Page 303 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes these basic decisions which affect them from the outside. This produces not only a fatalistic outlook
towards life but also a suspicion of outsiders and a wariness of new ideas. The distrust of the outside
world does not unite them with their neighbours. The extended family draws together to defend
itself against the dishonesty of its neighbours. This is one segment of unity with the traditional society.
Production in the traditional society is limited due to limited resources, especially land.

A traditional society is basically agricultural. Its members are fatalistic, superstitious and
ignorant of the world outside their community. The units of loyalty in such a society are
family, village, caste or ethnic group.

Then comes the process of gradual transition. In this stage, the preconditions for take-off are developed.
Generally, these pre-conditions arise from external intrusion by an advanced society. These intrusions
stimulate new ideas and feelings and people begin to believe that economic progress is good as well
as possible. Some people go for education, some leaders emerge, and some new areas of investments
like trade and commerce appear. All this happens slowly because conventional social structures and
old values are difficult to change. Before the transition in institutions and values take place, certain
prerequisites of social change and economic growth must be present. These are: an awareness of
purpose, an eye to the future, a sense of urgency, the need for variety of opportunities and roles, an
intellectual appreciation of and an emotional preparedness for self-imposed tasks and, sacrifices,
and the emergence of a dynamic leadership.
In the take-off stage, resistances to steady growth are overcome and growth becomes a normal
condition. There is accumulation of capital, technological development in industry and agriculture,
and the emergence of a political group which takes up the modernisation of the economy as a serious
business. New industries expand rapidly and profits are reinvested to yield more expansion. The
number of workers increases and so do their wages.
A long interval of sustained growth follows the take-off. During this interval, there is a drive to
spread modern technology through an economic activity. New industries accelerate their rate of
expansion and production. An important aspect of the drive to maturity is that goods formerly
imported are now produced at home. Maturity is usually reached forty years after the take-off.
In the age of high mass consumption, there is a shift towards durable consumers’ goods and services.
America has emerged from this stage while western Europe and Japan are beginning to experience
its joys. Since no country has developed beyond this stage, it is impossible to say what the next stage
will be.
Does Social Change Precede or Follow Economic Development?

One view is that without economic development, change in social system is not possible, while the
other view is that it is the change in institutions operating in society which makes economic
development feasible. According to Frankel (see, Jean Meynaud, 1963), however, economic
development and social change are dependent on each other, that is, each is the cause and effect of
the other.
If we are to speak of the effects of technical change, we must be careful to avoid falling into the
common error of thinking that changes in “knowing how to do a certain thing” can be separated
from changes in “the actual doing of it”. The idea that technical change is an exogenous force altering
the established day-to-day activities of society springs from this erroneous way of speaking and
thinking. It consists in the fallacious belief that society’s activities proceed in two separate
compartments: the first containing the process of knowing, and the other containing the application of
such knowing. The same thing may be said about economic development and social change, that is,
whether the former leads to the latter or the latter leads to the former. As pointed out above, social
change neither precedes economic development nor follows it. Both are interrelated. For example,

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