What changes are taking place in modern society. Drivers of social change

In the development of society at the turn of the third millennium, such profound social changes took place that modern society could seem to a person from the recent past as some other, completely unearthly civilization. At the same time, he would be shocked by several material attributes of life. modern people, no matter how unusual and complex they may be, so much by the very structure of the social system. Even, say, two hundred years ago, the nature of society was fundamentally incomprehensible and was considered mainly as a divine given. At the same time, stability and stability, the absence of changes were perceived by many peoples as the greatest blessing. Against this background, the current human civilization appears to be a bizarrely changing and constantly renewing social phenomenon. Sometimes there is a fairly clear feeling of the presence in it of a certain life-giving force, which gives a certain form to the formless, a harmonious structure to the structureless, a permanent movement to the almost dead. And, surprisingly, such a very self-sufficient force is precisely social technology, planning, designing, updating, shaping, structuring and creating new problems that it itself has to solve.

What is currently happening in the social technologies, can be unequivocally defined as a technological revolution, brought to life by a combination of factors that are constantly gaining strength, which are increasingly covering the global social space. These, as the analysis shows, include the following very important factors of the technologization of modern society.

1. All spheres of social life of a significant part of the planet's population are rapidly being updated, civilization is gaining the dynamics of social changes, and the zones of traditionalism are constantly narrowing. Practically before our eyes, social innovations are turning from sporadic, discrete and relatively rare characteristics of modern society into its immanent property, which becomes permanent, total and irreversible. At the same time, the algorithms of social cognition and practical activities people have ceased to be "long-playing", and the general change and permanent renewal are now turning into the main means of ensuring sustainable social development.

2. The worldwide process of global democratization of social systems, which has developed especially intensively since the early seventies of the XX century. and called the "third wave", rapidly leads society to an increase in the importance of the individual, the establishment of pluralism of opinions, tolerance for someone else's position, the fall of the totalitarian and authoritarian forms of organization of society and, accordingly, the destruction of rigid and established dogmatic social activity systems. The era of technology determinism and its monism is being replaced by the era of technological freedom and pluralism.

3. There is a dynamic process of transition of the avant-garde of modern societies (that is, highly developed Western countries) to an informational, higher phase of development. Industrial civilization is thus gradually fading into the past. And although this process is still quite contradictory and uneven, information, its flows, institutions and virtual reality penetrate deeper and deeper into all spheres of modern society and not only determine its essence, but also become vital and important. necessary resource his further development. Social cognition and practice are increasingly turning into the processing of huge arrays of diverse social information, which are mediated by subjects. social activities from its objects.

4. The so-called tertiary sphere of modern society is developing rapidly, which includes science, culture, education, health care, recreation, service and protection of human rights. By the end of the XX century. very large-scale changes in the field of employment of people became clear, related to the fact that for the first time in the history of mankind, the main part of the population is the most developed countries actively leaving the sphere Agriculture and industry and moving into the service sector. Industrial technologies, therefore, are gradually losing their former significance, and not only the social sphere of society, but also the social space as a whole is becoming the main object of technologization.

5. The humanization of public life is accelerating, the importance of the humanitarian factor in the development of society is growing, social and humanitarian aspects are pushing purely technical and production-technological aspects into the background. Significant changes in the social structure of modern society ensure the entry into its active and socially significant activities of the humanitarian part of the population, which in the coming years will dominate the social composition of the population of most countries of the world.

6. The achievement of a planetary limit in the development of civilization is clearly felt, when real obstacles arise for its development in breadth, and the possibilities of space, in fact, still pioneering, activity have not yet fully developed. Humanity is already getting cramped within the current boundaries of the planet. But we have to put up with this for the time being, as well as restrain the cognitive and practical expansion and direct the main efforts to deepen social cognition and more effectively transform the limited social space. In this regard, there is a change of emphasis in social activity - moving them from macroprocesses to microprocesses.

7. The global problems of modern civilization are becoming much more acute, which actually call into question the very existence of modern society and can only be resolved by the joint efforts of all countries and peoples. Mankind is more like an "elephant in a china shop", whose violent life activity can lead not only to "broken dishes and the destruction of the shop", but also to their own death. Therefore, global expansion is inevitably replaced by global constructivism, and creative prowess is replaced by creative caution.

8. The processes of social integration and diffusion of civilizations, social and cultural systems are also intensifying. These processes make it possible to ensure the interaction of the rational and the irrational, knowledge and evaluation, evaluation and practice, practice and knowledge. In addition, mutations and borrowings are taking place at a noticeable pace. technological systems, as well as expanding opportunities for the use of social technologies.

It should be emphasized that social technologies, the place and role of which in the life of modern society have grown so much, have themselves become the subject of study of various scientific disciplines, such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, political science, praxeology, etc. In addition, these sciences have become so "heavy" from technological knowledge that there was an urgent need to form an independent sphere of scientific knowledge - the theory of social technologies, which should, first of all, become the theoretical basis of social engineering activities.

Along with this, in countries moving from totalitarianism to democracy, from a command economy to a market economy, the problem of social technologies is of particular importance. In fact, there is a historical change of paradigms (or types) of socio-technological activity. The main tasks facing these countries at the present stage are, first of all, the rejection of technologies that lead to the suppression of the individual through authoritarian (totalitarian) social mechanisms, and the development of the vast experience accumulated by world social science and practice in designing, developing and implementing social and humanistic technologies, the need for which is becoming more acute and obvious.

Overcoming the total crisis in Ukrainian society is not without reason associated with a radical increase in the efficiency and quality of social management, a large-scale expansion of the processes of self-organization and self-government, which make it possible to fill the idea of ​​a legal, democratic and social state with real content, as well as to give it modern and civilized forms. In short, life itself puts forward the development and implementation of innovative social technologies in general and technologies of social management and self-government in particular as the main problems on the agenda.

However, during the transitional period, exclusively great importance acquires mastery not only of technologies of social adaptation, adaptation to new market conditions and ways of survival of both collectives and individuals, but above all, technologies for updating the social system and all its constituent elements. Such a broad socio-technological approach corresponds to the maximum extent to the essence and goals of the current phase of the transformation of our society. There was a fairly clear positioning of society for constructive changes. The era of the national liberation and people's democratic revolutions with their destructive and critical, in many respects spontaneous processes, has practically ended. The country is beginning, albeit slowly, but more and more confidently, to move to creative and constructive forms of social modernization. Under these conditions, the socio-technological approach begins to significantly and more actively influence the mechanisms of renewal of society and its subsystems. Now it is becoming clear to everyone that the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine " good law"or the issuance of a "good decree" by the President of Ukraine does not automatically lead to the necessary social changes. On this path, first of all, a serious technological study of one or another area of ​​social reform is needed, and everywhere we need effective and verified by practice social technologies based on the principles of rationalism and humanism.

Thus, a kind of "breakthrough" has been outlined in the development of social technologies, which will continue to grow. In all likelihood, social technologization has already begun to turn into one of the leading trends in world social development. At the same time, the expansion of the scope of application of diverse social technologies inevitably brings to the fore the rather complex problem of training highly qualified specialists - social managers, engineers and technologists who are able to develop, design, construct, implement social technologies and ensure their effective functioning at all levels of the organization of the social system. Here we are talking not only about knowledge in the field of the theory of social technologies, which are dynamically updated, but about a special type of socio-technological culture of modern specialists, which consists in mastering them new paradigm scientific thinking and vision social reality as dynamic, multidimensional, non-linear and stochastic.

Proposed tutorial, although it is a pioneer in domestic socio-pedagogical practice, in a concentrated form it reflects the developing and growing trend towards the technologization of modern society and the transformation of sociological science from a means of simply fixing what is happening into an active factor in the humanization of society, its comprehensive social transformations. the main objective teaching this course in higher educational institutions is to help students comprehend the content, nature, structure and main aspects of the technological function of sociology, to master social technologies as a system of knowledge, the principles of technological thinking and attitude to social reality, as well as ways to scientifically substantiate its change. From here follows a whole range of tasks: mastering the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the theory of social technologies, its principles, methodology and basic concepts; familiarization with the history of social technologies, domestic and foreign achievements in this area; mastering ways social design, forecasting and planning, as well as testing and implementing social technologies and developing on this basis the skills of social engineering thinking; study of the species diversity of social technologies, levels and methods of technologization of modern social systems; comprehension of the most important patterns, trends, problems and contradictions of the technologization of society and its subsystems, a responsible and realistic attitude towards it.

