Important Social Changes

Improved Essays
Week 1- What are some of the most important social changes of the last five years?
Important social changes that have been evident over the last five years include ‘the family’ concept and advances in technology.

The notion of ‘the family’ and heterosexual couples in our intellectual imagination is significant in demonstrating recent social change (Roseneil and Budgeon, 2004). Social change is significant in order for society to continue to progress in multiple aspects. Instead of theorists just referring to ‘the family’ they now pluralise this idea by always justifying ‘families’ (Roseneil and Budgeon, 2004). This accentuates the way in which rigid structures in society gradually erode and is thus referred to as liquefaction by Bauman (Bauman,
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Within social change movements, power is fundamental as it’s generally outside of authority challenging the hierarchy. The raising slogan of “Black Lives Matter” was formed by a current social group working to raise concern of the controversial issue discrimination, which continues to segregate and oppress one societal group of individuals (Hooker, 2016). This movement reflects Karl Marx theory that once injustices against a group is recognisable, then social groups will fight for power, thus challenging authority.
The severity of the social implication in which black people face is demonstrated in recent events. In 2015, an unarmed adolescent was strangled to death by a police officer, and though stark racial injustice was demonstrated by the actions of the officer, no chargers were pressed (Jee-Lyn García and Sharif, 2015). This organisational movement goes beyond the extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. ("Black Lives Matter": Constructing a New Civil Rights and Black Freedom Movement, 2016). The movement continues to learn from past social movements, and further adopt new strategies by emphasising intersectionality of race, gender, and
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Youth subcultures are formed in order for young adolescents to be able to express autonomy and differences from parents (Hodkinson, 2007).
Goth is a youth subculture which originally emerged from the punk movement, consisting of a large variation of variants such as steampunk, metal, death & emo. Within this youth subculture, forms of self expression are presented through the way people choose to dress, and their overall appearance, reiterating empowerment amongst individuals. This links with Parsons sociological perspective on ways youth may undergo various forms of expression challenging parental views and perspectives of the social norm.
Conversely, gender is often expressed differently within these groups, as women for example, put emphasis on emancipated sexuality. “Goth women engage in strategies of active sexuality, such as proactive sexuality, bisexuality” (Wilkins, 2004, p.329) in order to create gender egalitarianism within their community. Issues with gender can also be identified within the goth community. Due to hyper-feminisation and alternative masculinities in this society, sometimes harassment from outsiders is experienced by both males and

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