Religion and social change | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: Sep 1
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 90 minutes
These Religion and social change A-Level Sociology revision notes examine whether religious beliefs, practices and organisations can transform society or instead preserve existing arrangements. You will explore religion as an ideological resource, Weberian explanations of economic change, counter-hegemony, Liberation Theology, religious feminism and millenarian movements. You will also evaluate arguments that religion can be conservative or even obstruct change. The lesson develops ideas from ideology [Ideology] and leads directly into religion and social stability [Religion and social stability].
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain the relationship between religion and social change.
Describe ways religious beliefs and practices may challenge existing social arrangements.
Analyse how religion may provide an ideological resource for groups seeking change.
Explain Weberian, neo-Marxist and feminist interpretations of religion and social change.
Apply examples such as millenarian movements, Liberation Theology and religious feminism.
Evaluate the extent to which religion acts as a force for social change rather than a conservative force.
Revision Notes 📚
What does AQA require you to know?
Within Beliefs in Society, AQA requires students to understand sociological explanations of the relationship between social change and social stability, and religious beliefs, practices and organisations. The same topic must also be understood through the wider course themes of socialisation, culture and identity, and social differentiation, power and stratification.
This means the central issue is not simply whether religion “causes change”.
Sociologists examine:
how religious ideas may challenge existing beliefs and values;
whether religion can motivate protest;
whether religious organisations can support social movements;
whether religious ideas can contribute to economic or political change;
whether religion instead reinforces existing power structures;
why religion may encourage change in some circumstances but prevent it in others.
AQA has directly examined the view that religion acts as a force for social change and, in its specimen material, the reverse argument that religious beliefs and organisations are barriers to change.
What is social change?
Social change refers to significant changes in the organisation, values, institutions or relationships of a society.
Within this lesson, change might involve:
challenges to powerful groups;
changes to dominant beliefs and values;
economic transformation;
changes in gender relations;
protest against inequality;
challenges to established political or religious authority.
The key idea is that religion can potentially provide beliefs, values, organisations and collective identities through which people interpret society and attempt to alter it.
A simple analytical chain is:
religious belief → interpretation of an existing problem → motivation or organisation → collective action → possible social change
Religion does not guarantee that change will occur, but it may create resources that make change more likely.
Religion as a force for social change
AQA's 2020 examination item described religion as potentially challenging mainstream beliefs and values and inspiring protest against the existing social order. Its mark scheme accepts a wide range of relevant concepts, including:
religion as an ideological resource;
hegemony and counter-hegemony;
organic intellectuals;
the principle of hope;
millenarian movements;
Liberation Theology;
religious feminism;
religious fundamentalism;
the spirit of capitalism.
This gives you several different ways of explaining how religion might contribute to change.
Religious beliefs as an ideological resource
An ideological resource is a set of ideas that people can use to interpret society and justify action.
This links directly to ideology [Ideology].
Religion does not have to encourage acceptance of society. Religious beliefs may instead provide:
an explanation of why existing arrangements are unjust;
alternative values;
a vision of how society should be different;
moral justification for challenging authority;
motivation for collective action.
The process can therefore be:
religious ideas → criticism of existing inequality → alternative vision → protest or organisation → pressure for change
This is an important counterargument to the view that religion only legitimises inequality.
Hegemony and counter-hegemony
AQA identifies hegemony, counter-hegemony and organic intellectuals as relevant concepts when examining religion and social change.
Hegemony
Hegemony refers to ideological dominance, where the ideas and values associated with powerful groups become influential within society.
If religion simply supports these dominant ideas, it may help maintain existing arrangements.
Counter-hegemony
Counter-hegemony refers to ideas that challenge dominant beliefs and interpretations.
Religion can therefore become an ideological resource for groups that oppose existing inequalities.
Instead of saying:
Religion always makes people accept society.
a counter-hegemonic interpretation suggests:
Religious beliefs can give subordinate groups an alternative way of understanding society and a basis for resisting dominant ideas.
This makes religion potentially capable of both supporting and challenging power.
Gramsci and the dual potential of religion
Gramsci is listed by AQA as a relevant source for questions concerning religion and social change. The concepts of hegemony, counter-hegemony and organic intellectuals are particularly useful for explaining this position.
The important point is that religion has no single inevitable political effect.
It may help reproduce hegemony if religious ideas support the existing social order.