At the same time, the special complexity of this training course should be emphasized, since its study requires preliminary deep knowledge in the field of such scientific disciplines as sociology, political science, psychology, cultural studies and the theory of social management, elements of which are found in all sections and topics of this course. Also important is the fact that this training course cannot be simply memorized and adequately reproduced on the exam. It requires the formation of a fundamentally new style of thinking characteristic of social technologies, which is based on the craving for innovation and reform, the desire to see modern society in a systematic way and in all the diversity of its essences. And, of course, the socio-technological paradigm implies, first of all, a careful and humanistic attitude towards the objects of social technologies - society, its various structures and people.

When presenting educational material presented in this manual, the authors widely used the works of not only domestic, but also foreign researchers published in recent years.

A. GIDDENS

Sociology offers a clear and eminently comprehensive perspective on human behavior. The study of sociology involves the gradual abandonment of our personal view of the world, the identification of social influences that shape our lives. Sociology does not deny or downplay the authenticity of individual experience. Rather, through it we become better acquainted with our individual properties, and hence with the properties of other people, by developing sensitivity to the wide universe of social activity in which we are all involved... The study of sociology is partly an exploratory process. No one can study sociology without questioning some of their deeply held beliefs.

Sociology: problems and prospects

We live today - at the end of the 20th century. - in a world that is seized with anxiety and is still full of expectation of the future. This is a world that is constantly changing, under the threat of nuclear war and characterized by destructive destruction of the environment. modern technology. Nevertheless, we can control our destiny, make life such as it was not dreamed of by previous generations. How is the world? Why are our living conditions so different from those of our ancestors? What will be the future? These questions are the subject of sociology, a discipline that must play a fundamental role in modern intellectual culture.

Sociology is the study of human social life, social groups and societies. It is a dazzling and exciting enterprise that has as its subject our own behavior as social beings. The interest of sociology is extremely wide - from the analysis of unexpected meetings of individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. ... Understanding the subtle, complex, and profound ways in which our lives reflect the contexts of our social experience is the foundation of the sociological approach. A special interest of sociology is social life "in modern world- a world that has emerged as a result of profound changes in human societies that have taken place over the past two hundred years.

Change human life over the past two hundred years has been radical. It's about about, for example, that the majority of the population no longer works on the land; lives in cities rather than small rural communities. This was not the case before the modern era. Throughout virtually the entire history of the world, the vast majority of the population produced their own livelihoods, lived in small groups or small village communities. Even during the heyday of the most advanced traditional civilizations - ancient Rome or traditional China - less than 10% of the population lived in cities, and each of them was still involved in agriculture. Today, in highly developed industrial societies, these proportions have almost reversed: as a rule, more than 90% of the population lives in urban agglomerations and only 2-3% of the population is employed in agriculture.

Not only the external aspects of life have changed. Change has radically transformed and continues to transform the most personal and intimate aspects of our daily existence. To expand on the previous example, the spread of the ideals of romantic love was largely due to the transition from rural to urban, individual society. When people moved to the city, began to work in industrial production, then marriage was no longer determined solely by economic considerations - the need to control the inheritance of land and cultivate the land with the whole family. "Contractual" weddings, concluded through agreements between parents and relatives, became less and less common. Individuals began to enter into family relationships based on feelings and searches for personal fulfillment. The idea of ​​"falling in love" as the basis of marriage was formed in this context.

Similarly, before the advent of modern medicine, European views of health and disease did not differ from those of non-Western countries. Modern methods Diagnosis and treatment, which arose with the recognition of the importance of hygiene in the prevention of infectious diseases, did not appear until the beginning of the 18th century. Our views of health and disease have been part of a broader social transformation that has influenced many aspects of our approach to biology and to nature in general.

Sociology begins with an attempt to understand the initial impact of the changes that accompanied industrialization in the West. It still remains the basic discipline dealing with the analysis of its nature. The world today is radically different from previous centuries. The task of sociology is to help understand this world and its probable future.

Sociology and "common sense"

The practice of sociology involves gaining knowledge about ourselves, the societies in which we live, and other societies that differ from ours in space and time. Sociological research both interferes with and contributes to our ordinary views of ourselves and others. Consider the following statements:

1. Romantic love is a natural part of the human experience and therefore exists in all societies and is closely related to marriage.

2. The duration of human life depends on physical health and is not affected by social differences.

3. In earlier times, the family was a stable unit, but today the number of divorces has greatly increased.

4. In all societies, people are unhappy or oppressed, so the suicide rate should always and everywhere be about the same.

5. Most people always value material well-being and try to achieve it if circumstances are favorable.

6. Wars - component human history. If today we are facing the threat of nuclear war, it is because human beings have aggressive instincts that are always looking for a way out.

7. The spread of computers and automation in industrial production will drastically reduce the average working day of the majority of the population.

Each of these claims is wrong or questionable, and sociologists are trying to prove it.

1. As we have noted, the idea that the marriage bond should be based on romantic love is relatively recent and did not exist in the early history of Western societies or other cultures. Romantic love is unknown in most societies. 2. The duration of human life is highly dependent on social conditions. Forms of social life act like "filters" for biological factors causing sickness, sickness, or death. The poor are, on average, less healthy than the rich, for example, because they tend to eat less, exercise more, and have poor health care.

3. If we go back to the beginning of the 19th century, we will see that the proportion of children living with only one parent was the same as now, since so many people died in their youth, especially women during childbirth.

Breakup and divorce are the main cause of single-parent families today, but their total number is almost the same as before.

4. The suicide rate is not the same in all societies. Even if we take only Western countries, we will find that the percentage of suicides in them is different. In the UK, for example, he V four times higher than in Spain, but only one third of the level in Hungary. The number of suicides increases sharply during the main period of industrialization in Western countries - in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

5. The value that many people in modern societies place on well-being is largely a consequence of recent developments. It is associated with the rise of "individualism" in the West - the emphasis we place on individual achievement. In many other cultures, individuals are expected to prioritize the common good over their own own desires and inclinations. Material well-being is often not valued above other values, such as religious ones.

6. People not only do not have aggressive, but are completely devoid of instincts, if by the latter we mean fixed and inherited patterns of behavior. Moreover, during most of / human history, when people lived in small tribal groups, war did not exist. V the form it later took. Only some of these groups were aggressive, most were not. There were no standing armies, and when skirmishes occurred, their causes were jointly eliminated or reduced to a minimum. The threat of nuclear war today is caused by the process of "industrialization of war", which is the main aspect of industrialization in general.

7. The seventh sentence is different from the previous ones, as it refers to the future, V about which one should at least be careful. There are very few fully automated enterprises, and jobs that disappear due to automation are created in other industries. It is still impossible to be sure of the truth of this statement. One of the tasks of sociology is to choose a clear approach to such processes.

It is obvious that sociological results do not always contradict generally accepted views. Common sense ideas are often the source of correct understanding of human behavior. What needs to be emphasized is the need for the sociologist to be prepared to ask whether, however close they may be to reality, our ideas of ourselves are true. In doing so, sociology also helps to clarify what constitutes "common sense" in this moment time and place. Much of what we take for granted, that “everyone knows”, such as the fact that divorce rates skyrocketed after World War II, is based on the work of sociologists and other social scientists. material on specific forms of marriage and divorce. The same is true of many other areas of our "common sense."

social change as a sociological definition. – Innovation. – Social process and its main types. - Social movements. - Social progress. – Concepts of social modernization.

Society is never static. There are no immutable objects and subjects in the social sphere. Cultural complexes, composition of groups, relationships between people are changing. This, in turn, affects changes in society, its policies, and the way people live. Even the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (end of the 6th century - beginning of the 5th century BC) expressed the idea of ​​continuous change: “Everything flows, everything changes”, “You cannot enter the same river twice”. Changes happen every hour, every minute. A person grows or ages, is born or dies. New organizations and global social systems are emerging and old ones are falling apart.

When studying the changes taking place in society, they are usually divided into social - changes in the social structure and social relationships in society and cultural - changes in the culture of society.

