First Lecture

Society: a large group of people who live together in

an organized way, making decisions about how to do things
and sharing the work that needs to be done. All the people in
a country, or in several similar countries, can be referred to
as a society

Social Morphology: It aims to study the out side frame of the

community/society , its social geographical environment,
demographical structure, social structure and the
environmental relation between all those components.

Social functions: It aims to study different shapes of social

life like culture and shape of arts in the community, and
every component represent a special class in social
science.(social system)

What is culture :
• Culture is a term that refers to a large and diverse set of
mostly intangible aspects of social life
• culture consists of the values, beliefs, systems
of language, communication, and practices that
people share in common and that can be used to
define them as a collective
The social system:
the social system consists of people or groups, which
interacts together in a situation (physically or
environmentally) to realize their targets through common
cultural symbols and in the frame of social values and norms

Components of Social system

A- The Structure Elements
social Role: it is an expected behavior from the society
toward a member in a certain situation
social status: it mean the rank or position in the society,
or the rank given to a person according his
characteristics
Authority: The authority is determined officially such
as the authority in governmental associations, or un
officially such as the authority in the family.
Rights: it means the protection from authority and from
duties or it seems to be the required obey from the
authority to accept the society needs.

B- The common values in each social system.

Goals:
• all members of the community act together to achieve it.
• goals are divided into 3 levels:
• First: long term goals: strategic goals ( 7 years or more)
• Second: middle term goals: general goals (3-7 years)
• Third: short term goals: operational goals (less than 3
years)
social Norms
• it means the basics which describe the expectable or un
expectable social action.
social facilities:
it means all tools which used by society or social system to
reach the social goals and it means all human and natural
resources which owned by the society may

Rural society definition: The rural society definition differs

from society to another and from country to another. There
is no clear agreement to define it. But this definition is
related to the goals, which each country deal with

Second Lecture
Social change: changes in human interactions and
relationships that transform cultural and social institutions.
These changes occur over time and often have profound and
long-term consequences for society

Auguste comte
Believed that human societies are progressing only
Through a scientific methods
Emile Durkheim
Is considered to be one of the founders of functionalism
believed that societies are moving naturally from simple to
complex social structure

Characteristics of social change

1- social change is social
a. Social change obviously means a change is system
of social relationships
b. Only that change can be called social change
whose influence can be felt in a community form
c. The change that have significance for all or
considerable segment of population can be
considered as social change
2- social change is universal
a) Change is the universal law of order
b) The social structure, social organizations and social
institutions are all dynamic.
c) Social change occur in all societies, no society
remain static for long time.

3- social change occurs as an essential law

a) Social change is unavoidable law of nature

 b) Our needs keep on changing to satisfy our desire for
change, and to satisfy those needs social change become
a necessity

4- social change is bound by time factors

a) Social change is temporal

b) It happens through time , cause society exists only as
time-sequences.

Theories of social change

1-Evolutionary theory
According to evolutionary theory society moves in a specific
direction, therefore early social evolutionist saw society as
progressing to higher and higher levels, as a result, they
concluded that their own cultural attitudes and behaviors
were more advanced than those earlier societies

2- conflict theory
Grounded in the idea of carl marks claims that the engine of
social change is conflicted between unequal social class.

Factors of change
• Physical environment
 • Population changes
• Isolation and contact
• Social structure
• Attitude and values
• Perceived needs
• Cultural base

Social change types

1-Positive social change

Process of transforming patterns of thought, behavior, social
relationships, institutions, and social structure to generate
beneficial outcomes for individuals, communities,
organizations, society, and/or the environment beyond the
benefits for the instigators of such transformations

2-Negative social change

Social change is often found to have negative impacts on
traditional community organization. In particular,
communities experiencing rapid social change often
demonstrate heightened perceptions of crime problems and
social disorder
Innovation definition
"Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby
organizations transform ideas into new/improved products,
service or processes, in order to advance, compete and
differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace

Technical innovations
Technical innovation is a technical extension of innovation.
The idea has a separate understanding in the fields of
academics, science, and business. It's a process of
implementing new ideas, experience, extensive knowledge
from a technical perspective

Social innovations
Social innovation refers to the process of developing and
implementing new, effective solutions to solve social or
environmental issues. Whether these come from national
policies, governmental or non-governmental entities, such
solutions should meet current social needs better than it has
been done before

Third lecture
rural development
is the process of improving the quality of life and
economic well-being of people living in rural areas
The main axes of the rural development strategies from the
world bank perspective.
• Focusing on the poor
• Encouraging growth on large scale
• targeting the entire rural space
• Building unions of all stakeholders

Integrated development
It is the development based on the optimal use of the
available resources in order to achieve the differed
development plans.

Sustainable development
It is the development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs

Sustainable development goals

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and support
sustainable agriculture
2. Ensuring healthy lives for all, at all ages
 3. Achieving gender equality and empowering all women
and girls.
4. Ensuring the availability of water and sanitation
services for all and their sustainable management.
5. Ensuring the access to affordable, and sustainable
modern energy services for all
6. Encourage a sustainable economic growth, and afford a
decent work for all.
7. Build infrastructure, equip comprehensive
industrialization, and encourage innovation
8. Reducing inequality within and between countries.
9. Make cities and human settlements safe and able to
resist sustainably
10. Ensuring sustainable consumption and production
pattern.
11. Encouraging the establishment of peaceful societies
where no one is marginalized.
12. Conservation of ocean, seas and marine resources
13. Protecting wild ecosystem and combat
desertification
14. Facing climate changes and its impact.