However, religion may also contribute to counter-hegemony if religious ideas are used to challenge dominant groups.
Organic intellectuals
Organic intellectuals can be understood as people who articulate ideas and experiences from within social groups and help develop challenges to dominant ways of thinking.
Within religion, religious leaders or thinkers may therefore help transform dissatisfaction into a more organised challenge to existing arrangements.
The key analytical relationship is:
religious interpretation of inequality → development of alternative ideas → organisation of opposition → possible social change
This makes Gramsci's approach more flexible than an explanation in which religion can only support dominant groups.
Liberation Theology
Liberation Theology is explicitly identified in the AQA 2020 mark scheme as relevant material for religion and social change. Maduro and Lowy are among the sociologists AQA lists as possible sources.
Sociologically, Liberation Theology is important because it illustrates how religious beliefs may be used to challenge oppression and inequality rather than simply legitimising them.
Religion can provide:
a moral criticism of inequality;
support for disadvantaged groups;
an alternative interpretation of the existing social order;
justification for action aimed at change.
This gives religion a potentially counter-hegemonic role.
The analytical chain is:
religious beliefs → existing inequality judged unacceptable → disadvantaged groups gain an ideological resource → challenge to existing power
This is a strong example for evaluating Marxist arguments that religion necessarily serves ruling-class interests.
Religion and the principle of hope
AQA also identifies the principle of hope as relevant to social change.
The basic sociological idea is that religious beliefs may offer people a vision of a different or improved social future.
Hope can matter socially because it may prevent people from seeing existing arrangements as inevitable.
Religion may therefore:
provide an alternative vision;
encourage people to believe change is possible;
create commitment to that alternative;
support collective attempts to bring change about.
⚠️ This needs careful evaluation.
Hope might encourage action, but beliefs about a better future do not automatically produce actual social transformation.
Millenarian movements
AQA includes millenarian movements and cargo cults among the concepts that may be relevant when answering questions about religion and social change.
A millenarian movement is a religious movement associated with expectations of major or radical transformation.
Its significance for Sociology is that religion can give disadvantaged or marginalised groups:
an explanation for their situation;
a belief that existing arrangements can be transformed;
a collective identity;
a vision of a different social order.
This demonstrates how religion may become particularly significant where groups experience inequality or disruption.
However, an expectation of transformation is not the same as actually achieving structural social change.
That distinction is useful evaluation.
Weber and the spirit of capitalism
AQA's mark scheme identifies the spirit of capitalism and Weber as relevant to the relationship between religion and social change. The Protestant ethic also appears elsewhere in AQA's Beliefs in Society marking material.
The Weberian argument is especially important because it demonstrates how ideas can influence economic behaviour and social organisation.
In this interpretation, religious beliefs do not simply reflect existing economic conditions. Beliefs can influence the way people behave economically, contributing to wider economic change.
The relationship can be represented as:
religious beliefs and values → particular forms of economic behaviour → development of a distinctive economic outlook → wider social and economic change
This challenges approaches that treat economic structure as determining religious ideas in only one direction.
Why Weber matters for the debate
Weber's contribution is useful because it challenges a simple materialist explanation.
If religious ideas can contribute to major economic change, then religion cannot always be reduced to:
a reflection of economic conditions;
an instrument of ruling-class control;
a barrier to change.
However, Weber's argument does not establish that all religious beliefs promote economic transformation.
The sociological claim is narrower:
Under particular historical and social circumstances, religious ideas may become one important factor contributing to social change.
That phrase, one important factor, is useful in evaluation because social change is rarely explained adequately by a single cause.
Religious feminism
AQA explicitly includes religious feminism as relevant to questions concerning religion and social change.
Feminist approaches often criticise religious beliefs and organisations for reinforcing patriarchy. However, religious feminism shows that religion need not only reproduce gender inequality.
Religious beliefs may be:
questioned;
reinterpreted;
used to challenge patriarchal practices;
used to argue for changes in women's position.
This gives religion a potential role in changing gender relationships rather than simply preserving them.
The process can be represented as:
challenge to patriarchal interpretation → alternative religious interpretation → criticism of gender inequality → pressure for change
You will return to gender differences in social groups and religion [Social groups and religion].
Evaluating religious feminism
Religious feminism demonstrates an important general point:
religion is internally contested.
Different believers may interpret the same tradition differently.