Social change may include population growth, rising educational levels, a decrease in awareness, a change in the environment of an individual when moving from a village to a city, a change in the relationship between workers and management when a company is reorganized, etc.

Cultural change may include technical inventions, change social norms, the formation of new social values, cultural patterns, standards of behavior, etc. Often cultural changes are social at the same time. For example, a change in moral norms can lead to a change in the relationship between social communities, and vice versa. Almost all important changes have both cultural and social aspects, and therefore the term "sociocultural" or, for short, "social change" is applied to them.

In sociology, social change refers to the transformations that occur over time in the organization, structure of society, patterns of thought, culture and social behavior. Change is the transition of a social object from one state to another, a significant transformation social organization, social institutions, the growth of the diversity of social forms. Or: change is the difference between what the system represented in the past and what became of it after a certain period of time. The types of social change are very diverse. They can cover the entire social system, or they can give “priority” to some aspect (element), they can be short-term or long-term, they can lead the system to development or decline. Social change must be viewed as a multifactorial process influenced by “challenges” external environment, changes in the economy, ideology, etc.

"Social change" as a definition is not identical to such a concept as "development". The latter denote directed changes in material and spiritual objects from simple to complex, from lower to higher, etc. Social changes can be regressive in nature or take place within the framework of maintaining a certain social system and its basic structures - the so-called "balance changes".

What is the mechanism of social change, how do they proceed? The basis of social change is always the result of authorial or anonymous, random or spontaneous inventions and discoveries offered to society - the so-called innovation. In our case, social innovation. Material innovations can also have a social component.

Innovation, penetrating into society, causes social change (s). However, not all proposed innovations are accepted by society. Others may be taken immediately or after a long time. One of the factors influencing resistance to innovation can be considered the presence in society of subjective attitudes that can hinder the adoption of change and even block it. For example, using their power, leaders may simply not comply with the requirements of the innovation law under many pretexts and thus block it. Social change must always overcome the resistance of subjective attitudes, for the reason that there is never such a favorable situation when everyone unanimously supports social change.

A factor influencing the speed of adoption of innovations is the demonstration of their capabilities to a wide audience. Experience shows that an innovation is more quickly adopted if its usefulness can be easily demonstrated, and vice versa. Specificity social innovation that it is difficult to demonstrate to society their positive effect immediately. Therefore, practically all social changes (for example, new laws) are introduced into life by overcoming distrust, resistance, and often through severe coercion. However, by infiltrating everyday life, innovations are already familiar and necessary.

Cultural compatibility plays an important role in the acceptance of innovations. Often they come into conflict with existing cultural patterns. When this happens, the innovation is simply rejected by society or accepted along with its conflicting traits, but these traits are occasionally protested, making its acceptance unsustainable. Innovations then successfully converge, i.e. merge with the established elements of culture when they have a positive social effect for society. Modern society, which is an extremely dynamic entity, must respond to innovations, accept and master them in social, cultural and other areas of human activity. Non-acceptance of innovations immediately generates the stagnation of social life and social effects with signs of regression. A non-dynamic society lags behind other societies striving for innovation and cannot claim well-being in social life.

Social changes that occur through the mechanism of introducing innovations into a particular social system require a mandatory process, possibly short or extended in time.

The social process is the unidirectional actions of people, leading to a change in the state of the elements in the social system. Without processes leading to certain changes, a social system cannot exist.

From the whole variety of social processes, sociology has identified the main ones: cooperation, competition (rivalry), adaptation, conflict, assimilation, amalgamation. Cooperation as a set of joint actions and interactions is known to all societies and in all historical periods. Cooperation from the Latin language means "to work together." Cooperation is based on the conscious desire of people to achieve the greatest effect from joint activities. A person who cannot easily and freely cooperate, i.e. enter into joint actions with other people, ultimately will not be successful in life.

Cooperation as a social process is not only joint productive work. Cooperation appears in the form of many people working in large-scale organizations. The desire of people to cooperate to achieve common goals is expressed through government agencies, private firms, etc. Such cooperation not only includes many people in a given society, but also leads to the creation of a network of organizations that cooperate activities at the level of state, regional, national and international relationships.

Cooperation implies the simultaneous presence next to it of such a manifestation of the social process as competition. Competition is understood as the desire to achieve rewards by eliminating or outperforming rivals striving for identical goals. It can be money, power, status, love, etc. Competition is based on the fact that people can never satisfy all their desires. Therefore, competitive relations flourish both in conditions of abundance and in conditions of scarcity of goods, services, positions, freedoms, etc. Competition can be personal or impersonal. For example, an entrepreneur fights for sales markets without personally knowing his competitors. In this case, competitors may not identify their partners as rivals.

Although competition and rivalry are inherent in all societies, the severity and forms of their manifestation are very different. In societies where there are mostly prescribed statuses, competition tends to be less visible. At the same time, in societies with mainly attainable statuses, competition permeates all spheres of social life. For a person living in such a society, competitive relations begin in childhood and continue virtually throughout life.

The significance of competition in the life of society, in the implementation of social processes in it, lies in the fact that it stimulates the elements of society, individuals to achieve victory through creation. At the same time, competition is not a panacea for all ills and is not the only (let alone universal) type of social process that leads to social change. People, as participants in the competitive struggle and its initiators, under certain circumstances, may strive to weaken competition. If the conditions of the struggle are associated with excessive anxiety, risk and loss of a sense of certainty, security, people begin to protect themselves from competition. Businessmen go to secret deals and collusion to avoid competition, some sectors of the economy require the protection of their interests by the state, and these preferences are not always justified. Almost every social group seeks to protect itself from harsh competitive conditions. Thus, people may move away from competition simply because they are afraid of losing everything they have.

In addition, competition under certain circumstances can turn into a conflict (the conflict will be discussed in more detail in the next topic). Consent to a peaceful struggle for certain values, rewards through rivalry is often violated. A competitor who is inferior in skill, intellect, or ability may be tempted to seize value through violence, intrigue, or by violating the existing laws of competition. His actions can generate a backlash: competition turns into conflict with unpredictable results.

Adaptation (adaptation) is the adoption by an individual or a social group of cultural norms, values, samples, standards of a new environment. Adaptation begins when the norms and values ​​learned in the previous environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs, do not create acceptable behavior. For example, emigrants in a foreign country are trying to adapt to a new culture, schoolchildren go to college and must adapt to new requirements, to a new environment. In other words, adaptation is the formation of a type of behavior suitable for life in changing environmental conditions. To one degree or another, adaptation processes proceed continuously, since environmental conditions are constantly changing. Depending on the assessment by the individual of changes in the external environment and the significance of these changes, adaptation processes can be short-term or long-term, take the form of submission, compromise, tolerance.

Assimilation - it is a social process of mutual cultural penetration, through which individuals and groups come to a common culture shared by all participants in the process. It is always a two-way process in which each group has the opportunity to infiltrate its culture into other groups in proportion to its size, prestige and other factors. Assimilation can significantly weaken and extinguish group conflicts, mixing individual groups into one large group with a homogeneous culture. This is because social conflict involves the separation of groups, but when the cultures of the groups are assimilated, the very cause of the conflict is eliminated.

Amalgamation - biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. Racial and national prejudice, caste isolation or deep conflict between groups can form a barrier to amalgamation. If it is incomplete, then status systems may appear in society, in which status will be measured by “purity of blood”. But once the process of amalgamation is complete, the boundaries between groups are blurred and the social structure no longer depends on "purity of blood".

Assimilation and amalgamation are objectively determined processes that ultimately have undeniable positive social changes. These processes have taken place and will continue to take place, as society constantly produces social boundaries, barriers between newly emerging communities.

The main types of social processes noted above are the result of the efforts of individuals or groups of individuals organized into one or another community, organization: under certain circumstances, these efforts become massive, uniting collective actions, shared values, ideas of individuals belonging to different strata. This form of social process is usually defined as a social movement.

A social movement is a set of collective actions aimed at supporting social change or supporting resistance to social change in society, in a social group. This definition unites a wide range of social movements: religious, economic, youth, feminist, political, revolutionary, etc. Social movements are less stable and more dynamic, changeable in their patterns of behavior, usually relatively poorly organized and formalized compared to parties and other social political institutions and organizations. But in the course of their development, social movements can reach such a level of organization, formalization, that they turn into one or more socio-political organizations.

