How societies change / / Daniel Chirot

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910970367703321
• Autore: Chirot Daniel
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; ; London, : Pine Forge, 2012; Los Angeles, CA : , : SAGE Publications, Inc., , 2012
• ISBN: 9781483349152; 1483349152; 9781452237152; 1452237158; 9781452224466; 1452224463
• Edizione: [2nd ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 165 p.) : maps
• Collana: Sociology for a new century series
• Disciplina: 303.4
• Soggetti: Social change; Social evolution
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 1. Evolution and early human societies : Physical and cultural evolution: differences and similarities ; Causes of change in early societies ; From collecting, hunting, and fishing to agriculture -- Agrarian societies : The invention of the state ; Class status, and force: increasing inequality and making it hereditary ; Nomads, migrants, and other raiders ; Great cultures: the moral basis of agrarian civilizations ; The problem of administration and the cycle of political decay and reconstruction ; The conservatism of village life ; The demographic cycle in agrarian societies ; The potential for rapid innovation: the importance of peripheries ; The limits of analogy: societies are not species, and cultural evolution is not biological -- The rise of the West : Europe's ecological advantages ; Religious discordance and political stalemate: the basis for western rationalization ; Science, knowledge, and exploration in China and Western Europe ; The growth of European empires and the transformation of the economy ; Overcoming the agrarian population cycle ; The invention of nationalism and its consequences ; The legitimation of commerce: the ideological basis of ; the Industrial Revolution -- The Modern era : Industrial cycles ; Internal and international social consequences of modernization and industrial cycles ; Economic class and political power in modern societies ; Political ideologies and protests: two centuries of revolutions ; The unending effort to adapt to modernity ; Ecological pressures persist -- Toward a theory of social change : Why change occurs ; The new or the old?: The paradox of institutional resistance to change ; Freedom or control?: The dilemma of the modern era.
• Sommario/riassunto: An exploration of how societies have changed over the past five thousand years. The discussion focuses on the idea that industrial societies, despite their great success, have created a new set of recurring and unsolved problems which will serve as a major impetus for further social change.