Critique Paper

Critique Paper

Describe how population, environment and urban society impact social change in general

Introduction

Social change is the change in society through social movements and external factors like the environment, population and technology. It is often said that change is the only unchanging fact of the society (rajeduboard,nic.in, 2000). The discipline of society emerged as the most permanent features of the society. In the most basic level, social change refers to those changes that are significant and can be seen in the structure of an object or situation over a period of time (Giddens, 2005). Thus, social change incorporates only the big changes that have transformed things fundamentally. The changes have to be intensive and extensive to see how much it has changed the society. There are two ways to identify the change. One by its impact which is structural change and the other one is in the ideas, values and beliefs.

Discussion

The structural change is as its name suggests is the change in the structure of the society and institutions of such a society. For Instance, when paper money was introduced as the currency so there was a major change in the financial markets and the way transactions took place. Further, change in values and beliefs also brings social change (rajeduboard,nic.in, 2000).In this paper we discuss the three factors, population, environment and urban society that has had impact on social change (Sociologyguide.com, 2011).

Population

A change in the populationin itself is a social change.A population which is stable is less likely to resist change; however, a population must migrateto improve its productivity or starve. Migration encourages further change for it brings a group into a different environment subjects to new social contacts.A major population change leaves the culture unchanged.

The composition of population that exists today changes every level of society. There are increase of birth rates in one country while decrease in another. Some nations prefer many children while some will only prefer to have a single child. Such changes in the population can be due to external factors or shifts in the social institutions. Regardless of the reasons of such shifts, such changes have dramatic impacts on the whole society. For instance, in the U.S there is an increase of the senior citizens population and this will change the way any institutions work. One affect could be demand for housing in the warmer climates (CBS News, 2011). An increase in population can lead ...