Fourth Lecture

The Principles of Sustainable Development

1-The sustainability of society
depends on the availability of health, employment, and
quality education. It is necessary to conserve all the
living beings in the world

2- Environmental sustainability
Sustainable development focuses on biodiversity,
cultural heritage, and cultural aspects of people.
Its conservation supports the environmental balance.

3-Economic sustainability
Economic sustainability is a broad set of decision-making
principles and business practices aimed at achieving
economic growth without engaging in the harmful
environmental trade-offs that historically accompany growth

Why Is Economic Sustainability Important?

A sustainable economy is essential for various reasons, with
justifications ranging from high-minded environmentalism
to corporate interest.
1- The longevity of the global economy
2- The preservation of human life
3- Unrealized discoveries
Economic Sustainability Examples
1. Devising less wasteful systems
2. Prioritizing low-impact economic development
3. Switching to renewable energy sources

How to Implement Economic Sustainability?

• Creating the infrastructure for economic sustainability
is a complex process that involves the full cooperation of
both the private and public sectors.
• On the individual level, however, retail investors can
direct their money toward companies whose values and
practices align with their own.
• Citizens can also encourage their elected officials to
create economic plans that include sustainable
development goals and caps on greenhouse gas
emissions.
• Ultimately, it’s only through large-scale action and an
overhaul of the financial systems that constitute the
global economy that society can achieve environmental
sustainability

Agro-tourism
• is a complex activity, a chance maybe today to ensure
both human health and the “health” of the environment
and rural settlements in order to achieve sustainability
of the rural environment
 • The sustainability of agro-tourism on rural health and
environment cannot be detached from the economic,
social and cultural life of the community in which it
establishes itself, and has a multiplier effect on all the
domains with which it interacts

Who should be involved in Agro-tourism? (cont..)

• For governments and tourist boards:
• . Collaboration is needed to make it happen
between government, industry and communities.
Governments should help create a vision of
sustainable tourism in their region or country to
plan sustainable strategies and investment
decisions.
• For rural developers:
• Development should be guided within
environmental limits, using local staff for long-term
opportunities,
• building strong links with the local community,
• infrastructure should be created and built in a way
to support sustainable living, and creating long-
term financial value.

Sustainable objectives of agro-tourism

 o Stop rural outmigration by keeping farmers on the
land,
o Improving the use of both natural and built rural
resources;
o Enhancement of environmental conservation and
management;
o Promotion of ”typical” rural products;
o Support for rural traditions and cultural initiatives;
o Development of agricultural areas;
o Development of youth and social tourism; and
o Enhancement of the relationship between city and
countryside

Agro-tourism challenges in Egypt

• Property tax problems,
• high insurance and liability costs.
• the limits of seasonality and weather are few among
many problems agritourism operators regularly face.
• Marketing for the business in a market that is not quite
familiar to this kind of tourism, as in the Egyptian
tourism market, is also a challenge
Sixth lecture
Climate Change Complications
1.Global Crises
2. Challenge to take collective action
3. Trans generational problem
4. Modern economy equal more GHGs emissions
5. It is slow moving crises
6. Energy companies are the world’s most powerful
companies
 Seventh lecture

What Is A System?
• A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent
elements or parts that function together as a whole to
accomplish a goal.
• A system is an orderly and complex arrangement of
parts.
• Large systems contain many sub-systems
• Earth is a subsystem of
our solar system, which is a subsystem of the Milky
Way Galaxy, which is a
subsystem of the universe

There are many types of systems:

• Physiological Systems: The digestive system,
neurological system, and circulatory system
• Economic Systems: Capitalism and Socialism
• Computer Systems: Network, mainframe, and PC
computer systems

Advantages of Systems Thinking

• Is a global approach to problem solving
• Helps employees “see the forest for the trees.”
• Enables team members to understand the big picture
• Focus: Systems thinking allows problem solvers to
identify cause and effect relationships. It focuses on the
activities necessary for change
• Teambuilding: Systems thinking helps team members
identify the objective of the team, and understand how
their individual activities contribute to that objective.

Common Elements of All Systems

 1) Input - the energy or raw material transformed by the
system
2) Output - the product of a system’s processing of input
3) Throughput - processes used by the system to convert
raw materials or energy from the environment into
products that are usable by either the system itself or
the environment.
4) Feedback - a product of the throughput that feeds back
into the system as input
5) Control - the activities & processes used to evaluate
input, throughput & output
6) Environment - the area surrounding the system
7) Goal - the overall purpose for existence or the desired
outcomes

When Should We Use Systems Thinking?

Problems that are ideal for a systems thinking intervention
have the following characteristics:
• The issue is important.
• The problem is chronic, not a one-time event.
• The problem is familiar and has a known history.
• People have unsuccessfully tried to solve the problem
before.
Systems Theory Two Assumptions:
1. All phenomena can be viewed as a web of relationships
among elements.
2. All systems have common patterns, behaviors, and
properties that can be understood and used to develop
greater insight into the behavior of complex phenomena

Basic Principles of Systems Theory

1. A system is greater than the sum of its parts.
2. The system studied must exhibit some predictability.
3. Though each sub-system is a self-contained unit, it is
part of a wider and higher order.
4. The central objective of a system can be identified by
the fact that other objectives will be sacrificed in order
to attain the central objective.
5. . Every system, living or mechanical, is an information
system.
6. A system and its environment are highly interrelated.
7.A highly complex system may have to be broken into
subsystems so each can be analyzed and understood
before being reassembled into a whole.
7. A system consists of a set of objectives and their
relationships.
8. A system is a dynamic network of interconnecting
elements. A change in only one of the elements must
produce change in all the others.
A tipping point in global warming is the point “past which
the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden
and self-perpetuating collapse.”