Social movements are an important object of study by political science. However, sociological analysis differs significantly from political science. The study of the nature of social movements made it possible to better understand their inner content, their essence. Based on this, sociology distinguishes the so-called expressive movements. The nature of their occurrence is as follows. When a certain group of people feel uncomfortable within a certain social system, recognizes its imperfection for itself, but does not seek to change it, but finds a way out for itself through various expressive, emotionally vivid actions, which is manifested by the participation of individuals in this type of social movement. Such actions can be ritual dances ( ancient world), mysteries (Middle Ages), youth subcultures (modern times).

Expressive social movements allow those who feel antagonistic to the reality around them and are included in these movements to receive some relief through emotional release, make their life tolerable.

Often expressive movements refer to the glorious past and the exploits of the ancestors. These movements revive bygone rituals, symbolism and find emotional satisfaction in wearing old military uniforms or returning to old customs and behaviors. Such movements are most often associated with passive behavior, escape from reality through memories or dreams. At the same time, such expressive movements can pave the way for reforms or lead to revolutions, since they revive traditions and can function as a force to arouse a passive population. This is also facilitated by the desire of most people to idealize the past, to oppose the "heroic" times to the present. This property of expressive movements can make them an intermediate link between non-political and active political movements.

One form of social movement is the so-called utopian. Utopian (i.e. invented, fantasized) ideas, theories that develop some perfect models construction of society, existed in all centuries of human history and served as the basis for both local (experimental) and mass social movements of a utopian type.

These perfect utopian societies have tried to describe many prominent writers and thinkers. Especially many attempts to theoretically substantiate a perfect human society were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, when utopian ideas were especially popular. Initially, the authors or (and) implementers of utopian ideas, who almost always possessed significant internal energy and activity, embodied their model of utopia within the boundaries of small communities, circles: for example, the communities of the first Christians, the religious sects of the East, the communes of R. Owen, the phalanxes of C. Fourier and etc. However, all of them disintegrated or were reborn in a relatively short time as soon as they collided with the outside world or when the number of members of the commune, etc. of ideal communities exceeded the limits of their charismatic leader's physical control over them.

Of course, utopian ideals are viable and enduring. Therefore, they can be forgotten after the collapse of the movement and after some time be reborn in other movements. This is due to the fact that people will never stop imagining (without sufficient reason) the most perfect models of society.

Utopian social movements are valuable for social change with their ideas that awaken scientific thought and activate the actions of the authorities aimed at harmonization. public relations. Attempts to concretely implement utopian ideas meet with resistance from law-abiding members of society, who are afraid of new cultural patterns of behavior, role reversal, and so on.

Sociology considers reform movements as social movements as an attempt to change certain aspects of social life and the structure of society without its complete transformation (or this is not set as a goal, but is a consequence of reforms). The reforms are called social if they relate to transformations in those areas of society or those aspects of public life that are directly related to people, are reflected in their level or lifestyle, health, participation in public life, access to social benefits. Changes in the rules for using international telephones, by rail or metro affect the interests of citizens. But it is unlikely that such reforms are called social. On the contrary, the introduction of universal secondary education, health insurance, unemployment benefits or new form social protection population does not just affect our interests. Such reforms concern social position numerous segments of the population, restrict or expand millions of people's access to social benefits - education, health care, employment, guarantees.

In order for individuals to unite to fight for reforms, two conditions are necessary: ​​the participants in such movements must have a positive attitude towards the order in a given society, focusing only on certain negative aspects of the social order, and also have the opportunity to express their opinion and actively act in support of any reforms. In this regard, it can be said that reform movements in their final form arise only in democratic societies, when people have considerable freedom and can criticize existing social institutions and change them at the request of the majority. Numerous types of reform movements, such as abolitionist (movements to repeal any law), feminist (movements for the equal rights of women), prohibition (pornography, construction of nuclear power plants, etc.) cannot develop in conditions totalitarian regimes in which an attempt at any social change is regarded as a threat to the existing system of power.

One form of social movement is revolution. Revolution - a complete or complex change in all or most aspects of public life, affecting the foundations of the existing social order. The revolution is of a spasmodic nature and represents the transition of society from one qualitative state to another.

Revolutions should be distinguished from state or palace coups, which are carried out by people who are at the helm of government and leave the institutions and system of power in society unchanged. The term "revolution" is sometimes applied to gradual, peaceful, large-scale changes, such as the technological revolution. But in this case we are dealing with a completely different meaning of the term. For example, the longest process in the history of mankind was the so-called neolithic revolution, which represented a qualitative change in the sphere of production - a transition, a leap from gathering to farming. The Neolithic revolution began 10 thousand years ago and lasted 3 thousand years in some regions of the world, and 8 thousand years in others. During this time, developed agricultural civilizations arose in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece, etc.

Industrial Revolution XVIII - XIX centuries. led European states, the United States and a number of other states to the dominance of industry in the sphere of productive forces and radically changed the social structure of society, but this did not happen abruptly, but through reforms. Not a technological, but a social revolution is changing the foundations of the social system, destroying the existing social order and establishing a new one, significantly different from the previous one, in the shortest possible time.

But is social revolution an indispensable or necessary part of social change? Most sociologists think not. The very existence of other variants of social movements alternative to the revolution testifies to this. A number of researchers have identified the main thing that leads to revolutionary movements with their inevitable negative social consequences for people. In particular, it is the accumulation of deep social unrest and dissatisfaction over a number of years; the inability of intellectuals to successfully criticize the status quo in a way that the general population understands them; the emergence of an impulse to action, the uprising of a social myth or belief system that justifies this impulse; a revolutionary explosion caused by the vacillation and weakness of the ruling elite; the period of moderate rule, which soon amounts to attempts to control various groups of revolutionaries or to concessions in order to extinguish the explosion of passions among the people; access to the active positions of extremists and radicals who seize power and destroy any opposition, etc.

Historical experience shows that democracy, contrary to popular belief, does not serve as a breeding ground for revolutionary movements. This is explained by the fact that democracy is the basis of social reforms, and reforms inevitably push back the revolution. Revolutionary movements thrive where reforms are blocked to such an extent that the only way to remedy the shortcomings of the social system is through a revolutionary movement. It is no coincidence that they have not gained popularity in such traditionally democratic countries as Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium or Denmark, and are highly developed in those countries where the government is only considered democratic and its activities are ineffective in carrying out social reforms. Under these conditions, even some reformers become revolutionaries.

There are many scientific theories which contain different, including opposite, assessments of the social movements noted above and which underlie social processes that, in turn, lead to social changes. We believe it would be right to recognize as justified the most significant theories that explain the nature, content, stages of development of the main social movements. All of them are possible and even necessary if society does not find other ways for its renewal through socio-cultural changes. At the subjective level, one can give preference to one or another social movement - for example, a revolution. However, in real life, a special process will follow the path that will determine the dominant social movement in a particular society.

The result of any social change is ultimately the social progress of society. Sociology understands social progress as the direction of social development, in which there is a progressive movement of society from simple and lower forms of social life to more complex and higher ones, from one standard of quality of life to another, perceived as more perfect. Sociologists see social progress differently. Both in the sense of the content of this concept, and in the sense - and this is the main thing - of the ways of its development. So, O. Comte saw it primarily in the growth of the level of knowledge, and G. Spencer - in the growth of social heterogeneity. Marxism considers social progress as a natural transition from one socio-economic formation to another, higher, more and more freeing the individual from dependence on the action of the elemental forces of nature and society.

In modern sociology and political science, social progress is most often associated with the movement from an agrarian, pre-industrial society to an industrial one and from it to a post-industrial one. The question of its criteria and the relationship between the objective and the subjective in them is difficult, which is solved in different ways by many researchers. Some scientists generally denied social progress (N.Ya. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, etc.), considering historical development not as a unilinear and unidirectional (progressive), but as a multilinear, independent of each other, parallel movement of special "cultural-historical types" of societies. Some have portrayed history as a cyclic movement in a circle, as a chaotic or fluctuating, pendulum movement.

