One of the important topics covered this week was social change in society. Social change refers to changes in the core of a society's structure, culture, or social behavior over a period of time. There are two approaches which are used in order to cause social change. The first of these is reform, in which individuals attempt to cause change through legit, legal means. This can include demonstrations or protests in order to gain support for your ideas and cause potential change through voting, or whatever conventional means one's society has for changing the norm. The second is radical, where individuals provoke change through working outside the system in order to create major changes in society. This can include riots or revolutions which occur to change aspects of society into what the individuals want. While many individuals view social change caused through radical means as always being a negative, it's through this type that our country first came into being.
When our country was originally the thirteen colonies, there was always tension between them and Great Britain when it came to colonists feeling unfairly treated by the parliament. A common saying used to incite the American Revolution was "No taxation without representation". This referred to how the people felt that it was unfair of the government to tax the colonists without allowing for colonist representation in the British parliament. It was through protests focusing on this, as well as other issues that colonists had with the British government that first sparked the idea of revolution and gave it enough power to eventually cause major social change in the colonies. The revolutionary leaders were able to use the radical approach in order to defy the existing norms and cause some huge changes in society, including even creating a new government after getting rid of the old one. While this act could still be viewed as a negative by some, most would surely agree that this is a prime example of radical social change that was able to benefit our society as a whole.
This is a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which signified the official breaking away of the colonies from Great Britain.
