Accelerating – pace of change has increased with the rate of technological change | Affects every aspect of society, culture and economy |
Affects everyone | Can create new culture |
Can create new institutions | Can create new social groups |
Can disintegrate institutions | Can strain intergenerational communication and relationships |
Chaotic – can come from anyone, anywhere at anytime | Continuous – never stops |
Creates disruption and instability | Creates social conflict |
Demographics – can be created by demographic change | Difficult to reverse once it has occurred |
Each change has secondary effects | Economic – often driven by economic conditions |
Emergent – unplanned and uncontrolled | Eventually accepted - people tend to view the social change of 50 years ago as positive but current social change as negative |
Every element of society and culture can change | Generational – new generations tend to lead social change but everyone contributes |
Inevitable – an inherent aspect of life | Intentional or unintentional – social change is often an unintended consequence |
Media – often driven by processes of communication | Often disruptive to power structures |
Often disruptive to quality of life | Often disruptive to the labor market |
Participatory – everyone contributes in some way | Peaceful or violent |
Politics is often a battle to shape social change | Prediction of social change is difficult and mostly impossible many years into the future |
Progressive or conservative | Reactionaries – people want to reverse change to go back to a supposed golden age |
Reactive – reactions against change can create large changes in a feedback loop | Resisted or embraced |
Revolution – grassroots conflict that produces change | Social changes can have many causes |
Some changes are purely cultural such as changing fashion trends | Some changes have very broad impact in areas such as work, lifestyles, economics, politics, justice and government |
Technological – often driven by new technology | Technology tends to change quickly while culture and society lag behind and play catch-up |
Temporary or permanent – some changes don’t last | The cause of social changes isn’t always clear |
Traditions and heritage are tools of stability | Transformative or evolutionary – can occur suddenly or slowly |
Universal – no society escapes change |