Obviously, social progress reflects the general line of development of society, which does not exclude the possibility of temporary and partial historical turns, breaks and zigzags, stagnation, deadlocks and even backward movements, the death of individual civilizations, etc. Only traditional, flat evolutionism could represent the course of history smooth, even, continuously ascending line of development.

Social progress is a generalized concept that includes economic, technical and cultural progress as its components. The foundation of social progress is technical. In relation to politics and religion, the term "progress" is inapplicable, therefore one does not speak of political or religious progress.

In cases where the acceleration of history leads to negative consequences, it is more correct to speak of regression. It is called the process opposite to progress. It marks the backward movement of society, the retreat from the conquered positions, the return to the previous level. Between progress and regress, the difference is not only in the vector of movement, but also in scale. If progress is a global process that characterizes the movement of human society throughout historical time, then regression is a local process covering individual societies and short periods of time. Humanity as a whole has never regressed, although its forward movement could be delayed, stopped.

The real threat to social progress today is the danger of a world thermonuclear war, the unresolved and aggravated global problems modernity. Their solution is possible only within the framework of an actively emerging world system. It is a product of the development of individual territories and states, which, while maintaining their sovereignty, become on the basis of technical progress and globalization of their economies, increasingly dependent on each other. At the same time, the remaining huge difference between states and societies in terms of their economic and social development poses to those who are on the periphery of the world system, as well as those who are behind the leaders, but want to reach their level, the problem of accelerating their movement along the ascending line. Concept of social progress made it possible to determine the mechanism of this movement through modernization. It refers to the transition from pre-industrial to industrial and post-industrial societies, carried out through complex reforms stretched over time. Modernization implies a fundamental change in social institutions, economic business, people's living standards, etc.

The concept of social progress based on comprehensive modernization is based on the proposition that all societies are ultimately involved in a single, universal process of human society's ascent to the endless heights of civilization, to a single system of universal human values. Social progress through modernization shows how societies that are in the status of outsiders can change it in a much shorter time.

Many societies, responding to the challenges of more developed countries, have taken the path of the so-called inorganic modernization, that is, passing not as a natural process of reform, but as organized, planned and led by certain social movements. Inorganic modernization does not begin with culture, but with economics and politics. In other words, organic modernization goes "from below", and inorganic - "from above".

Usually, the principles of modernization do not have time to cover the vast majority of the population, and therefore do not receive strong social support. They take possession only of the minds of the most prepared part of society. And this creates certain difficulties for the modernization of processes. Russia has repeatedly tried to overcome its historical lag, to catch up with the advanced countries. It was precisely this goal that was pursued by the Peter the Great reforms of the 18th century, the Stalinist industrialization of the 1930s. XX century, perestroika 1985 and economic reforms 1991-1993.

Inorganic modernization is carried out by purchasing foreign equipment and patents, borrowing foreign technology, inviting specialists, studying abroad, and attracting investments. Corresponding changes are taking place in the social and political spheres: the management system is changing, new power structures are being introduced, the country's constitution is being rebuilt to suit foreign counterparts. In many ways, this is exactly what happened in Russia in the 18th and 20th centuries, and in Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries. It took the latter 20 post-war years to catch up and in many ways overtake the United States. In a short period, inorganic modernization in Japan was replaced by organic. Japan develops on its own basis and, in turn, serves as a role model.

Modern Russia, which has a huge natural, human, intellectual, cultural potential, must take its appropriate place in the world economic and political system by modernizing all aspects of society in a short time and at the lowest cost for the citizens of its country.

Questions for self-control of knowledge

Reasons for social change

Social life is a continuous process that constantly self-adjusts, rebuilds and changes. Fundamental changes that occur over time to the basic elements of culture "structure and social behavior, sociologists call social change. That is, social changes are not a simple rotation of generations, but a process of changing the structure of society, as a result of which society becomes different, maintaining its stability and remaining, in a certain sense, the same society (for example, Ukrainian society as it was in the 17th century. , XIX century and modern).

For most of human history - about 200 thousand years - social change has been very slow. Approximately 90 thousand years ago, mankind was engaged in gathering and hunting, without practically changing anything in their way of life. Only with the development of agriculture did the changes begin to become a little more intense, although still rather slow. However, since the Industrial Revolution, social change has been ongoing and ever more intense. In fact, the process of transition from manual labor to the machine, from manufactory to factory, that is why it is called the industrial revolution, because it changed the organization of human society and all aspects of its life. Since then, almost every new generation lives in a completely different world compared to the one in which the previous one lived. And today we are experiencing another stage of dynamic change - the information revolution. The current time dictates the need for constant learning and updating during the life of their professional skills in order to keep up with intense social changes.

To demonstrate the dynamics of the acceleration of social change, the American sociologist Alvin Toffler in 1970. He gave such an eloquent example: "If we divide the last 50,000 years of human history into time intervals of approximately 62 years, we get about 800 such segments. Of these, 650 passed in caves. Only in the last 70 such segments of human history has it become possible to effectively transmit information from a generation to a generation thanks to writing.Only in the last 8 segments did people get the printed word.Only in the last two did some people use an electric motor.And the vast majority of the material goods we use today were invented during the last, 800th segment of human history.

Factors of social change.

Among the most significant factors that cause changes in people's behavior, as well as in the culture and structure of society, the following are distinguished:

physical environment. A person interacts with the environment, while producing a certain technology and social organization (for example, a society of farmers or pastoralists). With change environment, people are forced to produce new types of adaptation, to respond with new technical inventions and forms of social organization. For example, the ancestors of today's Hungarians were a nomadic people and their main occupation was cattle breeding. Having moved at the end of the IX century. to the territory of modern Hungary where there was no place for a nomadic lifestyle and, being surrounded by agricultural peoples, the Hungarians also changed their lifestyle to a settled one.

population. A sharp increase in population or, conversely, the "aging" of society, or a sharp increase in the urban population or migration to other countries - leads to changes in the culture and social structure of society.

Conflicts over resources and values. In order to achieve their goals, various groups mobilize their resources and capabilities, abandoning their usual way of life ("Everything for the front, everything for victory"). The victory of one of the parties, as well as the achievement of a compromise, provide for the emergence of new institutional structures, dictate the need adaptation to new conditions.

Innovation. The term "innovation" includes two concepts: discovery and invention.

Discovery is the perception by people of new, previously unknown aspects of reality. A man discovers the theory of relativity or Mendeleev's periodic system. Discovery multiplies knowledge, it always adds something new to culture.

An invention is a new combination of already known elements, for example, a combination steam engine and carts led to the invention of the steam locomotive.

Discoveries and inventions lead to the emergence of new technical innovations (radio, television, internal combustion engine, etc.), or intangible ideas (suffrage for women, the right of nations to self-determination, etc.) that cause changes in people's behavior , as well as in the culture and structure of society.

Diffusion is the process during which cultural characteristics spread from one social system to another (the spread of the alphabet, Christianity or other world religions. In today's world, the spread of the so-called American image life). Diffusion is possible only in those societies that are in contact with each other. Often groups deliberately increase the number of contacts to increase diffusion (for example, they send specialists to study abroad). And it also happens that society tries to avoid diffusion and reduces the number of contacts, as, for example, the USSR, having fenced itself off from the West, tried to avoid the influence of an undesirable ideology.

The specific conditions of society's existence determine which factors are acceptable, which can be perceived in slightly modified forms, and which are absolutely unacceptable. For example, Islam was more readily accepted than Christianity in many regions of Africa, mainly because it was not perceived as the religion of white people - exploiters and outsiders, and also because it allowed polygamy, which was predominantly practiced by Africans.

It is clear that all these factors often do not act alone, but together, however, sociological analysis helps to identify the main factor of change that determines all subsequent processes.

Levels and nature of social changes.

Changes can take place on different levels and vary in nature and scope. they can be represented as dichotomous (paired) types:

evolutionary - revolutionary;

reactive (as a reaction to some events) - projective (planned in advance)

spontaneous - conscious;

progressive - regressive;

voluntary - imposed;

long-term - short-term;

qualitative - quantitative, etc.

How more scale social changes, the more social structures are covered by changes, the longer they will last. However, it is quite difficult to identify at what level certain social changes occur, for this it is necessary to cover all aspects of the problem.

Social change involves both forces that aim to change the existing order and those that oppose change.

