IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v389y1970i1p27-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resources and Social Structure: Some Conditions of Stability and Change

Author

Listed:
  • William R. Burch JR

    (University of Missouri, University of Minnesota, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

Abstract

Human societies exist within certain resource limits. Those limits reflect particular combinations of ma terials, language, and social structure and determine tenden cies toward social stability or change. Such issues seem best approached metaphorically. Energy stands for the level of resource-development a particular society has reached. Per meability indicates how distribution is arranged by the social structure; and myths stand for the group's available percep tions and its trajectory of belief. Such metaphorical co-ordi nates may permit prediction as to the future of a society. For example, the emergence of Western industrialism was dependent upon the surplus energy of a frontier: with the closing of that frontier, the associated social structures and mythologies now seem ill-adapted to the new environmental limits.

Suggested Citation

  • William R. Burch JR, 1970. "Resources and Social Structure: Some Conditions of Stability and Change," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 389(1), pages 27-34, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:389:y:1970:i:1:p:27-34
    DOI: 10.1177/000271627038900104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627038900104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271627038900104?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:389:y:1970:i:1:p:27-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.