Society

Society and Technology

Society: people who interact in a defined area and

share culture.

OR)
A group of people who have learned to live and work together.
Industrial Societies

Industrialism: technology that powers complex

machinery with advances sources of energy
 Huge populations and increased communication
 Mass production and more specialization and
greater inequality
 Trend away from traditional families and towards
schooling and various rights
Post-Industrial Societies

Post-industrialism: technology that supports and

information-based economy
 Great change in occupational structure to service
jobs
 Information replaces objects as the centre of
economy
 Worldwide flow of information affects every one on
the globe
Karl Marx:
Society and Conflict

Social conflict: the struggle between segments of

society over valued resources is Marx’s key
Capitalists own the factories and productive
enterprises
Karl Marx:
Society and Conflict (Cont’d)

Social institutions: major spheres of social life, or

society’s subsystems, organized to meet basic
human needs
The infrastructure (economy) controls the
superstructure (family, politics, religion)
False consciousness: explanations of social problems
grounded in individual’s, not society’s
shortcomings
Max Weber

Rationalization of Society:
the historical change from tradition – sentiments and beliefs
passed from one generation to another to rationality –
deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient
means to accomplish a task, as the dominant mode of human
thought
Weber’s Rational Social Organization

Seven characteristics of today’s social life:

1. Distinctive social institutions
2. Large-scale organization
3. Specialized tasks
4. Personal discipline
5. Awareness of time
6. Technical competence
7. Impersonality
Expressed in bureaucracy, stifling the human spirit
Durkheim: Society and Function

Structure: society beyond ourselves. There are social

facts that have objective reality beyond individuals
Function: how social facts help society operate as a
complex system
Personality: society is also in ourselves.
 We internalize social facts
 Society regulates humans through moral discipline
(Cont’d)
Durkheim: Society and Function (Cont’d)

Warned that modern society creates anomie, a condition in

which society provides little moral guidance to individuals
Evolving societies
 Change from mechanical solidarity, social bonds based on
common sentiment and shared moral value that are common
among members of pre-industrial societies
 To organic solidarity, social bonds based on specialization
and interdependence that are strong among members of
industrial societies
 Key to the change is an expanding division of labour,
specialization of economic activity
© 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
What Holds Societies Together?

Lenskis: A shared culture and patterns that vary by

technology
Karl Marx: Elites force an ‘uneasy peace’
Max Weber: Rational, large-scale organizations
Emile Durkheim: Specialized division of labour

© 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

How Have Societies Changed?

Lenskis: Changing technology; modern society has

enormous productive power
Karl Marx: Social conflict is now in the open
Max Weber: From traditional to rational thought
Emile Durkheim: From mechanical solidarity to
organic solidarity

© 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Why Do Societies Change?

Lenskis: technological innovation transforms society

Karl Marx: struggle between social classes is the
engine
Max Weber: modes of thought contribute to change
Emile Durkheim: expanding division of labour causes
change

© 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.