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Intro To Socio

Revision Notes

Syllabus Section: Religion

Syllabus Area: Religion and Social Change (1)

Issue: Religion: class, age and gender

Introduction

In these Notes we can start to look in more detail at the relationship between a cultural institution such as religion and institutions such as work and government (economic and political institutions respectively). In specific terms, the syllabus asks us to look at the "role of religion as a conservative force and as an initiator of social change".

In this respect, there are three main points that we need to clarify before we can start to consider the role of religion.

a. Firstly, how do we define "social change"?

For example, for the past 200 years in Britain, Capitalism has beenthe main economic system (a Capitalist mode of production has been the dominant mode in this period). At this general, historical, level, nothing much has changed - people still work for each other, profits are still made, these profits are privately owned and so forth. Thus, in Marx's terms, it is debatable as to whether social change at the (economic) structural level of society has occurred...

On the other hand, it is clear that today's society - in terms of our day-to-day experiences - is radically different from that of 200, 100, or even 20 years ago. Vast technological and political changes have occurred in our society - yet the underlying economic rationale remains much the same...

Then again, if we delve further into the micro level of human social interaction, it is evident that change is all around us - no two days are ever exactly alike, no two experiences are ever exactly the same...In this sense, we live in a constantly-changing world that does, however, exhibit certain regularities and routines - we go to work, to school, we form relationships that have a certain degree of permanence and so forth.

What this basically means is that the term "social change" is by no-means as precise as we might believe...