**4.5 Organised social change/Transformation processes (Changing the boxes)**

Too much can be made of the distinction between the normal ebb and flow of the day- byday social process, and more definitely intended changes in arrangements. Often the distinction is quite arbitrary, and in general change is best seen as lying on a continuum between normality and radical discontinuity. After all: plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme chose. On the other hand, there are social processes which directly and consciously involve the reshaping - or the attempted reshaping, or indeed defence - of existing structural arrangements. In order not to slight such processes, separate attention is needed.

Early theories of social change and revolution often focused on the collective behaviour of riots and disorderly assemblies which are often the human face of turbulent social change. Much (often essentially conservative) social commentary on these collective events stressed their irrational, sentiment-laden, 'mob psychology' nature, and the regression into animallike and imitative behaviour of those involved.

The array of social movements of the 1960s precipitated a much closer look at the mechanics of social change. The civil rights, women's, environmental, peace, gay/lesbian and other social movements were all struggling for success under the bright lights of media publicity. Reflection on the comparative successes and failures of these movements seemed a fertile ground for developing sociology of social movements. More recent writing in these areas has sometimes noted the links in their ideas to the enunciated strategy and tactics for

contemporary outcome of contemporaneous and historical struggles amongst various social groupings. Certainly, resources are often distributed along social class lines, and other lines of social cleavage such as gender and ethnicity are important. A host of empirical studies have been carried out on income distribution. To a considerable extent the rewards are related to the earning-capacity of individuals, which comes from those of their characteristics which are valued on the job-market. But in addition, sociologists have pointed out that much is shaped by the opportunity structures which they face, which they

The Mertonian concept of 'opportunity-structure' is a general-purpose framework often deployed by sociologists to indicate the ways in which groups differ in terms of their legitimate access to resources. For example, Merton argued that deviance was particularly generated in those groups where, despite a shared cultural pressure to do well, these groups lacked the ready access to achieve occupational or financial success. Such a propensity might be further reinforced when people in this position had access to an 'illegitimate'

opportunity-structure in which the means of deviance was available to them.

**4.4 Social reproduction/Maintenance processes (Keeping the boxes operational)** 

**4.5 Organised social change/Transformation processes (Changing the boxes)** 

arrangements. In order not to slight such processes, separate attention is needed.

Too much can be made of the distinction between the normal ebb and flow of the day- byday social process, and more definitely intended changes in arrangements. Often the distinction is quite arbitrary, and in general change is best seen as lying on a continuum between normality and radical discontinuity. After all: plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme chose. On the other hand, there are social processes which directly and consciously involve the reshaping - or the attempted reshaping, or indeed defence - of existing structural

Early theories of social change and revolution often focused on the collective behaviour of riots and disorderly assemblies which are often the human face of turbulent social change. Much (often essentially conservative) social commentary on these collective events stressed their irrational, sentiment-laden, 'mob psychology' nature, and the regression into animal-

The array of social movements of the 1960s precipitated a much closer look at the mechanics of social change. The civil rights, women's, environmental, peace, gay/lesbian and other social movements were all struggling for success under the bright lights of media publicity. Reflection on the comparative successes and failures of these movements seemed a fertile ground for developing sociology of social movements. More recent writing in these areas has sometimes noted the links in their ideas to the enunciated strategy and tactics for

Social structures take energy to keep going, even if they sometimes appear to have massive solidity. If there is a lapse in the supply of involvements social structures can quickly crumble (as perhaps the examples of the great South American civilisations shows.) Experimentation with small groups has suggested that some social structures require both task and cohesive leadership and activities and it is likely that their [pertains across many larger social structures too. Social reproduction also requires many 'behind the scenes' day

may be influence barely at all.

to day activities to run the structure.

like and imitative behaviour of those involved.

fostering social change advocated by social change activists and theorists such as Lenin, Trotsky, Mao and Alinsky. (This is part of a two-way trade in ideas between the lay world and analysts.)

A broad approach labelled 'resource mobilisation theory' (RMT) developed. One stream of this approach works at a social psychological level, making the assumption that in fact involvement in social change is rational, and attempting to explain people's involvement in terms of their incentives and costs (as in the broader REM model). At the membership level, the role of social network links in recruiting people and ensuring their continued participation is seen as crucial.

The other stream of RMT works at an organisational level, rather more as seen from the viewpoint of a social movement leader. It therefore is concerned with resources, recruitment, strategies and tactics, ideology and communication, not to forget organisational arrangements. In this approach, a distinction is made between the 'Social Movement Organisation' (SMO) or organisations in the vanguard of the conflict, and the long tail of the more or less almost-passive support which good causes often receive: or evil ones for that matter. It is not enough, of course, to concentrate on just the social movement itself, and the wider social environment, competitors and counter-movements have also to be taken into account. In addition, the needs of the organisation itself, just to maintain itself as an organisation, can begin to cut into, or even deflect, the drive for change.

