Lesson 5: Cultural, Social, and Political Change

Lesson 5: Cultural, Social, and Political Change
Any shift in various aspects of the environment means change. Social change
refers to the significant modification or alteration in the lifestyle of society, including
culture. Social change also means any major shift or transformation in the lifestyle of the
society that affects the huge portion of the population that brings about a pattern of
behavior. It may be brought about by cultural, religious, economic, scientific, or
technological forces.
“Staying at home and the “new normal” because of COVID-19 are the best
examples of this. Any change of what we perceived as a usual thing in our lives, may it
be intentional or not, may lead to social change.
Cultural change refers to changes made in cultural elements, both material and
non-material.
Political change is when there is a significant disruption in a government that
leads to new or modified leadership or policies.
CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Technology. According to Thomas Friedman, American political commentator
and author, technology is the driving force behind globalization. People get connected
all over the world through technology. Technologically advanced countries are on the
rise. Technology contributes a lot to the modernization in the fields of medicine,
agriculture, manufacturing, and other industries. Life has been made easier through
technology. Technology has given so much comfort to us but we must also know its
downside. To name a few, it helps widen the gap between the technology savvy and
those who are not. It can also bring security risk in terms of data privacy issues, online
scams, online hacking, phishing, systems failure, and the like.
Social Institutions. Social institutions are established sets of norms and
subsystems in a society. Societies are composed of different segments and each
segment carries out specific tasks. Each sector also has different responsibilities that
contribute to the normal functioning of the society. Each change in a single social
institution, also leads to changes in all other institutions. For instance, the change in
technology has led to changes in other social institutions. The introduction of
machineries to be used in factories has led to a change in the acquisition of the
workforce where there are only few individuals are needed to run an industry than in a
manual work set-up.
Population. A change in population in the composition of every level in society
leads to social change. Regardless, whether the population increases or decreases, for
sure, it has a huge impact on all aspects of society.
Environment. A population change may affect the environment and the natural
resources. Likewise, a change in the environment will also affect the people and the
society. Because of the changes in the population (increase), people will now be using
all the natural resources available. The way human interacts with the environment and
the way members of the population utilize the resources aggravate the impact of those
natural disasters.
Modernization may also be considered as a typical result of social change. It
refers to the process of increased differentiation and specialization within a society,
primarily around its industry and infrastructure.
SOURCES OF CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE
Innovation is the use of new techniques to achieve desired ends. It also refers to
changing or creating more effective processes and ideas. This is the process of
translating a new knowledge into something that can create value.
Cultural Diffusion is the spread of culture, including aspects such as clothing
and food, from one group to another, typically because of contacting with a new group
for the first time. When one culture begins to adopt elements (clothing, food, religion,
costume, song, dance, language, etc.) of another culture, then cultural diffusion
happens. Filipinos experienced cultural diffusion when Korean Popular Music (KPOP)
was first introduced in the Philippines. The concept of KPOP music and K drama was
new to us at that time.
Acculturation is a process where a minority (small group of people) adopts the
cultural aspects of the majority (a large group of people) without losing own traditions
and customs. Looking back to our previous example about KPOP, many Filipino
millennials begin to speak and dress like their KPOP idol, but they can still retain their
Filipino culture.
Assimilation is a process whereby people of a culture learn to adapt to the ways
of the majority culture. There is a loss of the minority’s own culture as more value is
given to the cultural aspects of the majority.
SOCIAL CONTRADICTIONS AND TENSIONS
Social contradictions and tensions apply only to humans. There are instances
that a new idea somehow may lead to innovation, but instead, it can disturb patterns
and relationships between people, likewise, the encountering of other cultures may lead
to tensions and conflict.
Inter-ethnic conflict is an armed conflict between different ethnic groups. When
two or more ethnic groups meet because they are occupying or living in the same
territory, there are so many possibilities that may arise. One of these is
misunderstanding between these groups that would likely lead to conflict and would
result to war.
Political violence can be the result not only of ethnic conflict but also of class
conflict. In political science, political violence is a manifestation of aggressive politics,
and it includes revolutions, civil war, riots, strikes, and peaceful protest movements.
Two of the more severe forms of political violence are revolution and terrorism.
Revolution involves a public seizure of the state with the central goal of
overturning the existing political structures. Revolutions involve the public and are
usually attended by rapid, structural changes that commonly include the use of violence.
Terrorism occurs when nonstate actors use violence against civilians to achieve
their political goals.
Gender issue is also a source of social contradictions and tensions. The topic
on gender equality has been a subject on social discussions for quite some time up to
the present. Gender equality refers to a view that all genders, including men and
women, should receive equal treatment, and therefore should not be discriminated
against based on their gender. UNICEF (United Nations children’s Fund) describes
gender equality as “women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights,
resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or
women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike.

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