Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 181

Socio-cultural change includes, as a minimum, the impact of religion and beliefs, communications and leadership on social life. Religion may be a conservative or an innovative force, emphasizing the continuity of traditional values and behaviour or actively promoting change. As Max Weber showed, religious convictions have played a significant mobilizing role in the pressure to transform societies. Weber’s ‘Protestant ethic thesis’ is the best-known example, but in recent times the Catholic Church, seen by many as essentially conservative, played a key role in supporting the Solidarity movement in Poland, which overthrew the communist regime. Similarly, many activists who took part in the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2010–12 saw their actions as part of an attempt to reclaim Islam for their countries from corrupt political leaders and authoritarian regimes.

Communication systems have played an important and enduring role in changing the underlying character of societies. The invention of writing, for instance, allowed recordkeeping and made possible an increasing control of material resources and the development of large-scale organizations. Writing altered people’s perception of the relationship between past, present and future. Societies that keep written records know themselves to have a history, and understanding that history can create a sense of the overall development of a society. With the advent of the internet, communication has become much faster and distance is no longer a significant obstacle. In addition, it has generated a more effective perception of a global society – often called a cosmopolitan outlook – made concrete in global crowdfunding charity campaigns and recent global movements against capitalism and, paradoxically, free-market globalization.

Leadership is a further socio-cultural element of change, which Weber explored through the concept of charisma. Individual charismatic leaders have played important roles in world history. Religious leaders such as Jesus or Muhammad, political and military leaders such as Julius Caesar, or innovators in science and philosophy such as Isaac Newton have all influenced how societies change. An individual leader capable of pursuing dynamic policies, generating a popular following or radically altering existing modes of thought can help overturn an established order.

Mahatma Gandhi fits Weber’s concept of a charismatic leader. His leadership of the national independence movement helped to free India from British colonial rule.

Weber’s conception of leadership is discussed in chapter 18, ‘Religion’.

However, individuals can reach positions of leadership and become effective only if favourable social conditions exist. Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in the 1930s, for instance, partly as a result of the tensions and crises that beset the country at that time, which made his apparently simple solutions much more attractive. In a very different way, Mahatma Gandhi, the famous pacifist leader in India during the period leading to independence in 1947, was an effective figurehead because the 1939–45 war and other events had unsettled the British colonial institutions in India, creating a political opportunity for change.

In modern times, the development of science and the secularization of social life have been influential agents of change, contributing to the critical and innovative character of the modern outlook. People no longer accept customs or habits just because they have the age-old authority of tradition and are more likely to be persuaded by rational, scientific argument. In addition to how we think, the content of ideas has changed. Ideals of self-betterment, individual freedom, equality and democratic participation are part of modern life. These ideals may have developed in a particular form in the West, but they have become genuinely universal in their application, promoting social and political change in most regions of the world.