Some religious beliefs or organisations may reinforce gender inequality, while other believers may use religious ideas to challenge it.
Therefore, it is too simplistic to say either:
“Religion is patriarchal.”
or:
“Religion promotes gender equality.”
The relationship depends on the beliefs, practices, organisations and social context being examined.
Religion as protest
AQA explicitly identifies protest as a mechanism connecting religion and change.
The 2024 mark scheme, for example, recognises the possibility that religious ideology may inspire protest and social change.
Religion can contribute to protest by providing:
shared values;
collective identity;
moral justification;
organisations;
beliefs that challenge dominant arrangements.
A religious group may therefore turn private dissatisfaction into collective opposition.
However, the success of protest depends on more than religious commitment alone.
For evaluation, distinguish:
religion contributing to protest
from
religion successfully causing major social change.
Those are not identical claims.
The US Civil Rights movement and exam use
The 2020 examiner report notes that students sometimes used the US Civil Rights movement successfully when evaluating religion's importance in social change.
The examination lesson here is important.
Do not simply name an example and move on.
A stronger response asks:
What religious belief or organisation contributed?
How did it encourage or organise a challenge?
What type of social change was being sought?
How important was religion compared with other influences?
The examiner report specifically notes that some students evaluated the extent to which religion was important, which is much stronger than using an example descriptively.
Religion and fundamentalism
Religion can also respond to social change by attempting to reverse or resist it.
AQA's 2021 mark scheme identifies religious fundamentalism as relevant to the relationship between globalisation, religion and change. It suggests that rapid social change and uncertainty may contribute to fundamentalist groups seeking a return to traditional values.
This creates an important complication.
A religious movement may actively campaign to change society, but the change it seeks may involve restoring traditional arrangements.
Therefore:
force for change ≠ force for progressive change
A movement can be socially active and politically significant while aiming to reverse developments that it rejects.
Social change can also change religion
The relationship between religion and change works in both directions.
This is easy to miss.
So far, we have considered:
religion → social change
But AQA also assesses:
social change → religion
For example, the 2022 paper asked students how periods of poverty and uncertainty produced by social change may contribute to the growth of sects. AQA accepted explanations involving marginalisation, deprivation, uncertainty and anomie.
This relationship is explored in more depth in sects and cults [Sects and cults].
It shows that religion can be both:
a cause or resource for change;
a response to change occurring elsewhere in society.
Globalisation and religion as a force for change
Globalisation can alter religion's ability to encourage social change.
AQA directly assessed this relationship in 2021. Its mark scheme identifies several mechanisms:
technological advances can give religious organisations new methods of campaigning;
social media can spread examples of religious protest;
movement of people can facilitate religious protest;
global media can expose inequalities and encourage religious groups to campaign;
religious organisations can use the internet to spread ideas;
secularisation associated with non-religious worldviews may reduce religion's ability to promote change.
You will examine globalisation in full in globalisation and the spread of religions [Globalisation and the spread of religions].
Technology and religious campaigning
Digital communication can potentially increase the reach of religious movements.
A religious organisation may be able to:
communicate an interpretation of an issue;
reach supporters across larger geographical areas;
spread information rapidly;
organise or encourage collective action;
challenge existing institutions or ideas.
This strengthens the potential relationship between religion and change.
However, technology itself is not a religious force.
A stronger sociological explanation is:
global communication provides a mechanism through which religious ideas and organisations can exercise influence.
Global media and inequality
AQA also identifies global media exposing inequality as a way globalisation can encourage religious groups to campaign for change.
The analytical chain is:
greater information about inequality → religious interpretation of that inequality → mobilisation of believers → campaign or protest
Again, do not stop at “social media causes change”.
The answer must explain the religious mechanism.
Globalisation can also weaken religion as a force for change
The direction is not necessarily positive.
AQA's 2021 mark scheme also recognises that the growth of Western non-religious worldviews may contribute to secularisation, reducing religion's role in promoting change.
This gives a useful evaluative contrast:
Globalisation may strengthen religion as a force for change | Globalisation may weaken religion as a force for change |
Religious campaigns can spread through new technology | Secularisation may reduce religious influence |
Social media can spread protest | Alternative worldviews may challenge religious authority |
Movement of people can spread religious movements | Religious commitment may become weaker |
Global media can expose inequalities | Religion may lose its position as a major source of collective action |
This relationship will become especially important when studying secularisation in a global context [Secularisation in a global context].
