Changing Patterns
"Changing Patterns" refers to the shifts and transformations observed in various aspects of society over time. These changes can encompass a wide range of phenomena, including demographic shifts, cultural trends, economic patterns, and social behaviors. Studying changing patterns allows for a deeper understanding of the dynamics and evolution of societies, and can provide valuable insights for addressing contemporary social issues.
3 Key excerpts on "Changing Patterns"
eBook - ePubSociology (Routledge Revivals)
A guide to problems and literature
- Tom B. Bottomore(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The major exceptions are Marx and Sorokin; the former studied in great detail one historical transformation, and the latter has discussed at length the different factors which produce change. In the next chapter we shall turn to this more detailed analysis. 1 Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 390. CHAPTER 17 FACTORS IN SOCIAL CHANGE General considerations A sociological analysis of social change requires in the first place a model more precise and less ambitious than the general theories we discussed in the last chapter, which would make possible the formulation of problems and the systematic presentation of results. In their book, Character and Social Structure, Gerth and Mills have outlined such a model, in terms of six major questions which can be asked about social changes: (i) what is it that changes? (ii) how does it change? (iii) what is the direction of change? (iv) what is the rate of change? (v) why did change occur or why was it possible? (vi) what are the principal factors in social change? In dealing with the first of these questions it is useful, I think, to define social change as a change in social structure (including here changes in the size of a society) or in particular social institutions or in the relationships between institutions. Following the distinction proposed earlier between social structure and culture, we might then employ the term ‘cultural change’ to refer to variations in cultural phenomena such as knowledge and ideas, art, religious and moral doctrines, etc. Obviously, social and cultural changes are closely linked in many cases; for example, the growth of modern science has been closely associated with changes in economic structure...
eBook - ePubVariationist Sociolinguistics
Change, Observation, Interpretation
- Sali A. Tagliamonte(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...(McKnight 1925: 16) Summary Patterns in language data can implicate language external influences or language internal processes or both. The frequency of linguistic variants examined accountably with careful circumscription of the variable context and arrayed according to the age of the individual can reveal much about the nature of the linguistic variable. Is the pattern of distribution of a feature flat, sloping, peaking, or otherwise? This will inform the interpretation of language usage in the community. What type of linguistic change is in evidence? The patterns provide an important clue. The study of linguistic change in progress has repeatedly demonstrated that several key characteristics of the social context are crucial to understanding language change. Three features pointing to the social nature of linguistic change are the following (from Labov 2001a: 75): (1) the unpredictability of change, (2) the unrestricted directionality of change, and (3) the existence of stable variation. The classic sociolinguistic patterns are based on independent variables which were defined according to major sociological categories such as class, education, style, and sex. When sociolinguistic surveys are based on large-scale samples such as the city studies of the 1960s and 1970s, speakers were categorized based on these gross social categories. There are, of course, innumerable (if not infinite) ways of delineating groups in society. Other correlates that have also been considered include ethnicity, race, mobility, network, register, interactional context, attribute of the interlocutor, and group affiliation, among many others. At the same time it has become increasingly obvious that speakers utilize the variation within their linguistic repertoires to accomplish plenty of other social meanings (e.g. Eckert 2000)...
eBook - ePub- Ignace Glorieux, Paul Littlewood, Ingrid Jonsson(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Introduction Patterns of Change at Work Paul Littlewood Ignace Glorieux Ingrid Jönsson It is commonplace to marvel at the incessant speed of the changes we are all experiencing, both directly and indirectly, in a wide variety of ways in our everyday lives. But as social scientists, when we seek to describe and explain these, we soon run into problems. 'Change' is a difficult term, as we find when we start to ask such questions as, 'When did it start'? 'What brought it about?' 'What are its effects?' 'In what direction is it heading?' The concept of change is fraught with difficulty, and writers introduce it at their peril. The main problems lie in first, deciding on the parameters defining what constitutes a given change, and then establishing a consensus with others working in the same field. It is not long after the genesis of a new explanation of change that others start to question it, usually by finding an alternative starting point for the change, or suggesting that the roots of the change have been misidentified, or by claiming that more important than the change are the continuities. This book focuses on patterns of change in work and non-work in Western Europe...