What reasons motivate people to resist change? Among the main ones:

private interests. This is usually the main reason for the change. It is based on the property of people to put private interests above public ones. Such behavior can be both hidden and pronounced in nature of disagreement and comes to the point that people can create "pressure groups" to prevent changes, organize rallies, strikes and even sabotage.

Failure to understand the need for change. It is associated primarily with the inability of people to objectively assess the situation, to analyze all the factors involved in it. The reason for this may be, for example, a low level of trust in certain social structures (government or parliament, directorates, etc.) or simply the lack of information.

The Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky (1841-1911) made a well-aimed observation about the originality of the thinking of Russians (to no lesser extent it also applies to Ukrainian. - I. T.): "A Russian person thinks like a Russian tsar rules; the latter, with every encounter with an unpleasant law says "I am above the law" and rejects the old law without settling disputes. thinking person when faced with a question that does not lend itself to his usual ideas, but is inspired by logic, common sense, he says: "I am above logic," and rejects the question itself without solving it. The arbitrariness of thought meets the willfulness of power.

3. The difference in the assessment of the problem situation. Different perceptions of it can be associated with different mentality, different argumentation of certain judgments.

4. Intolerance to any changes. In every society there is a fairly significant group of people who are marked by an intolerant attitude towards change. As a rule, these are elderly people, as well as those who have a low educational and cultural level. Social changes require them to master new business, socio-cultural qualities, which often constitutes an insurmountable barrier for these social groups.

So, when planning social changes within a certain organization or on a national scale (for example, carrying out effective socio-economic reforms), the governing structures must take into account all factors, producing the optimal strategy and tactics.

4.1. The concept and types of social change

Social change is a fundamental change that occurs over time in people's behavior, structure, culture and other areas of society. Thanks to social changes, society becomes somewhat different, while remaining the same in a certain sense. Change can occur gradually or rather quickly, involve more or less people, institutions, or even societies.

Social change is a broader concept than social development. They include arising, becoming, growth, decline, dying, transitional state, etc. Not all changes occurring in society are called social, but only those that have social consequences.

Social changes are various changes that occur over time within social systems, in the relationships between them, in society as a whole.

Social change differs in time of functioning (long-term or short-term), in scale (partial or general) and the level of participants (organizations, institutions, large and small groups, interpersonal relationships, societal level), etc.

Society is constantly undergoing certain social changes. Its elements, structures, their connections and interactions pass from one state to another. Some changes occur at the micro level (i.e., they are associated with a change in the position or role of an individual), while others occur at the macro level (i.e., they are associated with certain changes in the whole social groups and communities and even in the whole society). Social changes vary in scope and depth. It is one thing when these changes occur within the framework of maintaining the quality of a given social system, and another when they go beyond this quality.

Often the concepts of "change" and "development" are identified. Hence, any change in society is considered as its development, which is understood in a broad sense, i.e. like its movement, change. But the concepts of "movement", "change" are broader than the concept of "development". The social change of the system can lead to the development of society and its structural elements, but this may not happen.

Social development in the strict sense of the word is not any change in the system, but only one that is associated with more or less deep, structural changes leading to the emergence of new social relations, institutions, norms and values.

Changes in the system constitute the content of development, and its essence lies in changing the structure of the whole.

Features of modern social changes

are: the acceleration of the pace of social change, the enlargement of the scale (can cover the whole of humanity) and the increasing complexity of adapting to the ongoing changes.

The main types of social change are structural, processual, functional and motivational.

Structural social changes occur in the structure of society, power, economic, political, cultural component of society (the structure of the family, the structure of the state, the structure of the institution of education, etc.)

Processional social changes cover various social processes: mobility (long elevators of class societies), migration (brain drain from the USSR in the early 90s), etc.

Functional social changes relate to changes in the functions of social institutions, organizations, social systems (changes in the functions of the president, the Constitutional Court, family, justice, the institution of education, the tax police).

Motivational social changes reflect those processes that affect values, norms, ideals. They most tangibly affect human behavior. So in modern Russia the leading motive for labor is wage, income, economic incentives.

4.2. Theories of social change

Changes in society can proceed through reforms, evolutionarily. But often cardinal revolutions take place in society, which politicians, sociologists call revolution.

Revolution ( from Late Lat . revolutio - turn, revolution) - a deep qualitative change in the development of any phenomena of nature, society or knowledge (for example, the geological revolution, the industrial revolution, the scientific and technological revolution, the cultural revolution, the revolution in physics, the revolution in philosophy, etc. ). The concept of "revolution" is most widely used to characterize social development. The dialectical concept of development reveals the internal mechanism of the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones. A revolution means a break in gradualness, a qualitative leap in development. Revolution differs from evolution - the gradual development of any process, as well as from reform, being in a complex relationship with it, the nature of which is determined by the specific historical content of the revolution and reform itself.

In the course of social development, there are progressive, so regressive processes, both long evolutionary transformations and rapid revolutionary leaps. History shows that society as a system changes and progresses both under the influence of reforms and revolutions. Progress is one of the most important characteristics of the development process itself. The development category is applicable only to objects that have an internal structure. In this regard, the theory of the American sociologist is interesting. T. Parsons. He developed concept of social change from the positions system-functional analysis. The scientist subdivided social changes into "balance changes", i.e. changes within the framework of maintaining a given social system and its basic structures, and "structural changes", i.e. changes, when the most important elements and structures of society are qualitatively transformed, and thereby society itself is transformed. T. Parsons identifies special "evolutionary universals", the appearance of which indicates qualitative changes in society as a social system. The structural change of society is considered by the sociologist, in fact, not as a normal, natural state of the social system, but as a deviation from it, as a violation of the balance. Distinctive feature social development lies in the fact that the social changes occurring within its framework have a certain direction, excluding the chaotic, arbitrary accumulation of such changes. Historically, the direction of social development is the movement from the lowest to the highest, from the simple to the complex.

Recognition of the objectivity, regularity and progressive development of society underlies the theory of social evolution. It became widespread in the second half of the 19th century. The theory is largely based on the teachings of Charles Darwin. According to this theory, historical development occurs on the basis of gradual sociocultural changes up to fundamental, qualitative transformations of society in the direction of the transition from simple, homogeneous to complex, heterogeneous. This doctrine was widely reflected, in particular, in the sociological views of H. Spencer. He was literally addicted social darwinism. This theory had a somewhat smaller, although rather strong influence in the first half of the 20th century. Its role in modern sociology has seriously declined. The reason for this decline was the complication of the processes of social development. Nowadays, the principle of evolution is no longer considered universal and does not apply to all social phenomena. But in the second half of the XX century. the ideas of classical evolutionism have been developed to some extent in neoevolutionism. Scientists in this area use more complex and flexible ways to display social evolution.

Recognizing the very fact of the objective, natural-historical nature of social development, sociologists of different schools differently imagined the essence and basic content of the historical process. For example, O. Comte saw them in the progress of knowledge, which was reflected in his "law of intellectual evolution". This law assumed intellectual and social evolution. As we noted, G. Spencer saw the essence of social evolution in the transition of society from homogeneity to heterogeneity, in its complication, internal differentiation while simultaneously increasing its integration. K. Marx and his followers main point and the content of social development was associated with the growth of productive forces and the corresponding changes industrial relations, with the change of socio-economic formations. The French sociologist E. Durkheim considered the transition from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity, based on a deepening division of labor and social differentiation, to be the basis for the movement of society. Russian-American scientist P.A. Sorokin at the heart of his theories of social dynamics put broad integral socio-cultural factors that determine, according to the sociologist, economic and political development.

IN modern science the development of society is associated, first of all, with the level of industrial or scientific and technical, scientific and technological, scientific and information development. These indicators determine other aspects of society. We see such approaches in the concept of the "stage of economic growth" by W. Rostow, in the theory of "industrial society" by R. Aron(1905-1983), "post-industrial (technotronic) society" D. Bell(b. 1919), 3. Brzezinski(b. 1928), A. Touraine(b. 1925), Oh, Toffler(b. 1928) and others, including the latest the concept of "information society".

