Sociology | Class 11 | Social Change & Social Order in Rural & Urban Society
Social change
Change is any society's most enduring characteristic. Social change is defined as a shift in the way people think and act.
Physical, social, demographic, cultural and technical factors all contribute to social change. Over time these changes create differences between social structures and, in turn, alter the structure of human institutions, relationships, patterns, processes and systems.
Internal changes
When the ideals and values of one period differ significantly from those of the previous age, this is called an internal change.
External or structural change
- It is called an external change when the structures and foundations of any part of society, such as family, marriage, kinship, class, caste or groupings, change.
- Social change is a broad term. It covers every part of society: the political, cultural, economic and physical spheres. Environmental, technical, economic, political and cultural change are generally seen as the five main causes of social change.
- Structural change means a change in the institutions that make up a society, or in the rules that govern those institutions. For example, the introduction of paper currency caused a major shift in how financial markets and transactions were organised.
Endogenous and exogenous change
Some sociologists distinguish between endogenous change, which comes from within a society, and exogenous change, which comes from outside it.
Conflicts and conquests, which are of exogenous origin, have actively contributed to major social changes in communities across the world.
Yet social change has always depended largely on the actions of different social groups within a society, even when the first push came from outside.
Evolutionary change
Evolution is the gradual transition from a simple state to a complex state.
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
- Every living thing starts out simple, according to Darwin.
- Humans have changed gradually over many years, and perhaps millennia, by adjusting to their surroundings.
- Darwin highlighted the idea of "survival of the fittest". Only organisms that can adapt to their environment survive, while organisms that cannot adapt, or that adapt slowly, eventually die out.
- Darwin's theory describes natural processes.
Radical change
Radical change happens quickly or abruptly, and it is mostly used in a political sense, where the previous ruling class has been removed. Examples include the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the Communication Revolution.
Values and beliefs change too. At the end of the nineteenth century it was widely believed that children should start working as soon as possible, which is why child labour was common.
Children often began working at the age of five or six, and the early factory system depended on their labour. In the twentieth century child labour was officially banned in many nations.
Even though some trades in our country still depend at least partly on such labour, for example carpet weaving, small tea shops, restaurants and match-making factories, child labour is banned and owners can be held accountable as offenders.
The sources or causes of different kinds of social change include politics, economics, the environment and culture.
Environmental change and social change
- The environment has an impact on social change. Physical surroundings can trigger social change, and the forces of nature often cannot be stopped or resisted by people.
- Environmental changes affect society in two ways. Natural disasters cause destructive effects that are frequently irreversible, while new environmental discoveries may create fresh employment and lead to social change.
- The geographical conditions of the natural world can fundamentally alter society, and some of these changes are permanent and cannot be undone.
Technical, economic and social change
Technology refers to the advanced methods and tools that are applied to material goals.
Technology also affects relationships and nature. It helps us adjust to the challenges that nature presents. For example, Japan, a largely hilly and cold nation, became a specialist in electrical and technological devices.
Nearly every society in the world saw major social change as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
Gunpowder, paper, transport, railways and aviation have all greatly altered society.
Sometimes changes in the economic system that are not directly technological can also transform society. The slave trade, which began in the seventeenth century and continued into the nineteenth century, is one such example.
Social and political change
Social change has often been a result of political power. Shifts in power caused by political change lead to social transformation in society.
In many cases throughout world history, once a country had won a war its first task was to rebuild its social structure.
Social change is frequently a direct result of political changes brought on by conflict between nations or kingdoms.
Political changes within a society, such as the rejection of a monarchy, can also result in social transformation.
Along with Japan's industrialisation and land reforms, the United States drove a great deal of change during its occupation of Japan after the Second World War.
Politics change not only on a global scale but also at home. For example, the end of British rule in India, and the movement that stripped Nepal's monarchy of its powers in 2006, were both significant social changes.
The biggest political shift in history has been the introduction of universal adult suffrage, which grants voting rights to every adult who is at least eighteen years old.
Cultural and religious change
When there is a change in the behaviour or actions of people, there is a cultural change in life.
Religion has a strong impact on socio-cultural institutions. Because religious norms and beliefs helped build society, it is not surprising that a shift in these norms also helped transform society.
Just as the Bhakti movement affected the social structure of medieval India, religious ideas and norms play a role in how society is organised.
Social change can also come from new ideas. The role of women in society is a cultural example: as the way people thought about women's place changed from ancient to modern times, the social structure changed with it.
Rural areas and social change: new communication technologies have reduced the cultural gap that villages once faced.
Dominant castes are powerful in economic, social and political life. Changes in farming technology and the use of new machines widened the gap between landlords and labourers, and also changed patterns of land ownership.
Because farmers were driven to suicide by fluctuating crop prices, droughts and floods, the government launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in 2005 to help needy villagers.
Urban areas and social change
Ancient cities supported the economy. From a trade point of view, cities located along ports and rivers were well placed to prosper.
Some cities also became famous religious centres, such as Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Ajmer in Rajasthan.
High population density in cities brings its own problems, including migration, unemployment, crime, poor public health, slums, a lack of sanitation, water and power, and pollution.
Segregation is a process in which people are divided on the basis of group membership, race, ethnicity, religion and other characteristics.
Ghettoisation is the process by which a mixed neighbourhood turns into one where people of a single religion, ethnicity or caste live together, often after facing pressure from others.
Mass transit refers to the transport options in cities where large numbers of people must travel, such as the metro.
Social order
- Social order refers to the systematic organisation of the social structure.
- It helps to actively preserve and pass on patterns of social relationships.
- It helps society to prevent, regulate and control social change.
- Social order is needed for society to work in an organised way.