Resource mobilisation theory can be seen as a broad framework within which historical understandings about social movements can be accumulated and particular theories about social movements can be tested. In more specificity, these analysts have argued that:


'New Social Movement' (NSM) theory, has arisen to partly complement and partly challenge the RM approach. The NSM theorists are much more concerned with the societal framework within which social change movements are launched, and in particular about the cultural and ideological messages they carry. A distinction is drawn between the older social movements for change, which are seen as strongly class-linked, and newer social movements which are seen as reflecting rather different sectional interests.

The more recent peace, environmental etc movements are seen to reflect a different set of values about society than those held in the mainstream of that society. This in turn, can lead to new organisational forms being adopted by them which better reflect these values. This

Analysing Social Structures 37

which they arose, the situation which resulted, from the changing situation of those changing, or against the background of those not contemporaneously involved in change. While many studies of social trajectories emphasise the smooth flow and long-term consistency of social trajectories, other studies focus on discontinuities and the effects of these on life-courses and contemporary situations. Such interruptions include deaths, major injuries or illnesses, mental breakdown, unemployment and other shocks, either to a person themself or to someone close to them. In 'life events' analysis it is assumed that individuals and social units are subject to occasional (perhaps regular and frequent) social shocks and

Life courses also needed to be viewed from the viewpoint of the social structure itself. At any one time, when a social structure is analytically frozen for viewing (as in a single camera shot) it must be remembered that, in fact, that any social structure is composed of various social groups and individuals each with different types of trajectory, different start-points and different destinations. Often the vectors of this past and future movement are not captured by social analyses which concentrate solely on the present. Differentiating between the variety of groupings, each on their different trajectories, may reveal a rather different

The succession of statuses occurring with sufficient frequency as to be socially patterned will be designated as a status-sequence, as in the case, for example, of the statuses successively occupied by a medical student, intern, resident and independent medical practitioner. In much the same sense, of course, we can observe sequences of role-sets and status-sets (Merton 1968: 424). Such sequences are not only recognised and expected but are often governed by 'socially expected durations' concerning the timing of each phase. An example of this is that of a 'lame duck' politician, after being defeated in the polls but not yet replaced by the victor. One mechanism tying such sequences together is 'anticipatory socialisation' in which people may orientate themselves to views and behaviour associated

Major portions of culture are orientated around providing meaning and a social context of social support through involvement in rituals around the time of the various break-points: birth, adolescence, adulthood, marriage, death etc. 'Rites de passage' serve to shore up the

A range of quite different types of study have been concerned with the patterns of people's movement within the social structure. Perhaps the most arduous producers of basic information about change are the demographers through their cohort analyses of births, deaths, migration, divorce etc of different age-sex groupings. Another important type of study are those which trace inter-generational occupational mobility between parents and sons or daughters (notably Blau and Duncan 1967). This type of study is vital in understanding how open or closed a social formation is to change over time: a 'closed' society sharply reproduces in the children their parent's social position, whereas a more 'open' society allows room for individual talent and other social factors to result in changed social arrangements between generations. This makes the study of occupational mobility of very considerable theoretical interest, although in practise the similarities of findings across divergent contexts seems to reduce the excitement that this type of study

uncertainties and risks associated with people's movement between stages.

that these contribute stress which is variously coped with.

understanding of social change.

with subsequent stages.

seems to promise.

new ideology tends to de-emphasise the material wealth concerns of the older agenda in contrast to 'quality of life' concerns, such as those relating to the physical environment. NSMs also tend to be egalitarian in terms of their political philosophy, stressing widespread political participation. Thus, NSMs confront various of the central values and structural arrangements of modern societies: materialism, traditional moral values, as well as class, patriarchy and racism. The very diffuseness of their social background can in turn lead to a marked fluidity of membership involvement (since involvement is not sanctioned by any social solidarity). NSMs are likely to be quite media-conscious and can use the media to appeal directly to supporters without building up large organisational support. Protest activities may be carefully staged, and indeed, they may have to be as they cannot deliver a solid steady block of voting support that is needed for involvement in traditional politics.

The NSM approach focuses on different aspects of social movements, but does not necessarily require a totally new sociological approach. It can be seen to blend in with the older resource mobilisation approach. In turn, both approaches can be seen to draw on a variety of theoretical models covering organisations, inter-organisational fields, networks, power etc. that are available within the general stocks of theoretical knowledge in sociology.

The sociology of revolution partially overlaps and partially extends the more general study of social change. 'Social revolutions are rapid, basic transformations of a society's state and class structures; and they are accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below' (Skocpol 1979:4). Because of their dramatic nature and their large-scale effects, revolutions must be firmly placed on the agenda of any sociological approach, as they can be seen as providing a crucial empirical test for any general theoretical approach.

But neither the study of social movements nor of revolutions exhausts the range of investigations required into broad processes of change and struggle between social groupings.
