Institutions and Social Change
Institutions and social change
This domain examines major institutions - family, education, religion, media and work - and the processes by which societies change. The exam expects you to show how institutions interconnect and how theoretical perspectives explain change differently.
Institutions and change
- Family: nuclear and extended, conjugal roles, symmetrical family (Willmott and Young), domestic division of labour critiques (Oakley), family diversity (Rapoports).
- Education: hidden curriculum, labelling, Bernstein's codes, correspondence principle (Bowles and Gintis), resistance (Willis).
- Religion: functionalist integration (Durkheim), Marxist ideology, Weber's Protestant ethic; the secularisation debate.
- Social change: evolutionary (Comte, Spencer), conflict (Marx), modernisation, globalisation, reflexive modernity (Beck, Giddens); social movements as agents.
- Institutions are interdependent: changes in work or gender roles reshape family and education.
Worked example
Question: assess the view that secularisation has weakened religion's social role. Reasoning: define secularisation as decline in belief, practice and institutional power; cite evidence such as church attendance, but note problems of measurement and the rise of spirituality, fundamentalism and diaspora religion. Use theory: functionalists see religion as integrating; Weberians stress meaning; Marxists see ideology. Conclude that institutional power may decline while religion remains culturally significant - a nuanced answer beats a simple yes/no.
Traps
Treating institutions in isolation; assuming change is always progressive or linear; confusing secularisation with atheism; ignoring global and local variations.
Key points
- Institutions are interdependent.
- Family roles and diversity are contested.
- Education reproduces and resists inequality.
- Religion's role varies by theory and context.
- Social change is uneven, not linear.