Religion as a conservative force
The strongest evaluation of religion as a force for change is that religion may instead operate as a conservative force.
A conservative force helps to preserve existing:
values;
beliefs;
institutions;
social relationships;
power structures.
AQA's specimen material explicitly states that religious beliefs and organisations can act as barriers to social change. It gives religious doctrines that justify existing social structures and wealthy churches linked with elite groups as examples.
This is the opposite process:
religious belief → existing arrangement seen as legitimate → acceptance rather than challenge → social stability
You will examine this side of the debate fully in religion and social stability [Religion and social stability].
Marxist interpretations
Marxist perspectives may see religion as reinforcing existing class relations rather than encouraging change.
Relevant AQA concepts across the Beliefs material include:
bourgeois ideology;
ideological control;
false class consciousness;
capitalism;
exploitation;
ruling-class interests.
In this interpretation, religious beliefs may encourage people to accept rather than challenge inequality.
Religion therefore becomes:
ideology → acceptance of class relations → reduced class challenge → maintenance of the status quo
This provides a direct criticism of the claim that religion normally promotes social transformation.
But religion may have a dual character
The neo-Marxist concepts examined earlier create a more complex position.
Religion may:
reproduce dominant ideology;
provide counter-hegemonic ideas;
legitimise power;
challenge power;
pacify disadvantaged groups;
provide those groups with resources for resistance.
This can be described as the dual character of religion, a concept also recognised in AQA's later Beliefs mark schemes.
This is one of the most useful conclusions for an essay.
Religion has no single, automatic relationship with social change.
Feminist interpretations
Feminist sociology creates a similar debate.
One argument is that religion can act as a barrier to change by reinforcing patriarchal ideology and traditional gender arrangements.
AQA explicitly identifies patriarchal ideology as relevant when considering religion's conservative role.
However, religious feminism demonstrates that women may also challenge patriarchal beliefs and practices from within religious contexts.
This means religion can be:
a source of patriarchal legitimation
and
a resource through which patriarchy is challenged.
The precise social context matters.
Functionalist interpretations
Functionalist perspectives are also identified by AQA as relevant when evaluating whether religion acts as a barrier to change or as a force for change.
Functionalist approaches place greater emphasis on religion's contribution to shared values and social integration.
From this perspective, rapid and constant transformation is not necessarily religion's main role.
Religion may instead contribute to continuity and stability.
That does not mean change is impossible, but it provides an alternative to explanations that focus on conflict, protest and resistance.
The relationship between religion and order is developed in the next lesson, religion and social stability [Religion and social stability].
Does religion cause social change?
This is one of the most important evaluation questions.
Evidence that religion is associated with a social movement does not prove that religion was the sole cause of the resulting change.
Other social conditions may also matter.
A good evaluation therefore distinguishes between:
religion causing change;
religion contributing to change;
religion legitimising a movement;
religion organising people;
religion providing an ideological resource.
This avoids exaggerated conclusions.
A strong sociological judgement is often:
Religion may be an important factor in social change without being a sufficient explanation of that change on its own.
Is all religiously inspired change progressive?
No.
This is another key evaluative distinction.
Religion may challenge the current social order while demanding a return to traditional beliefs and values.
Religious fundamentalism demonstrates this possibility.
Therefore, when an exam asks whether religion is a force for change, do not automatically treat:
change = greater equality or modernisation
Change can involve movement in different directions.
Comparing the main interpretations
Interpretation or concept | Relationship between religion and change | Main evaluation |
Weberian | Religious ideas may contribute to major economic change | Shows ideas can matter, but religion may be only one causal factor |
Hegemony | Religion may support dominant beliefs | Suggests religion can preserve the status quo |
Counter-hegemony | Religious ideas may challenge dominant beliefs | Shows religion may provide resources for resistance |
Liberation Theology | Religion may challenge inequality and oppression | Demonstrates that religion need not serve powerful groups |
Millenarian movements | Religion may offer marginalised groups a vision of radical change | Expectations of change do not guarantee structural transformation |
Religious feminism | Religious interpretations may challenge patriarchy | Other religious interpretations may reinforce patriarchy |
Fundamentalism | Religious movements may campaign to alter society | Change may involve restoration of traditional values |
Marxist | Religion may legitimise inequality and prevent class challenge | May underestimate religion's counter-hegemonic possibilities |
Functionalist | Religion may contribute more strongly to continuity and social order | Underplays conflict and religious protest |
A balanced judgement on religion and social change
The relationship between religion and social change is conditional, not automatic.
