts.
- The distinction is based on the concept of equilibrium, particularly the boundary-maintaining system.
- Equilibrium in this context refers to a stabilized interaction process, which maintains constancy in the system’s pattern.
- The interaction process is the major reference point for analyzing motivational processes.
- The continuation of a stabilized interaction process without changes in the roles’ structure is treated as non-problematic for theory.
- This assumption is central to the theoretical framework, though it was recognized as a theoretical assumption and not an empirical generalization.
- Equilibrium can be moving, with orderly processes of empirical change occurring.
- Theory of motivational processes revolves around the maintenance of equilibrium and includes two main processes:
- Socialization: actors acquire the necessary orientations for performing their roles.
- Balance between deviant behavior motivations and social control mechanisms: counterbalancing motivations to restore equilibrium.
- The methodological significance of this approach lies in analyzing a boundary-maintaining system, which maintains certain constancies of pattern relative to its environment.
- Theory focuses on the conditions under which a constant system pattern is maintained or altered.
- The theory assumes the existence of initial and terminal patterns as reference points for analyzing processes of change.
- Socialization of the child is an example where defined patterns must exist for successful analysis of the process.
- The structural-functional theory applies to boundary-maintaining systems and relies on structural categories.
- Structural categories enable precise descriptions of system states and their variations over time.
- These categories are linked to the values of the theory of action and are crucial for understanding the functional prerequisites and imperatives of empirical systems.
- Inferences can be made from structural features of the system, limiting the range of variation in other facts.
- The assumption of a boundary-maintaining system implies the empirical significance of pattern constancy, essential for applying structural categories in explaining social systems.
- In the two chapters on motivational process, the work moved beyond structural imperatives for explanatory generalization.
- The analysis focused on the structure of roles, institutionalization, and internalization of value-orientations in defining role-expectations.
- Value-orientation patterns were used as the major reference for socialization, deviance, and social control.
- The work presents a paradigm, not a theory, as a system of laws.
- The mechanism concept, linked to the system, helped systematize knowledge on a paradigmatic level.
- Knowledge of laws, like the relationship between strain and reactions (e.g., anxiety, phantasy, hostile impulses), is crucial but incomplete.
- The paradigm serves two purposes:
- Mobilizes existing knowledge of laws in terms of system problems.
- Provides canons for research problems to extend knowledge of laws.
- A complete account of socialization requires more understanding of parental roles and their impact on the child’s personality.
- The paradigm is independent of specific role structures in interaction, allowing its application to any motivational process in any role system.
- The paradigm’s generality enables it to incorporate existing knowledge of laws and pose relevant research questions.
- The work aims to contribute to the development of a generalized theoretical system.
- A general theory of social system change is not possible yet due to incomplete knowledge of the laws of process.
- The theory of change in social system structure must focus on specific sub-processes, not overall system change.
- Theoretical knowledge of change processes is intertwined with knowledge of system laws.
- Empirical generalization can identify typical processes of change under certain conditions without fully explaining them in law terms.
- An example of empirical generalization is the biological life cycle, which lacks a general theory but is known to follow typical phases.
- There is no general empirical pattern for social system development like the biological life cycle due to cultural influence.
- Typical processes of change in social systems can be identified through empirical generalization, as discussed in Chapter V.
- The empirical significance of variables outside the theoretical system must be acknowledged.
- These variables fall into two categories:
- Organism constitution independent of orientation factors.
- Physical environment, which impacts social systems.
- A third set, cultural factors, is part of the theory of action, though some aspects are data for that theory, not part of it.
- Kroeber’s analysis of culture development emphasizes inherent configurations that influence culture patterns, which should be treated as data for the theory.
- The work deliberately refrains from addressing the influence of genetics, physiology, and physical aspects of the situation on concrete social phenomena.
- Empirical influence of these factors is acknowledged, but the work avoids proposing a theory of their interdependence with social action processes.
- The goal is to keep the space open for the influence of these variables, but no theory of their interdependence is developed.
- The importance of integrating biological and physical factors with the theory of action is emphasized for future research.
- The theory of action itself needs to be well developed for precise articulation of these interdependencies.
- It is argued that past theories have often emphasized non-action variables like heredity and environment, without linking them to the theory of action.
- Examples of such theories include Social Darwinism, which attempts to apply the law of natural selection to social development.
- The focus on the environment is also seen in theories like climatological explanations of social change.
- Theories focusing solely on biological or physical environment variables, without integrating the theory of action, are unlikely to be empirically satisfactory.
- Despite this, variables like population and genetic constitution are acknowledged as significant and need further integration with the social system and action terms.
- Human geography is seen as an important field for studying the interaction between social action and the physical environment.
- Cultural factors are an integral part of the theory of action, but the theory of the social system does not directly concern itself with the dynamics of culture.
- The social system theory assumes certain cultural facts as given and investigates their significance for social processes.
- The theory of culture will be discussed separately in the next chapter, and it is not directly concerned with social system dynamics.
- The importance of understanding culture in detail is emphasized for the theory of the social system.
- There is a parallel between heredity and environment theories and cultural theories regarding social change.
- It is logically possible to assume that social change is determined exclusively by culture and cultural development, given certain pre-action conditions in the environment and organism.
- This assumption was the basis for many evolutionary theories of social development, which emphasize the cumulative development of empirical knowledge.
- Theories by authors like Leslie White, Sorokin, and Ruth Benedict also focus on different aspects of cultural tradition as determinants of social change.