Many concepts of understanding society, its structure and development are due to the ambiguous solution in sociology of the issue of the sources of social change, their driving forces. Some scientists (their clear minority) transfer the source of social development outside of society (for example, the absolute idea of ​​Hegel's objective-idealistic philosophy of history or the natural-geographical environment in the geographical direction in sociology - Montesquieu, Mechnikov, etc.). Most sociologists, economists, political scientists see the sources of change in society itself. Causes and factors of change and development of society are sought by scientists in the interaction of its various aspects, spheres, elements of the structures of social systems.

The authors of the theories paid the greatest attention to the problem under consideration and gave a clear and detailed answer to the question about the source of social changes. conflictological trends in sociology. These scientists proceed from the recognition of the decisive or very important role of social conflict in the development of society. The ancestor of this direction, as is known, is K. Marx. Marxist sociology has done much to develop the theory of social conflict. Although it must be admitted that this school stood out only in the 50s of the XX century. and its founders are L. Koser, R. Dahrendorf, D. Bell.

Marxism considered the development of society as self-movement, and saw the main source of social change in the unity and struggle of opposites within any social system, phenomenon or process. In the economic sphere, this is a struggle between two sides of the mode of production: productive forces and production relations. In the socio-political spheres - this is the struggle of opposing classes and their parties; in the spiritual - the struggle of antagonistic ideologies, expressing the irreconcilability of the corresponding class interests, therefore, almost the entire history of mankind is presented by Marx and his followers as the history of the struggle of classes - slaves and slave owners, serfs and feudal lords, proletarians and capitalists. Social contradictions, according to scientists of this school, have always been and will always be (although they do not always take the form of class struggle). They conclude that the change and development of society, its spheres, elements is not an abnormal, but its normal state. Marx's ideas on the issue of the sources and forms of social change had a serious impact on the teachings of many sociologists, in particular, G. Simmel and others. We see the influence of Marxism in the schools of conflictology in the USA, Western Europe and Russia, although representatives of these schools try to disown this fact . For example, L. Koser, R. Dahrendorf and others, although they interpret the causes and essence of social conflicts in different ways, most often recognize social conflicts as an integral feature of any society, and if not the main, then one of the main driving forces of social development.

The conflict, according to most sociologists, prevents the conservation and decay of society. Through conflict, society is renewed. In "closed" societies, as a rule, social conflict leads to the polarization of socio-political forces, a revolutionary explosion and the destruction of the social system. In "open" or "pluralistic" societies, the accumulated social tension is discharged in a timely manner. Thus, the question of the existence of the social system itself is removed. R. Dahrendorf believed that the suppression of social conflict for the most part leads only to its aggravation. And "rational regulation" leads to "controlled evolution" of the system. So, modern non-Marxist conflictology considers the regulation of social conflict, in fact, as a means of achieving social stability (consent, order), the stability of the system is considered by it as a normal, normal state of society. The pinnacle of social conflict is the social revolution. Revolutions should be distinguished from state or palace coups, which are carried out by people who are at the helm of government and leave the institutions and system of power in society unchanged. The term "revolution" is sometimes applied to gradual, peaceful changes on a large scale, such as the "industrial revolution". But in this case we are dealing with a completely different meaning of the term.

The revolutionary movement is trying to overthrow, destroy the existing social system and establish a new social order, largely different from the previous one. If reformers seek to correct only some of the shortcomings and defects in the existing social order, then the revolutionaries believe that the system does not deserve to be saved.

Historical experience shows that democracy in the full sense of the word does not serve as a breeding ground for revolutionary movements. This is because democracy is the basis of social reform, and reform inevitably rejects revolution. On the other hand, where authoritarian rule blocks various reform movements, reformers are forced to attack the government and other authoritarian institutions of society. At the same time, many of the failed reformers become revolutionaries. Thus, revolutionary movements thrive where reforms are blocked to such an extent that the only way to remedy the shortcomings of the social system is through a revolutionary movement.

Any revolutionary movement develops gradually in an atmosphere of general social dissatisfaction. American researchers L. Edwards and K. Brinton were able to identify the most typical stages in the successful development of revolutionary movements:

1) the accumulation of deep social anxiety and dissatisfaction over a number of years;

2) the inability of intellectuals to successfully criticize the status quo in a way that the general population understands them;

3) the emergence of an impulse to action, rebellion and the formation of a social myth or belief system that justifies this impulse;

4) a revolutionary explosion caused by the vacillation and weakness of the ruling elite;

5) the period of moderate rule, which soon comes down to attempts to control various groups of revolutionaries or to concessions in order to extinguish the outbursts of passions among the people;

6) access to the active positions of extremists and radicals who seize power and destroy any opposition;

7) the period of the terror regime;

8) a return to a calm state, stable power, and to some patterns of the former pre-revolutionary life.

On the whole, the French, Chinese and, finally, Russian revolutions proceeded according to this scheme. It is difficult to classify a movement as purely reformist or purely revolutionary, because in both cases, a wide range of followers can take part in the movements: from moderate reformers to radical revolutionaries prone to violent actions.

Even Montesquieu in the middle of the XVIII century. said that small states perish, as a rule, as a result of interventions, large, powerful states perish mainly as a result of the betrayal of their leaders. Now Russia needs genuine reforms to improve the lives of tens of millions of impoverished pensioners and the unemployed. The World Health Organization (WHO) puts Russia in 100th place out of 191 states in terms of general indicators in the health care system. For example, she put Belarus in 53rd place, Ukraine - in 60th. According to the human development index, Russia is in 63rd place, 10 points behind Belarus. Russia needs reforms not in the interests of millionaires, but in the interests of tens of millions of its ordinary citizens.

Reform ( French reforme, from lat . reformo - transform) - transformation, change, reorganization of any aspect of social life (orders, institutions, institutions), which does not destroy the foundations of the existing social structure. From a formal point of view, reform means an innovation of any content. However, in political practice and political theory, reform is usually called a more or less progressive transformation, a certain step for the better.

In the conditions of an antagonistic society, reform, insofar as it has a forced character (a concession on the part of the ruling class to its class enemy), is dual both in content and in the influence it has on the course of social processes. On the one hand, the reform is a real step forward, improving in one way or another the position of the working people, a prerequisite for their further struggle, on the other hand, the reform is an opportunity for the ruling classes to maintain their dominance. In many states of Western Europe, where the Social Democrats have been in power for decades (Sweden, Norway, etc.), social reforms have made it possible to form a powerful middle class - the backbone of society.

4.3 Theory of the world system and the process of globalization

P. Sorokin allowed progress in social development and noted certain features of a new emerging civilization that unites all of humanity. At present, this idea of ​​the formation of a single civilization on our entire planet has become widespread and developed. Its strengthening in science and in public consciousness contributed to the awareness of the globalization of social and cultural processes in the modern world. What is meant by the term "globalization of social and cultural processes"? The term "globalization" is associated with the Latin word "globe" - that is, the Earth, the globe, and means the planetary nature of certain processes. However, the globalization of processes is not only their ubiquity, not only that they cover the entire globe. Globalization is connected, first of all, with the interpretation of the entire social activities on the ground. This interpretation means that in the modern era, all of humanity is included in a single system of socio-cultural, economic, political and other connections, interactions and relations. Thus, in the modern era, in comparison with past historical eras, the planetary unity of mankind has immeasurably increased, which is a fundamentally new supersystem, "soldered" by a common destiny and common responsibility. Therefore, despite the huge socio-cultural, economic, political contrasts of different regions, states and peoples, many sociologists consider it legitimate to talk about the formation of a single civilization.

Such a global approach is already clearly revealed in the concepts of "post-industrial society" considered earlier. Therefore, we can conclude that any technological revolution leads to profound changes not only in the productive forces of society, but also in the way of life of people. The peculiarity of the modern technological revolution associated with the informatization of society is that it creates fundamentally new prerequisites for a more universal and global human interaction. Thanks to the wide development of microelectronics, computerization, the development of mass communication and information, the deepening of the division of labor and specialization, humanity is united into a single socio-cultural integrity. The existence of such integrity dictates its own requirements for humanity as a whole and for the individual in particular. This society should be dominated by an attitude towards information enrichment, the acquisition of new knowledge, mastery of it in the process of continuous education, as well as its application. The higher the level technological production and all human activity, the higher should be the degree of development of the person himself, his interaction with the environment. Accordingly, a new humanistic culture should be formed, in which a person should be considered as an end in itself of social development. Hence the new requirements for the individual: it must harmoniously combine high professional qualifications, virtuoso mastery of technology, competence in one's specialty with social responsibility and universal moral values.