Religion is most likely to become a force for change where its beliefs and organisations:
provide an alternative interpretation of society;
identify existing arrangements as unjust;
create solidarity;
give groups a reason to act;
provide organisational or ideological resources;
connect dissatisfaction with collective action.
However, religion may prevent change where beliefs:
legitimise existing social structures;
support powerful groups;
reinforce traditional gender or class relationships;
encourage acceptance rather than opposition.
The strongest overall argument is therefore that religion can act as both a conservative and a transformative force.
Its effect depends on the content of religious beliefs, the organisation through which they operate, the groups using them and the wider social conditions.
Applying religion and social change in an examination
For a question about religion as a force for change, avoid simply listing examples.
A useful paragraph structure is:
1. State the sociological argument
For example:
Religion can act as an ideological resource that enables disadvantaged groups to challenge dominant beliefs.
2. Explain the mechanism
Explain how religious beliefs provide an alternative interpretation or moral justification.
3. Apply an example or sociologist
For example, you might use:
Gramsci and counter-hegemony;
Liberation Theology;
Weber and the spirit of capitalism;
religious feminism;
millenarian movements.
4. Analyse the consequence
Explain precisely what changes:
beliefs;
power relations;
economic behaviour;
gender relationships;
political organisation.
5. Evaluate
Ask:
Was religion actually the cause?
Was the change substantial?
Could religion instead reinforce the status quo?
Does the argument apply to all religious traditions?
Was the religious movement seeking progressive or traditional change?
This final step is what turns good knowledge into strong A-Level evaluation.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Social change | Significant change in social institutions, relationships, values or structures. | Identify exactly what kind of change religion is claimed to produce. |
Conservative force | A force that helps preserve existing values, relationships or institutions. | Evaluate arguments that religion prevents rather than promotes change. |
Ideological resource | Beliefs and ideas that a group can use to interpret society and justify action. | Explain how religion may provide a basis for protest. |
Hegemony | Ideological dominance in which powerful ideas become influential or accepted. | Explain how religion may support existing power. |
Counter-hegemony | Ideas that challenge dominant beliefs and interpretations. | Explain how religion may help groups oppose established power. |
Organic intellectuals | People who articulate ideas and challenges associated with particular social groups. | Use in neo-Marxist explanations of how opposition may become organised. |
Liberation Theology | An AQA-recognised example of religion being used to challenge inequality and oppression. | Apply when evaluating the idea that religion always supports powerful groups. |
Millenarian movement | A religious movement associated with expectations of major social transformation. | Explain how religion may provide disadvantaged groups with a vision of change. |
Religious feminism | The use or reinterpretation of religious ideas to challenge gender inequality. | Evaluate claims that religion necessarily reinforces patriarchy. |
Religious fundamentalism | A religious response that may seek the restoration of traditional beliefs and values. | Show that religiously motivated change is not necessarily progressive. |
Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡
The 2020 examination directly assessed the view that religion acts as a force for social change, making its examiner report especially useful for this lesson.
Examiner hint: The report found good knowledge on both sides of the debate. This means successful revision should cover religion as a force for change and religion as a conservative force, rather than preparing only one argument.
A strong essay should therefore create a genuine debate.
For example:
Religion promotes change because...
followed by:
However, this assumes...
rather than writing several paragraphs supporting one side and adding a short criticism at the end.
Examiner hint: Examples were sometimes well evaluated, particularly where students considered the extent to which religion mattered in the US Civil Rights movement.
The lesson is not simply “use examples”.
Ask how important religion actually was.
An example should become evidence for an argument, not replace the argument.
Examiner hint: The 2020 report noted that there were relatively few contemporary examples. Where you use examples, connect them explicitly to the sociological argument rather than simply naming an event.
Examiner hint: Time management mattered. Some 20-mark answers were brief because this was often the last question attempted. The report advises students to manage their time carefully.
Do not let the final essay become an unfinished answer after spending too long on earlier questions.
Examiner hint: A conclusion that weighs arguments and evidence and reaches a judgement demonstrates analysis and evaluation.
