Page 14 - DSOC403_SOCIOLOGY_OF_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT_ENGLISH

Sociology of Change and Development
Notes
8 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
Parivartan and Vikas ka Samaj Shastra book
Parivartan and Vikas ka Samaj Shastra book
Objectives
After going through this unit, the students will be able to—
• Understand the concept of evolution,
• Knowledge of progress and process.
Introduction
Social change is an indifferent process. It does not express good or evil. When we assimilate direction,
order of change, social values, quality and quantity etc in social change, then concepts of processes
of change, such as growth, adaptation, development, evolution, progress, declination, revolution etc
are realized. Many times these different concepts are used in common meanings. Not only common
man, but many social scientists have been mistaken and have been unable to differentiate them. Father
of sociology, Auguste Comte, was also unable to explicitly differentiate among evolution, progress,
and development. Hobhouse used development and progress to have only one meaning. However,
the change that is titled as development by Hobhouse, modern sociologists term it as progress. The
use of these words does not have clarity even in the works of famous sociologists, such as Spencer,
Lester Ward, Marx and Giddings. It is inevitable that processes of social change despite having good
relationship with each other from logical point of view are indicators of different forms.
Evolution
In sociology, the concept of evolution has been adopted from zoology. Darwin propounded about his
evolutional principle of origin of organisms and said that evolution of has occurred from simplicity to
complexity and similarity to diversity. Social scientists like Spencer and Morgan applied evolutional
thoughts on society and culture.
2.1 Meaning and Definition of Evolution
The spreading of any substance toward outer direction is called evolution, but from scientifi c view
this meaning of evolution is incomplete. Scientifically, evolution is such a process in which a simple
substance or organism presumes complexity because of sequential change. For example, germination of
a seed to form a tree or transformation of a cell to a human baby is evolution. In this way, when change
occurs in a definite direction in qualities, framework and functions of a substance, then we call it as
evolution. We can represent evolution with the following formula:
Evolution = Continuous changes + Definite direction + Formal difference + diversity in formation and functioning
Defining the meaning of evolution, Spencer has written that, “The more specific idea of Evolution now
reached is – a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity,
accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.” In this way, in evolution, a substance
changes from evenness to unevenness. This results in the increase of complexity of a substance.
MacIver and Page writes that “When there is not only the continuity of change, but direction of change,
we mean evolution.” MacIver has called evolution as change that occurs due to internal powers.
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