The Divine Construction of Golden Masks: The Evolution of Belief Behind the Craft Differences Between Sanxingdui and Jinsha Gold Artifacts

Social change is understood as a more or less rapid and comprehensive change of societal structures and institutions, including changes to the economic, technological, and cultural frameworks of a society (Calhoun, 1992). A case in point is the breakup or transformation of the former communist countries in Europe in the 1980s. The political transition to representative democracy included a profound change of the economic system to market capitalism, which was soon overlaid by the negative effects of globalization. Today, some 20 years after the event, we have a huge variation of political and economic transformations around the world. These transformations also include countries such as the United Kingdom or China that have undergone economic reforms without changes in the basics of the political system. Given that social change is evident at the macro level, it is also plausible to assume that such changes have an impact on individuals’ behavior and development. Until recently, however, such issues did not rank very high on the research agenda, at least not for psychology. This is the background to this Special Section, which brings together papers that investigate the effect of social change on the lives of individuals.

Forced displacement associated with changes in tribal social structure has played an important role in reshaping the tribal social structure in South Kurdistan. This study examines the long-term consequences of Kurdish tribal changes following the displacement of villagers, while forced displacement was initially aimed at consolidating state control and suppressing Kurdish identity, but inadvertently led to significant social and economic change. The main objective of this study is to identify and analyze the effects of the displacement of Kurdish people between 1976 and 1991 on changes in Kurdish tribal composition. Also, this study relied on semi-structured interviews falling within the qualitative method for data collection. It also used both the theory of passing of traditional society and the theory of cultural change to analyze the results. The main results of the study showed that displacement was one of the main factors for changes in the social structure of the tribe in South Kurdistan.

How social structure changes in Chinese global cities: Synthesizing globalization, migration and institutional factors in Beijing

A culture of coexistence

Chapter 27 - The Effect of Economic Growth on Social Structures

The positive impact of official development assistance (ODA) on renewable energy development: Evidence from 34 Sub-Saharan Africa Countries

Resident's Perceptions of the Role of Tourism in Social Changes of Rural Areas (Case Study: Ziarat Village of Gorgan County)

SUMMARY Prolegomena to a Theory of Social Change. The formulation of a general theory of the processes of change of social systems is one of the chief tasks of sociology; none of the models of society currently in vogue provides an adequate basis on which such a theory could be built. The structural‐functional analysis of social interaction systems is capable of understanding the majority of the various processes which go under the name of “social change” as processes within a (major) social system whose boundaries may be theoretically determined at will. On the other hand a working definition of a sociology of “social change” is suggested, in which the term will primarily refer to processes of transition from one social system to another.An obstacle to a “dynamic” sociology of this kind appears in the form of the conception of social systems in equilibrium. The inadequacy of functionalism lies in its ontological postulate that the final end of a social system is its own existence, which is derived from a false analogy with the biological law of the preservation of the species. This analogy holds good only for one social system in “Society” as a whole; the functionalist approach does not suffice to explain the existence of any particular social system or type of system as a particular case among any number of possible arrangements, each of which may equally well satisfy the basic needs of man.The criteria for the transition from one social system to another must be sought in the change of social structure. Since the notion of dynamic equilibrium always implies processes changing the relative position of units within the structure, “social change” must be viewed as the changing of changing structures with regard to the essential properties of particular structures. The change of power structure in the form of the substitution of one social stratum through another one as the ruling element has inescapable consequences for the structural arrangement of the total system. To a certain extent Marxian sociology offers univocal criteria which permit identification of social change, but the alternation of ruling classes is not the only significant change of social structure one could think of.Social change should above all be viewed independently of culture change. Both concepts refer to the same total reality, but at different levels of abstraction. The problem of determining the boundaries of cultural units is not solved by identifying any particular culture with the behaviour patterns and/or norm systems of given social groups. The concept of an “integrated culture” is as much a theoretical model as a social system in equilibrium. The essential property of cultural unity consists in a definite, existentially coloured hierarchy of values, the “Weltanschauung”, whose change is the criterion of cultural change. One possibility of correlating social and cultural change arises from the consideration of the underlying world view as one among many essential properties of social systems.

Barclay, Linda. <i>Disability with Dignity: Justice, Human Rights, and Equal Status</i>. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 142. $124.00 (cloth).

Indicators of the changes in social structure which result from the industrialization of traditional societies are developed via factor analysis of data from 59 developing countries. Multiple regression is then used to investigate the relationship between industrialization, social change, and the relative economic importance of foreign direct investment. The relationship is found to be interactive; foreign direct investment intensifies the pressures for changes in social structure produced by industrialization. The paper concludes that this finding is inconsistent with a theory of underdevelopment in which integration into the world capitalist system inhibits, or even prevents, broadscale industrialization. Rather it requires a transformation of the concept of dependence which recognizes the possibility of capitalist industrialization through foreign investment.