A useful conclusion should therefore answer:
Under what conditions is religion most likely to promote change, and when is it more likely to preserve the status quo?
For 10-mark questions, remember that AQA's 2021 mark scheme rewards developed connections between the two parts of a question. A response about globalisation must explain how globalisation changes religion's capacity to promote social change, not simply describe globalisation and religion separately.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Assuming religion is always conservative
Why this is incorrect: AQA explicitly assesses arguments that religion can challenge mainstream beliefs, inspire protest and act as an ideological resource.
How to improve: Revise religion as having a possible dual character, capable of both legitimising and challenging social arrangements.
Mistake: Assuming religion always causes change
Why this is incorrect: Religion may contribute ideas, leadership, identity or organisation without being the only cause of wider transformation.
How to improve: Use careful language such as:
“Religion contributed to...”
and then evaluate how important the religious factor was.
Mistake: Listing examples instead of analysing them
Why this is incorrect: Naming Liberation Theology, millenarian movements or the Civil Rights movement does not explain the relationship between religion and change.
How to improve: Use:
belief → mechanism → action → social consequence
Mistake: Treating all change as progressive
Why this is incorrect: Religious fundamentalism may involve active attempts to change contemporary society by returning to traditional beliefs and values.
How to improve: Always ask what direction of change the religious movement seeks.
Mistake: Describing Weber without linking religion to change
Why this is incorrect: An account of religious beliefs only becomes relevant when it explains their effect on economic behaviour or wider social organisation.
How to improve: Finish the chain:
religious ideas → economic behaviour → spirit of capitalism → social and economic change
Mistake: Treating Marxism and Gramsci as identical
Why this is incorrect: A simple Marxist interpretation may emphasise religion's conservative ideological role, while the concepts of counter-hegemony and ideological resources allow religion to become part of resistance.
How to improve: Use Gramsci to make your Marxist evaluation more sophisticated.
Mistake: Writing about globalisation without explaining change
Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2021 mark scheme warns through its level descriptors against drifting into a general discussion of religion and globalisation.
How to improve: Every paragraph should complete this sentence:
“This changes religion's ability to act as a force for social change because...”
Mistake: Ignoring religion as a barrier to change
Why this is incorrect:The AQA specimen paper explicitly asks students to evaluate the view that religious beliefs and organisations are barriers to social change.
How to improve:Prepare both directions of the debate:
religion → challenge
and
religion → stability/status quo
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Questions
1. Define the term social change.[2 marks]
2. Explain one way in which religion may provide an ideological resource for social change.[4 marks]
3. Explain one difference between hegemony and counter-hegemony in relation to religion.[4 marks]
4. Outline and explain two ways in which religious beliefs may contribute to social change.[10 marks]
5. Read Item A and answer the question that follows.
Item A
Religious beliefs can provide disadvantaged groups with an alternative interpretation of inequality. Religious leaders and organisations may also provide ways of turning shared beliefs into collective action.
Religion may therefore challenge existing power relationships.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which religion may challenge existing power relationships.[10 marks]
6. Read Item B and answer the question that follows.
Item B
Global communication allows religious organisations to spread ideas rapidly and reach supporters in different societies. It also makes information about inequalities more widely available.
Globalisation may influence the extent to which religion acts as a force for social change.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways in which globalisation may increase religion's ability to promote social change.[10 marks]
7. Read Item C and answer the question that follows.
Item C
Some religious movements challenge dominant beliefs and provide individuals with reasons to protest against inequality. However, religious beliefs can also justify existing social arrangements, while religious organisations may have close relationships with powerful groups.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the view that religion is mainly a force for social change.[20 marks]
8. Read Item D and answer the question that follows.
Item D
Religion may influence social change through religious ideas, collective identities and organisations. However, social change also affects religion. Rapid change can create uncertainty and may lead individuals towards religious movements that promise certainty or a return to traditional values.
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the relationship between religion and social change.[20 marks]
Answers and mark scheme
Question 1
Social change refers to significant change in social structures, institutions, relationships or values.
Award credit for a definition that clearly identifies change at a social rather than merely individual level.
Question 2
A possible answer:
Religion may provide an ideological resource by giving disadvantaged groups an alternative explanation of their situation. If religious ideas describe existing inequality as unjust, believers may use those ideas to justify challenging powerful groups and campaigning for change.
