Social change is inevitable. Discuss

If something is inevitable, it is certain to happen and cannot be prevented or avoided. If the case succeeds, it is inevitable that other trials will follow. 

However, some people would say the only things that aren’t evitable are death and taxes. Definitions of evitable may mean capable of being avoided or warded off. 

Avoid using word “if” which is wishful thinking. Explore what is happening that is leading to social change being evitable or inevitable. 

Model answer 

Social change can be defined as the transformation of societies, cultures, interaction and traditions. The view that social change is inevitable is supported by sociological theories and theories of social change. 

They believe that social change is inevitable because it is an unplanned event, there is development aid, democratic aid and through disconnecting from globalisation. However, other theories argue that social change is evitable because African culture is conservative, Europe is extracting African  raw materials and development aid is seen as hindering social change of Africa.

Social change is inevitable through  developmental aid that is seen as a catalyst for change. According to the mordenisation theory of social change Africa needs to be assisted by the developed countries through money or funding educational resources and health equipment.

This feature is seen as fast- tracking development, for instance USAID has improved the health sector of Zimbabwe thereby suggesting that social change is inevitable through developmental aid. However, critics have argued that developmental aid has made the social change of Africa evitable.

According to Friedman developmental aid is disguising considering the fact that it is meant to benefit the donor through royalties and interest hence hindering social change of developing countries. Therefore, social change is not always inevitable as suggested by the modernisation theory but can be evitable through various policies.

Social change is  also inevitable through the development of class conciousness that will herald inequalities. Marxism views sudden social change in the form of protest or revolution as both desirable and necessary to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to address other social ills like the 1789 French Revolution. 

In this sense, social change is unplanned even though it happens anyway.  Marxist  theorists, recognise that social change often inevitably stems from efforts by social movements to bring about fundamental changes in the social economic and political systems. In his sense, social change is more “planned” or at least intended. 

The development of class conciousness will make the discounted working class revolt against capitalism leading to its replacement by advanced communism society hence suggesting that social change is inevitable since there is no amount of any power that can stop an idea whose time has come. 

However, Marxian version also erred in predicting that capitalists societies would inevitably undergo a socialist -communist revolution.  Critics believe that a classless society is a dream, which cannot come true. 

This is because already the working class are already aware of their true situation but cannot revolt because the state will use repressive laws to stop revolutionary movements hence ushering to the idea that social change is evitable.

According to  modernisation theory social change is inevitable through westernization. It gives the impression is that westernization is desirable for social change. To this theory, the West is the model to be followed. Furthermore development industrialisation, urbanisation and moving away from tradition, rurality so achieving modernity are goals of development. 

Tradition and rural life is seen as backward, difficult life while urbanity and modernity are seen as a more efficient, better and easier life because of technology. 

Those pro-modernisation theory claim that once modernisation starts it is irreversible thus education is seen as important for learning western cultures. For example, Africa  has been made better after it has tapped in western cultures.  However, the modernisation theory is criticised for exaggerating that Africans should abandon their culture if they want to change. 

Culture is important in social change and Europeans changed not by copying foreign cultures, thus the theory ignored that social change of African is made evitable by western countries who are exploiting the resources of Africa. 

According to World system theory of social change, Africa has been left underdeveloped by Europeans who have extracted resources. Thus, it can be concluded that social change is not only inevitable rather it has been made evitable by Europeans. 

In conclusion, the above discussion has highlighted that social change is inevitable through developmental aids, democracy and other unplanned events of human development like gaining human class counsiousness. However, there are some obstacles which make social change evitable such as the exploitation of raw materials and reverse aid.

Tatenda Chihota is a sociology scholar