Full Description
"Ways of Social Change is very readable and has great discussion questions and suggested activities. It is one of the few books where I have had students volunteer praise for the book!"
- Connie Robinson, Central Washington University
The world is at our fingertips, but understanding what is going on has never been more daunting. Ways of Social Change is a primer for making sense of both rapidly moving events and the cultural and structural forces on which social life is built, while teaching critical thinking skills needed to understand social change. With an approach that is fresh, timely, challenging, and engaging, Ways of Social Change shows students how social change is both a lived experience and the result of our actions in the world. It invites the reader into the realm of social science, where clarification, understanding, and inquiry provide for both informed opinions and a path to effective involvement. The core of the book focuses on five forces that powerfully influence the direction, scope and speed of social change: science and technology, social movements, war and revolution, large corporations, and the state. A concluding chapter encourages students to examine their own perspectives and offers ways to engage in social change, now and in their lifetime.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Personal Experience of Social Change
A Twentieth-Century Life: Iris Summers
Personal Change and Social Change
The Rise of Civilization and the Two Master Trends in Modern Times
Iris Summers' Time and Place in Global Context
The More Things Change ...
Drivers of Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 2. Recognizing Social Change
Ways of Recognizing Social Change
Inquiry Into Social Change
Generations and Social Change
Cohort, Age, and Period Effects of Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 3. Understanding and Explaining Social Change
First Steps in Understanding Change
Society as an Evolving System
Society as the Site of Conflict, Power, and the Resolution of Contraditions
Making Sense of Modern Times
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 4. Technology, Science, and Innovation: The Social Consequences of New Knowledge and New Ways to Do Things
The Technology of Literacy
Changing Technology and Centuries of Change
Technology as an Agent of Social Change
The Science-Technology Nexus
Innovation and Social Change
Technology and the Question of Western Expansion
Technology and Social Change in the Periphery
Resistance to Technology or Resistance to Change?
Technology Transfer: The Global Spread of Technology
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 5. Social Movements: Social Change Through Contention
Politics by Other Means
What Is a Social Movement?
Linking Social Movements to Social Change
Social Movements and Resistance to Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 6. War, Revolution, and Social Change: Political Violence and Structured Coercion
War as Coercive Politics
Not All Wars Are the Same
War as an Instrument of Social Change
Revolution and Social Transformation
War, Revolution, and Resistance to Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 7. Corporations in the Modern Era: The Commercial Transformation of Material Life and Culture
Large Corporations in Modern Times
The Corporation's History of Transformation
How Large Corporations Direct Social Change
Large Corporations and Resistance to Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 8. The State and Social Change: The Uses of Public Resources for the Common Good
Strong States and Social Change
Public Health: Reducing Disease and Accidental Death as a Public Good
National Progress Through the Control of Nature
The Judicial Road to Civil Rights
State-Driven Social Change in Modern China
Resistance to State-Directed Social Change
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
Chapter 9. Making Social Change: Engaging a Desire for Social Change
Three Contrasting Visions
The Future - Predictable and Otherwise
Using Your Human Agency
Vocations of Social Change
Agency and Ethical Responsibility
Activism as a Part of Life
Social Change Happens
Topics for Discussion and Activities for Further Study
References
Name Index
Subject Index