Credit should be given for the developed chain:
religious idea → interpretation of inequality → justification for opposition → possible change
Question 3
A possible answer:
Hegemony involves dominant ideas helping to maintain existing power relationships, whereas counter-hegemony involves alternative ideas that challenge those dominant interpretations. Religion may therefore support existing power through hegemony or become a resource for social change through counter-hegemony.
A strong response must explain the difference, not give two disconnected definitions.
Question 4
Possible ways include:
Religion as an ideological resource: Religious ideas may define existing inequalities as unjust and provide moral justification for collective opposition.
Counter-hegemony: Religion may provide alternative beliefs that challenge the ideas of dominant groups.
Religious feminism: Believers may reinterpret religious beliefs and practices to challenge patriarchal inequality.
Millenarian movements: Religious beliefs may provide disadvantaged groups with expectations of radical transformation.
The spirit of capitalism: A Weberian explanation can show religious ideas contributing to changes in economic behaviour and social organisation.
Two ways should be clearly separated and developed.
Evaluation is not required for an outline and explain question.
Question 5
Two developed applications are required.
First way: alternative interpretation of inequality
Use the item's reference to an alternative interpretation. Religion may operate as a counter-hegemonic ideological resource, allowing disadvantaged groups to reject dominant explanations and understand inequality as something that can be challenged.
Concepts such as counter-hegemony, Liberation Theology or religious feminism could be used to develop this point.
Second way: collective action
Use the item's reference to leaders and organisations. Shared religious beliefs can be organised into collective campaigns or protest, meaning dissatisfaction becomes a challenge to existing power rather than remaining individual.
Higher-level responses will explain the mechanism linking religion to a change in power relationships.
Question 6
First way: communication and organisation
Use the reference to rapid communication. Digital technologies can allow religious organisations to spread ideas, publicise campaigns and reach supporters across geographical boundaries. This can increase the capacity for religious protest or campaigning.
Second way: exposure of inequality
Use the item's reference to information about inequalities. Global media can expose social inequalities, which religious organisations may interpret through their belief systems and use as a reason for campaigning.
A developed analytical chain might be:
global media → awareness of inequality → religious interpretation → mobilisation → campaign for change
Strong responses should remain focused on how globalisation changes religion's capacity to promote change.
Question 7
Indicative content may include:
Arguments that religion is a force for change:
religion as an ideological resource;
counter-hegemony;
organic intellectuals;
principle of hope;
Liberation Theology;
religious feminism;
millenarian movements;
Weber and the spirit of capitalism;
religious protest;
technology and globalised religious campaigning.
Arguments that religion may prevent change:
religion as a conservative force;
hegemony;
traditional beliefs and values;
bourgeois ideology;
patriarchal ideology;
religious organisations linked with elite power structures;
religion legitimising existing social arrangements;
functionalist emphasis on stability.
Evaluation may include:
religion may contribute to change without being its sole cause;
some religious movements seek to restore traditional values;
religion can have both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic roles;
different religious beliefs and organisations may have different effects;
successful protest should not automatically be attributed entirely to religion.
A strong conclusion might argue that describing religion as mainly a force for change is too broad. Religion has the capacity to encourage substantial change where beliefs become ideological and organisational resources for dissatisfied groups, but the same capacity for shared belief can also legitimise existing arrangements. Its role therefore depends on social context and the way religious ideas are interpreted and organised.
Question 8
Indicative content should examine both directions of the relationship.
Religion causing or contributing to social change:
ideological resources;
Weberian economic change;
counter-hegemony;
Liberation Theology;
religious feminism;
millenarian movements;
religious protest;
globalisation increasing the ability to campaign.
Social change affecting religion:
uncertainty associated with rapid change;
poverty, marginalisation and deprivation;
growth of sects;
religious fundamentalism as a response to uncertainty;
attempts to return to traditional values;
secularisation potentially reducing religion's influence;
globalisation changing how religious organisations operate.
Evaluation:
religion may be an independent influence but often interacts with wider economic, cultural and political conditions;
change may strengthen some religious movements while weakening others;
religion may seek progressive change or restoration of older arrangements;
the relationship is therefore two-way rather than simply religion acting upon society.
A strong judgement should conclude that neither “religion causes social change” nor “social change determines religion” provides a complete explanation. AQA's Beliefs material supports a reciprocal relationship in which religious ideas and organisations can influence change while being reshaped by changing social conditions themselves.
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