Continuity & Change1
the persistence or consistent existence of cultural elements in a society across time. Continuity can also be referred to as the maintenance of traditions and social structures that bring stability to a society.
Continuity:
the direction of community’s effects towards the continuity of their culture in response to the effects of globalisations. This is highly prevalent in indigenous communities such as the Zapatista in Mexico whose focus has turned from violent clashes with the government to preservation of traditional culture, heritage, language and identity attempting to maintain their values and social practices while still adopting and adapting to suit modernity.
Revitalisation:
incremental changes that accumulate over a long period of time to alter society on a large scale.
Evolutionary Change:
the ability of individual members of a group to work together to achieve a common goal that is in the group’s best interest and that contributes to the continued existence of the groups.
Cooperation:
Adopt – process where cultures come into contact and adopt the characteristics of the other culture e.g. migrants
Acculturation:
the theory of social stability where society is made up of institutions, all dependent upon functions of the other to maintain order. If one institution fails the others must adapt and take up to roles for continuity. The ways in which social structures meet social standards.
Functionalist Theory:
a response to globalisation whereby communities tailor certain and distinct ideas and practices to suit its local context. The process is often attributed to popular culture or corporate influence through consumerism and consumption due to globally standardised products. For example, community norms enforce an altered menu for McDonalds in Hindi countries as well as the expectations of Bollywood actors differing from Western styles but still retaining the fundamental concepts of the global culture.
Localisation:
a long-term alteration to society and the way it functions
Social Change:
process of learning how to live on the micro level resulting in informal enculturation.
Socialisation:
shared expectations of behaviour considered to be socially or culturally acceptable varying across groups, cultures and societies.
Cultural Norms:
A social theory that explains that societies develop over time and pass through a linear process of change. E.g. most societies pass through hunter & gatherer, agricultural, industrial, post-industrial. How societies develop from small, simple entities to complex, post-industrial societies.
Evolutionary Theory:
Sociologist, Patterson stated Continuity refers to any object, process or type of event that persists between two or more periods of time, entailing something that persists and some mechanism that accounts for persistence.
Social Continuity:
A social process where the values, customs and practices of Western industrial capitalism are adopted to form the basis of cultural change.
Westernisation:
process of learning to use patterns of behaviour to be an accepted member of that culture. Another form of socialisation.
Enculturation:
the body of cultural practices and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation, often by word of mouth and behavioural modelling, that are integral to the socialisation process and that represent stability and continuity of the society or culture.
Tradition:
A macro level theory that explain that social change and development derive from conflict resulting from inequalities and differences in power in any given society.
Conflict Theory:
Sociologist Ogburn coined cultural lag to explain the long period of time a culture may take to change as the non-material culture of values, attitudes and norms resist change taking longer to catch up to new technologies.
Resistance to Change – Cultural Lag:
A process of dynamic social change resulting from the diffusion and adoption of the characteristics of apparently more advanced societies by other societies that are apparently less advanced. It involves social transformation whereby; the society becomes technologically advanced and updates cultural life.
Modernisation:
practices, traditions, customs and knowledge defining who we are socially and personally as an expression of the values helping us understand our past, making sense of the present and express a continuity of culture for the future.
Cultural Heritage:
Deeply held ideas and beliefs that guide our thinking, language and behaviour. Differences in values exist among groups of people in society and are part of one’s culture. Values can be challenged.
Values:
the spreading of ideas, and adoption and learning from the experiences and knowledge of other countries.
Cultural Diffusion:
more dramatic and rapid than evolutionary change, often triggered by strong social movements or revolutions. Occurs concurrently on all levels and can significantly alter social systems, structure and shift people’s expectations, beliefs and values dramatically.
Transformative Change:
the social process that gives power or authority to people at a micro level, to groups at a meso level, and to institutions at a macro level, allowing them to think, behave, take action, control and make decision.
Empowerment:
a perceived incompatibility of goals or actions. This can occur at all levels in society and its resolution can involve modification to what was previously in place.
Conflict:
a set of opinions or convictions; ideas we believe in as the truth. Beliefs can come from one’s own experience and reflection, or from what one is told by others
Beliefs: