A society is a group of interacting people living in a particular country, region or specific location who share a common culture, customs, laws (Oxford Dictionaries 2010). Over a period of time, a society will develop its own tradition, attitudes and a style of life which may be more or less distinctive (Supaap 2006). It is this way of life which is usually incorporated in the word
„culture‟ (Lickorish and Jenkins 1997).
44 2.7.2 Definitions of social change
Kornblum (2007) defines social change as when social structure such as culture, tradition, family structure, rules have changed to be either more developed or declined which could be for permanent or temporary. Shackman et al. (2005) mention that the term is usually applied to changes that are beneficial to society, however it may result in negative side effects or consequences that undermine or eliminate existing ways of life that are considered positive.
Samakarn (1998) affirms that any changes which could be either massive or light that have impacts on social relationship in a certain period of time can be considered as a change in society. Jary and Jary (1995) define social change as any differences of social structure and cultural form between past and present. However, Ruxpholariyakun (2002) concludes that social change is the degree of difference that happen within society in any period of time which could be a small or enormous change that brings either positive or negative impacts to society.
According to McWhinney (1992) and Chuto and Wongsurbchart (2007) change is normal and often happens in society. Change can have an impact both at an individual and at a collective level in terms of social structure, economic status and culture. Change in economic conditions is of the change of most concern to global society (Shackman et al. 2005). It involves the ability of individuals within the society to earn a living. Nowadays, in many cases rural societies have been transformed to become more industrialised like urban societies which results in a higher income (Supaap 2006). Sanyawiwath (1999) points out that there are different degrees of changes in different societies; most rural societies are concerned with agro-industry while urban areas tend to be more involved with the industrial and commercial sectors.
Klanatorn (1990) asserts that there are two types of social change;
1. Change in society, is a change between human relationship for example, change in family structure from extended to nuclear, big to small or vice versa. Or change in type of relationship such as from employer and employee to friendship. Or change in status of the society members, for example status of Thai ladies is higher and becoming equal to the men when compared to the past.
2. Change in culture, is a change in culture of that society, which are value, belief, knowledge, perception, trend, ideology, norm including tradition and custom.
Borrie (1973) proposes that the term society refers to a social relationship between groups of people who live together. However, if people within the same society start to disagree with their social structure such as rules and regulations, traditions, culture, or value and belief, then changes in society tend to occur. Ayaz (2008) finds that any society that start responding to new
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cultural and social demands and dimensions with modern trends, approaches, ideas, and thinking often have some degree of changes in its society. While, Srisantisuk and Buatoun (1991) affirm that change in society can happen due to two principals; level of development of that society and level of a willingness to accept the unfamiliar from other societies or cultures.
Redfield (1948) affirms that a state of society often changes from folk society to urban society.
Sanyawiwath (1999) agrees that societies are likely to be transformed from simple to more complicated forms resulting from the change from a rural to an urban society. Tanavichai (1991) offers his thoughts on the nature of change that people in every society tend to associate with progress or change, such as in family structure, political forms, education and religion. There may be a collapse in family structure due to changes in society. For example, when children receive higher education they will look for higher paid jobs, in which case, their original career path such as agriculture will be replaced by jobs offered by outsiders often in a bigger city.
Eventually, they will relocate themselves to go after job they want, which will result in changes in the individual (Pinsarn 2006).
Moreover, Pongpan (1978); Gingrich (1999); O‟Neil (2006) suggest that technology and new innovations are important parts of modern life, many communities tend to implement a new modern lifestyle for the development and maintenance of their societies. Domenico et al. (2003) support the idea that societies can change because of external influences, however, Domenico‟s article suggests a variety of internal reasons that can bring about social change such as transmission of cultural traits, invention of new traits, random errors in cultural transmission etc.
According to Parsons (1960) and Wandsnider (1983) social change can be in terms of demographic structure, degree of development and technology, which could happen to any part of a society or as a whole. Hagen (1964) believes that social change started off as an improvement in economic status. He affirms that the change from traditional to modern forms of society can result in personality change. Hagen (1964) explains that the characteristics of people from traditional society is often that of people that need to be told to do things as they show a lack of creativity and innovation. As a result, this particular group of society often stays the same or changes very little over time. While, modern society has a tendency to change rapidly because people tend to be more creative and open-mind to accept new experience.
Hagan believes that this kind of characteristic is a factor that creates social change.
Having reviewed aspects of social change, the following section will address socio-cultural impacts on host community resulting from tourism development.
46 2.8 Impacts
The growth of tourism creates environmental and economic as well as socio-cultural impacts (The Nation 2006). However, this study does not attempt to address the environmental and economic impacts but only the socio-cultural impacts arising from ETAs. Until the 1960s most of the early studies on the impact of tourism concentrated on economic aspects (Pizam 1878;
Ramchander 2004); little emphasis was given to a prime characteristic of international tourism – the interaction between tourists and the host community (Lickorish and Jenkins 1997). From mid 1970s onward, anthropologists, sociologists, and practitioners in tourism gave increasing attention to the relationship between host and guest, and particularly to the non-economic impacts induced by that relationship (De Kadt 1979; Lickorish and Jenkins 1997). As a result of these studies awareness of the social cultural and environmental problems which can arise from development and growth of tourism has increased (Cohen 1972; De Kadt 1979; Harrison 1992;
Lickorish and Jenkins 1997; Uriely and Reichel 2000; Mathieson and Wall 2006). Cooper et al.
(2008) affirm that where high levels of tourist activities are apparent there is concern that the site is at risk and becomes vulnerable due to the tourism‟s sensitivity to aspects outside of the control of the tourist destination. As mentioned, there are many kinds of tourism activities undertaken in hill tribe areas. As a result tourism has contributed to the transformation of some settlements of hill tribe people, though these changes may not be readily apparent but can be assessed by detailed anthropological or tourism impact research (McKinnon and Bhruksasri 1983; Cooper 1984; Cohen 1989). However, it is still the case that, the more tourist activities increase the more impacts will occur in tourist destinations while the number of impacts generally depends upon the type of tourism activity in the destination (Burns and Holder 1995;
Cooper et al. 2008).
Lickorish and Jenkins (1997) point out that it is misleading to refer to the social and cultural impact of tourism on a certain country as a whole. Lickorish and Jenkins (1997) explain that tourism tends to be limited to a small area and therefore impacts tend to be confined to that particular small area initially. Whether impacts cause changes, and whether these changes spread through society, will be influenced by a wide range of factors, such as the size of country, general spread of tourism activity, and basic cultural and religious strengths (Lickorish and Jenkins 1997). Davidson (1989) suggests that tourism is not the only factor that impact the community or leads to change in culture and society, but there are many other aspects, for example media such as cinema and television etc. that have the effect of accelerating the process of change as well. However, it is not the purpose in this chapter to discuss social and cultural impacts from other aspects, the aim of this chapter is to discuss and identify some of the major social and cultural impacts on a host society which result from the development of tourism and
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the interaction between host residents and outsiders. Details on different type of impacts affected by expansion of tourism are discussed in the following section.