A once-cohesive community, whose members carried out a variety of activities involving group-wide co-operation, changed over the course of six decades into one in which there was little or no broad-scale participation in anything. This urban community's members still strongly identify themselves with it and maintain their closest social relationships within its boundaries, but its once-flourishing public life has all but vanished. Such decline, especially in cities, is not unusual (e.g., Kiel 1993). The community examined here, however, has some unusual features, the most notable of which is a social structure based on a two-section system. One of the hypotheses to be tested here is that the cohesiveness of the community, as seen in its ability to act as a group, depends heavily on competition between its sections in some contexts and overall unity in others. A further hypothesis is that government decisions stimulated ethnic antagonisms within the community, thereby disrupting the unity of opposing sections whose boundaries are based not on ethnicity but on differences in the areas from which their members' ancestors came centuries ago. This antagonism, the hypothesis continues, contributed to the decline in overall cohesiveness, which in turn played an important part in the decline of activities involving group-wide participation. In this article the specific hypothesis will be tested with data from a community that has a social structure rather different from what is found in most other urban communities. The more general hypothesis cannot be tested by data from a single community, but the conditions for its testing in comparative studies will be indicated. SOCIAL STRUCTURE IS LIKE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM Although social structural changes of the sort just mentioned are probably never the only element in community changes, including the decline examined here, a more general hypothesis is that they appear to play a central part in bringing about or, in circumstances different from those described here, checking the effects of other factors. Social structures, through providing the bases for social relationships, are central to the nature and extent of the effects of other influences on community life because it is through social relationships that most other aspects of life are experienced by members of any group (Swartz 1991:304-11). These other aspects of life include processes such as political activities, decisions by central or state governments, changes in economic circumstances, demographics, and in the community's physical condition and location; that is, in what might be summarily referred to as the general phenomena characteristic of contemporary urban life. All of these affect the community through the changes they produce in the social structure, which in turn lead to other changes. The unusual social structure of this community is relatively unimportant from the perspective of the general issue of assessing the different parts in community change played by social structures, in contrast to such exogenous influences as outside political processes and decisions, economic and demographic changes, and cultural changes outside of the communities. It may be that a system depending on group opposition is easier to study than more diffuse structural arrangements, since changes in the involvement of members in oppositional activities can be readily observed and contrasted with activities where overarching unity is displayed. Otherwise, however, the case to be analyzed can be taken as a limited test of the proposition that social structural change has a universally central role in community change regardless of the nature of the structure of the particular groups being examined. When the social structure changes, the experience and response to other aspects of life are affected by that change, often as the direct results of what happens in those aspects of life. …

Given that most social scientists and cultural analysts study society and social change in one way or another, how conscious are we of the conceptual metaphors that inform the foundations of our work? This chapter directs the analytical gaze to the conceptual metaphors that social scientists and cultural analysts apply—in a largely unconscious manner—when discussing social and cultural phenomena in terms of social structure and social change. The methodological exploration begins from a conceptual-historical perspective, with Skinner’s work as a historian of political science. He found the meaning of a concept to reside in its usage. I compare the Skinnerian method of contextual analysis, which factors in the history of concepts, with the metaphorical method employed by historians of sociological thought such as Richard Harvey Brown. The discussion below addresses the fundamental shift in the imagery of social structure and social change in analysis that brings out the political aspect of conceptual metaphors with reference to how they form and take shape in academic debate, in both theory and practice. Such contextual understanding furnishes tools for a critical examination of the conceptual metaphors in their intellectual, political, and material contexts.

This research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the influence of business strategy on consumer behavior, especially upper and middle class consumers. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study design. Research data was collected through interviews, field observations and documentation. The research results show that the management team of SMEs must improve and adjust their business strategy, this is absolute and must be done immediately because the current business strategy is considered to no longer meet market expectations. This strategy must be adjusted, reviewed and refined over time to attract upper middle class consumers who seek an exclusive shopping experience while maintaining a level of product and price diversity. The research results also suggest that SME managers understand the differences in shopping behavior between the lower class who focus on efficiency and price, and the upper middle class who are not sensitive to price changes and focus more on a more personalized shopping experience. Changes in social structure and macroeconomic factors, such as increasing incomes and decreasing unemployment, also influence purchasing power and demand. Management must adapt by adjusting its offerings and infrastructure to meet the needs of different market segments and be able to respond quickly to changes in social structure and demand which can be very varied and fluctuating.

Human fertility has always been a topic of curiosity and devotion. Many cultures consider fertility to be a necessity for the survival and perpetuation of mankind and since early times, myths were created to explain this fabulous process. Fertility gods were ubiquitous in numerous ancient human cultures and were used both to understand fertility and to cope with infertility by means of rituals and offerings. This manuscript aims to catalog and describe the deities associated with male fertility and virility. We conducted a comprehensive search for the terms "male fertility god" and "male virility god" on the internet using web-based search engines. Based on the information retrieved, we selected those deities directed related to male fertility and/or virility and further deepened the search using Pubmed and Medline databases for peer-reviewed articles as well as books and articles about ancient mythology. We identified several gods linked to male fertility and virility in various cultures from Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, Southwestern United States, France, Colombia and Buthan.. Most of these deities were depicted with an erect phallus and with other fertility symbols like snakes. Some deities were also associated with plants and/or animal fertility and their festivals were often held during the harvest period. Gods of male fertility and virility played important roles in many ancient cultures. Offerings and rituals to these gods were the only available options to deal with problems of reproduction and demonstrate the lengths to which ancient people would go seeking cures for infertility.

The scientific revolution, as a core force driving the expansion of human cognitive boundaries, has always maintained a profound interactive relationship with changes in social structure. Their synchronous evolution constitutes a crucial thread in the development of human civilization. This paper first traces the historical progression of the synchronous development between scientific revolutions and social structural changes, revealing the correspondence between scientific breakthroughs and transformations in social forms across different historical stages. It then analyzes the intrinsic mechanisms underlying the synchronicity of scientific revolutions and social structural changes from multiple dimensions, elucidating the dynamic relationships between scientific breakthroughs and societal needs, the cycles of scientific development and social transformation, as well as scientific innovation and societal resources. Against the backdrop of the contemporary technological revolution, this study proposes practical pathways to strengthen demand-oriented scientific research planning, improve institutional adaptation support systems, and promote public participation and collaborative mechanisms. These suggestions aim to provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for achieving efficient synchronization and adaptation between technological revolutions and social structures.