Wessels, (2014), concludes that work is a driver of social change. In the book Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, Wessels demonstrates how different work environments throughout time has affected the social standards.
It is important to note that the society is made up of different kinds of workers. Everybody works in one way or another. Work in general, and its conditions, largely affect our social lives. Cultural change and working conditions are related. A change in one informs a change in the other. In the industrial revolution, for example, tough industrial jobs required male workers thus assigning home and caretaker duties to women. This meant mothers were more involved in their children’s lives leaving fathers to play the role of providers and not much else.
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This form of work changed with the rise of an Internet-based global e-economy that created conditions for casualized labor (Castells, 2001). This change within work relates to changes in the relations of production (including the technology); how labor and work are defined and organized; and how work relates to the broader dynamics of social formations and hierarchies. An example to work as a driver for social change is; amid the industrial period, a group of the factory-based social workforce could organize to campaign for enhancing working conditions through the trade association development (Wessels, 2014). This organizational reaction has been undermined by the growth of a neoliberal worldwide economy with adaptable working and work environment deregulation, and because of a more extensive individualization of society (Wessels, 2014).
In conclusion, change in the way work is experienced and organized illustrates the process of by which, the relationship between agency and institutions has been altered, and the broad social impact it brings about.
Consumerism as a social practice
One of the defining features of consumerism is that it is a social practice that is institutionalized in different ways, and this relationship is shaped through the dynamics of negotiation (Wessels, 2014). This negotiation has characteristics ranging from political to economic consumption via development modern lifestyles and presumption. This development has been shaped and changed over time.
When analyzing consumerism, consider the effects of large social structures, political and economic (trade organizations and large companies). Theorists agree that modern capitalism enhances consumerism. Baudrillard depicts how the emblematic correspondence of merchandise and ventures, as they relate to status and power, drives consumerism.
Towards the end of the 16 th century, Queen Elizabeth insisted that noblemen had to attend her court, which she wanted to present as a theater of grand ceremony and spectacle. Her noblemen had to find a way to stand out. They resulted in wearing extravagant clothes and presenting gifts at court. This bore competition and drove consumerism as each nobleman had to get a better gift than the next. The above is an example of consumerism underpinned by a political agenda.
The growth and existence of fashion is another illustration of consumerism as an instrument of social change. In fashion, Wessels (2014) observes the internal struggle those in production and those in the dominant consuming class in creating distinction (something that is objectified and can be seen as taste). These oppositions are between old and young or new, expensive and cheap, and practical and classical (Wessels, 2014).
In conclusion, the many characteristics of consumerism reveal the active relationship between social agents and representative institutions as they convey their meaning, through time (Wessels, 2014).
The figure below portrays a blueprint of a commonsense way to deal with social change and the starting points of progress in social practice (Oosterveer, Guivant, Spaargaren, 2007).
Figure 1 (Source: mdpi )
The relationship between media communication and social change
Communication is the defining feature of any society. It can be argued that society is made in, and through communication (Wessels, 2014). The media form a platform through which questions of public culture and personal interests are articulated and mediated (Silverstone, 2006). This affects the social lives of the audience by facilitating collective action or fragmenting understanding to undermine an individual or community expression (Wessels, 2014).
The societal elements of the mass media have been imagined as these three: the press go about as open 'watchman,' by giving reconnaissance of the close and far condition; they help in essential social leadership by providing data, conclusions, and examinations of occasions and people; and they instruct by availing data and expertise related information to the overall population or by formal use in instructive settings. To complement this belief, Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post in an interview with Pierre Omidyar at the Omidyar Network Executive Forum observes that the media is a tool for social change ( Honolulu Civil Beat, 2013) .
According to Wessels (2010), new media characterized by digitization, interactivity, convergence, and networks enhance user participation more interactively. Community-based media digital platforms are designed to meet the needs of different audiences, leading to the development of different social groups and traits. Twitter, on the one hand, enables communication based on interest without considering ties; Facebook uses a social structure to facilitate communication, YouTube uses social networking to allow media consumption where the audience chooses what to see. This creates new social groups that are indicators of social change. It is referred to as ‘mass self-communication’ (Castells, 2009).
New media has the potential to undermine established practice and open up the possibility of a more pluralistic media and public sphere through their interactive capacities. In conclusion, due to new media, the relationship between private and public media and the ability of citizens as end users will pave the way that public expression, culture, and politics are framed across localities (Wessels, 2014).
References
Castells M (2001). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford:
Castells, M. (2009). Communication power . Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Honolulu Civil Beat. (2013, May 29). What is the Media's Role in Social Change? Retrieved November 13, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=zHSFiveqPqA
Oosterveer, P.; Guivant, J.; Spaargaren, G. (2007). Shopping for green food in globalizing supermarkets: Sustainability at the consumption junction. In Sage Handbook on Environment and Society ; Pretty, J., Ball, A., Benton, T., Guivant, J., Lee, D., Orr, D., Pfeffer, M., Ward, H., Eds.; Sage: London, UK, 2007; pp. 411–428. [Google Scholar]
Silverstone, R. (2006). Media and Morality: On the rise of the Mediapolis . Cambridge: Polity.
Spaargaren, G., & Oosterveer, P. (2010, June 30). Citizen-Consumers as Agents of Change in Globalizing Modernity: The Case of Sustainable Consumption. Retrieved November 13, 2018, from https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/7/1887/htm#B81-sustainability-02-01887
Wessels, B. (2010 ). Understanding the Internet: A socio-cultural perspective . Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wessels, B. (2014). Exploring Social Change: Process and Context . Palgrave Macmillan. Work, Production and Social Change, 6 , 95-107. Social Change and Consumerism, 7, 108- 126. Changes in Communication, 9, 146-166.