However, the globalization of social, cultural, economic and political processes in the modern world, along with positive aspects, has given rise to a number of serious problems, which are called "global problems of our time": environmental, demographic, political, etc. The totality of these problems has posed before humanity the global problem of "humanity's survival." The founder of the international research center "Club of Rome", which studies the prospects of mankind in the light of modern global problems, A. Peccei formulated the essence of this problem as follows: "The true problem of the human species at this stage of its evolution is that it turned out to be completely culturally incapable of going in step and fully adapt to the changes that he himself made to this world. Since the problem that arose at this critical stage of its development is inside, and not outside, the human being, then its solution, according to A. Peccei, should come from within him. And if we want to "bridle" the technical revolution and provide humanity with a worthy future, then we need, first of all, to think about changing the person himself, about the revolution in the person himself, first of all, changing the social attitudes of the individual and society, reorienting humanity from the ideology of progressive growth of production and consumption of material values ​​for spiritual self-improvement. The current situation suggests that people should limit the consumption of some resources and replace some technologies. On his initiative, commissioned by the Club of Rome, large-scale studies were carried out and global models of the development of crisis tendencies in the interaction between society and its environment were built. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the contradictions between the limitations of the earth's resources, in particular, the limited areas suitable for agriculture and the growing consumption rates of an increasing population, can lead to the middle of the 21st century. to catastrophic environmental pollution, a sharp increase in mortality, depletion natural resources and a decline in production. As an alternative to such development, the concept of "global equilibrium" was put forward, according to which it is necessary to immediately stop the increase in the population of the Earth, limit industrial production, reduce the consumption of the Earth's resources by about a hundred times.

The models of Forrester and Meadows drew attention to the real problems of a global nature, made mankind think about the further ways of its development. However, the miscalculations inherent in these models made it possible to question the conclusions contained in them. In particular, when compiling the model, the selection of parameters was carried out according to specific scientific and applied criteria that allow mathematical processing: the average values ​​of production and consumption, services and food were calculated on average per capita. Only for demographic parameters differentiation was introduced, various factors were taken into account. age groups. However, no global models could predict the colossal changes that took place in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. in Eastern Europe and on the territory of the USSR. These changes significantly modified the nature of global processes, since they meant the end of the Cold War, the intensification of the disarmament process, and had a significant impact on economic and cultural interaction. Despite all the inconsistency of these processes, the huge costs for the population of socio-economic and political transformations, it can be assumed that they will contribute to a greater extent to the formation of a single global social civilization.

4.4. social movements

Social movements often emerge during periods of rapid social change. Both collective behavior and social movements can trigger social change because both take place outside the structure that makes up our daily lives and breach our habitual and orderly social arrangements. Of course, there is a very important difference between collective behavior and social movement. Collective behavior is characterized by spontaneity and lack of internal structure, and social movements, on the contrary, are characterized by a significant degree of internal order and purposefulness. It is this organizational capacity allows social movements to challenge official institutions. Therefore, sociologists consider a social movement as a more or less persistent and organized effort on the part of a relatively large mass of people to introduce changes or, on the contrary, to prevent changes from being introduced.

People actively intervene in the process of social change. Instead of passively submitting to the flow of life or accepting the blows of fate, they are trying to change the course of history. Social movements are the engines with which people try to exert a collective influence on the course of events taking place in society. Therefore, it is not surprising that historical books have been written about social movements - stories about great leaders, about the rise and fall of political movements, about the social unrest and changes that revolutions entail. Christianity, Crusades, Reformation, French Revolution 1789 and the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, the anti-slavery movement, the labor movement, Zionism, fascism, as well as other social movements, had a profound impact on the societies affected by them, and sometimes the whole world.

Ideology is of decisive importance for a social movement. It gives individuals ideas about the goals of the movement, logically justifies their actions, criticizes existing conditions or structures, and outlines a program of action. Therefore, ideology plays the role of a link that connects people in their "service" to a common idea, thereby strengthening solidarity. Ideology not only connects isolated and disunited individuals, it also unites them for the sake of a common cause, a common goal. Thus preparing them for self-sacrifice in the name of the movement, for laying down their lives for the "true God", the "new nation" or the "revolution".

Social movements differ in the goals that their ideologies set for the participants in social movements. Some movements are aimed at making changes in society, challenging fundamental social values, others are trying to make changes within the existing system of values. revolutionary movements are aimed at the complete abolition of the existing system of values.

reformist, movements seek to make changes to this system of values ​​that contribute to the more efficient functioning of this system. Reformist are abolitionist (movements for the abolition of any law), environmental (movements for environmental protection), feminist (for women's equality), etc.

movements resistance- these are social movements whose goal is not only to achieve change, but also to block the introduction of changes or to cancel changes that have already been made. For example, the movement of blacks in the southern states for the introduction of civil rights provoked a response from the white population - the organization of white citizens' councils and the Ku Klux Klan.

social movements expressive type differ in the desire to carry out not institutional changes, but the revival or renewal of people from within (often with promises of future salvation). An example of such a social movement is the Pentecostal religious sect. Such movements mainly arise among the most underprivileged population, but religious sects do not seek to achieve comprehensive social change; their goal is not to change the world.

There are two approaches to studying the structure of a social movement:

1.Functional (involves the analysis of the elements of the structure in terms of the functions they perform in motion). In accordance with it, one can distinguish 1) a system of values, norms, ideas, principles that form the ideology, worldview of the participants (humanism, feminism, altruism); 2) the strategy and tactics of the struggle, which determine the general direction of the proposed social changes (revolution, reform, counter-revolution); 3) means and methods of achieving the set goal, resources and tools of the movement: rallies, strikes, picketing); 4) a headquarters that provides the development of the main ideological and theoretical provisions and leadership; 5) peripheral organizations that implement the strategic and tactical goals of the movement on the ground; 6) an information and communication system that provides communication for all participants vertically (from management to ordinary members and vice versa) and horizontally (between traffic participants within a region, country, world).

2. Organizational (analysis of the elements of the structure in terms of their role in the process of organizing the movement). This approach makes it possible to distinguish 1) "people of words" - intellectuals, creators of the ideology of the movement; 2) activists-agitators who transform ideological constructions into the mindset of the masses, into mass
actions; 3) "people of action" - practitioners involved in the organization of the movement and the consolidation of its ranks; 4) convinced supporters - those for whom the goals of the movement coincide with their vital interests (African Americans participating in the movement for their civil rights); 5) ordinary members - those who are related to this movement, but do not experience this connection as their urgent need (African Americans, who in principle are satisfied by the existing state of affairs); 6) sympathizers - those who have nothing to do with the movement, but express sympathy for its goals (white
Americans - opponents of discrimination based on race); 7) random fellow travelers - people who joined the movement in the hope of gaining something (wealth, prestige) if it wins.

Typology of social movements: I) according to the scale of the proposed changes: reformist, radical, revolutionary; 2) by the quality of the proposed changes: progressive and reactionary ("retroactive"); 3) in relation to the goals of the proposed changes: socio-political (strive for changes in politics, the economy, shifts in class and stratification structures), socio-cultural (strive to change beliefs, values, norms, symbols); mystical (religious) (fighting for the salvation of their members and the general revival of the religious spirit), calling for self-improvement, mental and physical comfort (health groups, "walruses"); 4) according to the "vector" of changes: positive, negative and alternative (pair movements: left-right, atheists-fundamentalists); 5) according to the action strategy; instrumental (seeking to win political power and with its help to bring about the alleged changes: socio-political movements) and expressive (striving to achieve autonomy, cultural or political equality for their members or wider communities: ethnic feminist, movement for the rights of homosexuals); 6) by historical type: old (focused on economic interests, unite people according to a rigid class principle: workers, farmers' movements) and new ones.

Review questions: 1. What is social change and how does it differ from development? 2. What types of social change do you know? Give examples of such changes. 3. How do representatives of progressive and regressive, evolutionary and revolutionary views explain the direction and sources of social change? 4. Give evidence of the process of globalization in the modern world. 5. Describe the main types of social movements.

Bibliographic list

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