- Social order usually surrounds the dominant groups, so they tend to resist any change that could threaten their stability.
How social order is maintained
Society uses two broad methods to maintain social order. First, members may be made to follow rules and values through various forms of pressure. Second, members may follow those rules and values of their own free choice. Every society uses a combination of these two methods.
The oppressed group is motivated to make changes that will benefit them and shift the position of the dominant groups. To prevent, control and govern changes that challenge the norms and values they find acceptable, the dominant group relies on social order.
Social control
Social control is the deliberate effort to preserve and pass on a particular set of social relationships, values and standards.
All societies actively encourage their members to follow a system of laws and norms, and individuals are also under various forms of pressure to follow these laws and norms.
Power
In any organised group there are ordinary members and some members who hold power and responsibility.
Power is the ability to influence someone to act in your favour, even against their own preferences.
According to Max Weber, power in society does not rest on economic factors alone, though economics matters, as with the powerful castes of North India.
Society contains various types of power, including domination, authority and legality.
Domination is a power relationship in which the parties have grown used to their roles, so the relationship is stable and settled. In normal times the dominant group has a strong impact on society, and people do things they would rather not do without open conflict, which is a little like forced cooperation.
Max Weber defined authority as the legitimate form of power, which means power that follows accepted standards of justice, fairness and right.
Authority is power that is seen as legitimate or proper. For example, police officers, judges and teachers all exercise forms of power as part of their duties, and what they may and may not do is set down in written documents.
Authority is usually connected to a person's official position rather than to the person themselves. Because they hold that position, the rest of the community has agreed to follow its rules.
Laws
A law is a clearly written standard or rule. The formal laws that govern society are usually written down and apply to all citizens.
Some laws contain detailed instructions on how they are to be created, amended or applied when they are broken.
Non-conformity to social order
Conflict and competition in society make it possible for behaviour that does not follow social norms to occur.
Social order can be broken in many ways, from very general non-conformity to serious forms of non-conformity.
Crime is an act committed against society's standards and values, and a person who violates social norms may be treated as a criminal. For example, the British administration treated breaking its salt law, as Gandhi did during the salt march, as a crime.
The idea of crime comes from the legal system: any action that disobeys the law is treated as a crime. This is different from legitimate, peaceful protest.
Because crime is an act against society and the established social order, it can cause social disintegration.
Violence
Violence is the enemy of social order. It is a violent form of protest that breaks not only the law but also important social standards. Social tension produces violence, which signals the existence of serious problems and can call the authority of the government into question.
An act of violence may harm a person's body, mind or emotions.
Violence can be legal or unlawful. Within its borders, the state alone has the right to use force. Apart from rare situations such as self-defence, other uses of force are treated as criminal.
Social upheaval in rural and urban life, along with a rise in youth crime, has contributed to an increase in crime and violence. Rising prices, unemployment, the desire for revenge, the influence of films and the effects of intoxication are among the factors often linked to it.
Important terms
- Authority: a person or organisation with the recognised ability to reward or punish. It may come from tradition, law or charisma. Weber calls it legitimate power.
- Social change: a modification in how society is organised, or in how its institutions work.
- Internal social change: changes in values and norms, including changes in family structure, marriage customs, caste, class and kinship.
- Change: the transformation of any condition or state from its earlier form. Cultural lag is the gap in the rate of change between two different parts of a culture.
- Law: a body of rules that are recognised, interpreted and applied to particular situations by the courts of a state.
- Contestation: firm and repeated expressions of opposition, where people often object to following accepted social norms.
- Conformity: a form of social influence; behaviour that follows established social norms.
- Obedience: a form of social influence; behaviour that follows the directions or commands of an authority.
- Compliance: a form of social influence; behaviour carried out in response to a request from someone, who may be an authority.
- Social sanctions: the rewards and penalties used to govern social behaviour.
- Crime: any action by a person that breaks the law.
- Diffusion: the transfer of certain features from one culture to another, which results in change.
- Social evolution: a form of social development that takes place slowly and gradually in institutions.
- Revolution: a sudden or unplanned shift in the social structure.
- Charismatic authority: authority held by a leader who has a strong psychological impact on others.
- Rural society: a simpler, agriculture-based community.
- Urban society: a large group of people living in a small area, highly interconnected and with a high population density.
- Village: an area within a rural community where daily activities are carried out.
Why it still matters
This chapter can feel like it belongs to an old textbook, but the very forces it describes are being measured in India right now. In June 2025 the central government issued the official notification for the next Census of India. It will be the country's first census since 2011, and the main population count is scheduled around a reference date of 1 March 2027. For the first time since 1931, the census will also record every person's caste. This is exactly the kind of large structural change, and act of social control, that the chapter talks about: the state deciding what to count, and communities across the country debating what those numbers will mean.
Why does a headcount matter so much? Because in India numbers shape power. The idea of a dominant caste in a village, the reservations that decide college seats and government jobs, and the way welfare reaches poor families all depend on knowing how many people belong to which group. A caste census could redraw those lines, which is one reason it has become one of the biggest live debates in Indian politics. When you read Max Weber's point in these notes that authority is power people accept as legitimate, the census is a real example: the government's right to classify its citizens rests on law and on public consent.
The rural and urban halves of the chapter are shifting fast too. At the 2011 Census about 31 per cent of Indians, roughly one in three, lived in a town or city. The United Nations projects that share will rise to around 40 per cent by 2030 as villages empty and cities swell. That single trend drives many of the urban problems the notes list: slums, migration, unemployment and the segregation of neighbourhoods by caste and religion. Social change and social order are not just history. They are the story of the country you will grow up and vote in.
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