Introduction
Social change refers to the changes that occur in human interrelations and interactions. These changes alter cultural values and norms as well as behavior patterns of human beings. There are several well-known social changes which have induced long-term effects. Examples of these social changes include the feminist movement, the abolition of slavery, and the industrial revolution (Sztompka, 2009). These changes took place a long time ago but their effects are still felt in societies today. Governments and social movements in most cases play a major role in social change.
Governments engineer social changes by implementing new laws, policies, coercion, or incentives to eliminate certain conflicts. Social movements, on the other hand, induce social change through the fight they impose on certain issues affecting society. The goal of this paper is to address one aspect of the society that will experience the greatest amount of change over the next ten years. To achieve this goal, the paper will include the following sections: population social change, how the change is taking place, the engines driving the change, data demonstrating that this change is taking place and will continue, the theory that explains this change, and conclusions drawn from this analysis.
Population change
Population change is a social change that has a greater impact on human interrelations and interactions (Tyndall, 2008). A growing population will cause pressure on the available resources. This means that this population will have to change its ways of living to survive on scarce or limited resources. Population growth also initiates some issues like migration and some members of the population devise ways of improving productivity so that the growing population does not starve.
Population migration will directly influence another change as the migrants are moving to a new environment which they have to learn how to survive and confront the new problems in the new environment. Population change will directly lead to culture change (Tyndall, 2008). The population is changing each year globally, thus, influencing the way we live. This change will continue for the next ten years or even more due to several factors such as improved health care and nutrition.
How the population is changing
Population change is occurring rapidly where the greatest growth is experienced in developing nations. Regions with smaller population sizes are characterized by high birth rates as well as high mortality rates but this is changing due to technological advances which have helped in improving the health care systems for these regions. Technological advancements have led to high birth rates and low mortality rates which in turn results in extreme population growth (Wrigley, 2007).
Another aspect of population change is whereby people are beginning to have fewer children due to the changes in family roles as well as technological advancements which help people to control reproduction. Due to some of these changes, a family is no longer an economic unit and extended families are no longer there. Nuclear families have resulted from family disintegration and this is the direction population change is taking. Extended families will no longer have a space in the current population changes.
Engines driving population change
Population change is driven by many factors such as the physical setting of a region, technology, urbanization, economic opportunities, culture, politics, religion, and history (Hohn, 2008). Regarding economic concerns, governments play a major role to influence the size of the population. Some governments implement different policies to either increase population or reduce the population growth. Religions also play a major role in population growth. For instance, the Catholic Church is against birth control methods whereas other religions have encouraged birth control methods to curb family sizes. Population growth comes with many changes in society. The big size of the population requires more resources, new institutions, new government responsibilities, and greater job specialization. Changes in population patterns directly influence social priorities. Social priorities changes depend on the composition of the population. For instance, if the youth is more compared to the old people, the social priorities would not be the same if the vice versa happens.
Urbanization is another factor which is contributing a lot to the population growth. Many people are migrating to the urban areas leading to population growth in towns. Some of the reasons why people are moving to urban areas include better employment opportunities, social and economic benefits, etc. The rapid growth of the urban population results in new cultures and ways of life. There are other negatives associated with urbanization such as crime, class conflict, and poverty. Urbanization is a culture on its own and people living in urban areas in most cases behave differently from those living in rural areas.
Technological advancement, on the other hand, has changed everything from the way we communicate to the way we study. It has influence population change in several ways. For instance, people can have babies of their own without the normal conception; it has also contributed to population growth control through reproduction control methods. These technological aspects play a major role in population growth.
Data demonstrating that this change is taking place
The world population growth has been growing continuously since 1350 with an average percentage growth of 1.8% every year (Hohn, 2008). However, this percentage has been going up and down, but the reality remains that every year there is an increase in population globally. Population growth is expected to continue for the next 40 years. At around 2050, statistics indicate that this trend changes drastically as there will be no more population growth. The birth rates by this time will be constant while mortality rates increase. This indicates that there will be no population growth by then. The current population is estimated to be 7 billion and this figure will increase to 7.5 to 8 billion by the year 2022 (Hohn, 2008). This indicates that the world population will continue to increase for the next four decades, thus, piling pressure on limited resources. This will directly influence our social life.
Why population change will experience more social than any other areas in the next ten years
I do believe population change will experience more social change than any other area in the next ten years because its growth is continuing. Many developing countries that have a great impact on the world population growth have improved many sectors that are contributing to population increase. For instance, the health care system of developing nations is improving day in day out increasing fertility rate and a decrease in mortality rate. High fertility rate and low mortality rate consequences are a huge population growth. According to population statistics, this trend will be very alive for the next ten years, thus, it will be still influencing the way we live.
Social change theory explaining population change
The theory that best explains population change is functionalism. This is because this theory mostly emphasizes on what maintains the society, but not what changes it. The society maintains itself and, in this context, the population maintains the society. Equilibrium must be maintained for a society to survive, thus, population change introduces many adjustments to the society so that equilibrium can be maintained. The functionalist theory has a branch theory known as mass society theory which directly explains population change. The following mass society theory aspects have resulted due to population change (Sociology Guide, 2011):
- Erosion of traditional culture and life;
- Local communities are replaced with anonymity and bureaucratic depersonalization;
- Massive societies are currently demassification;
- Functional interdependency has become weak.
The above analysis is a clear indication that the social change of population change is explained by functionalism.
Conclusion
Social change is a continuing process and it will continue to influence our ways of thinking as well as inducing new behaviors into our lives. As a human being, there is no way you can run away from social change because, as life progresses, we are introduced into new things which we have to learn how to live with. Population change is the main contributor to social change because as we pile pressure on limited resources due to population growth we have to devise ways of surviving. This results in things like migration and new technological advancement to cater to the huge population. Functionalism theory is the best theory to explain the population change social change.
References
Hohn, C. (2008). People, population change and policies: lessons from the population policy acceptance study. Springer: London.
Sociology Guide. (2011). Social Change. Sociology Guide. Web.
Sztompka, P. (2009). The sociology of social change. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Tyndall, E. (2008). Population Change. London: Franklin Watts Books.
Wrigley, E. A. (2007). Industrial Growth and Population Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.