The first characteristic that emerged regards the pace, which could either be slow or rapid, and is defined as the speed at which an event impacts a collectivity. When defining social change, researchers from both sociology and psychology distinguish two types of social change based on the pace of change: incremental (e.g., first-order change, beta change, decline, gradual, small-scale) and dramatic (e.g., second-order, gamma, abrupt, collapse, large-scale).

Theories of social change have explicitly and/or implicitly acknowledged the pace of social change as a central determining factor toward its characterization. For example, in one of the earliest versions of their seminal book, Lenski and Lenski (1974) state: “The most striking feature of contemporary life is the revolutionary pace of social change. Never before have things changed so fast for so much of mankind” (Lenski and Lenski, 1974, p. 3, see also Fried, 1964; Rudel and Hooper, 2005). In their new edition entitled Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology, Nolan and Lenski (2011) describe how slowly human evolution has progressed for thousands of years until about 100 years ago, when humans began to evolve at an accelerated pace. Similarly, Weinstein (2010) suggests that for the last few decades, there has been “rapid and accelerating rates of change in human relations, from the interpersonal to the international level” (p. xvii).

It is worthwhile to note that a few key authors refer to pace when distinguishing different types of social change. For example, in organizational psychology, Nadler and Tushman (1995) distinguish slow “incremental” change from fast “discontinuous” change, where the latter would be characterized as DSC in the typology of social change. According to these authors, incremental changes are intended to continually improve the fit among the components of an organization. These changes can either be small or large; nonetheless, there is a succession of manageable changes and adaptation processes. In contrast, discontinuous changes are often linked to major changes in the global scope of the industry and involve a complete break with the past as well as a major reconstruction of almost all elements of the organization. These changes are more traumatic, painful, and demanding as individuals are required to acquire a whole new set of behaviors and discard old patterns. These dramatic changes are not made to improve the fit, but to construct a new collectivity, be it a nation-state, institution or sub-group of the larger collectivity. Newman (2000) also distinguishes between first-order change and second-order change in the context of organizations. According to him, a first-order change, which is equivalent to incremental social change, “is most likely during times of relative environmental stability and is likely to take place over extended periods of time” (Newman, 2000, p.604). In other words, this type of change occurs slowly and allows the organization and its members to adapt to the changes gradually. However, a second-order change, or DSC, is radical, and transforms the core of the organization (Newman, 2000). In this case, the change is so sudden that it does not necessarily allow individuals to adapt to the process (Buchanan et al., 2005). Similarly, Rogers (2003) defines social change as abrupt and arises when the entire system is modified and jeopardized because changes are too fast for the system to adjust. In his book, Diamond (2005) contrasts “decline”—where minor ups and downs do not restructure the society—with “collapse”—an extreme form of several milder types of decline—which make it a DSC. An example of collapse is when most of the inhabitants of a population vanish as a result of ecological disasters, starvation, war, or disease. Examples of this are genocides such as Rwanda's which claimed around 800,000 lives, destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and displaced four million people (Des Forges, 1999; Zorbas, 2004; Pham et al., 2004; Staub et al., 2005; Schaal and Elbert, 2006; Prunier, 2010; Yanagizawa-Drott, 2014), the Armenian Massacres, which saw the systematic extermination of about 1.5 million minority Armenians in Turkey (Dadrian, 1989, 1998) or Cambodia's genocide, which involved the death of almost two million people through the Khmer Rouge's policies of relocation, mass executions, torture, forced labor, malnutrition, and disease (Hannum, 1989). All these events led to an inordinate number of deaths and population movements in a short, restricted period of time.

To be considered dramatic, a social change needs to be quick and must involve a “break with the past” (Nadler and Tushman, 1995; see also Armenakis et al., 1986). The example most often used in the literature is the breakdown of the communist system in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (e.g., Kollontai, 1999; Pinquart et al., 2009; Round and Williams, 2010; Walker and Stephenson, 2010; Chen, 2015). For example, when Pinquart et al. (2004, p. 341) introduced their research on social change, they made a distinction between “gradual” change, such as ideological change in many Western societies, and “abrupt social change,” which represents a form of social change that may be spurred by a sudden, dramatic transformation of economic, political, and social institutions.

The second characteristic of DSC that emerges from my review regards a rupture in the social structure of a collectivity or a group. Social structure is a term that has several different uses in the sociological literature and this is, in part, because of the lack of agreement on how the term social structure should be defined (Porpora, 1989; López and Scott, 2000). One main dispute pits the dualism of “action” (or agency) vs. “structure” in mainstream sociological work (for a discussion see López and Scott, 2000). Consequently, many of the definitions describe behaviors rather than the role of social institutions (e.g., Cortina et al., 2012; Tanner and Jackson, 2012; Wilson, 2012). For example, Tanner and Jackson (2012) define social structure as “the formation of groups via connections among individuals” (p. 260), which focuses on meso-level interactions among individuals. Similarly, Macionis et al. (2008) define social structure as “any relatively stable pattern of social behavior” (p. 13).

The social structure being discussed in the present paper refers to macro-level elements of society such as institutions that facilitate and structure collective interactions, roles or behaviors. Thus, directly inspired from the most prominent definitions of social structure in the literature (Marx, 1859/1970; Giddens, 1979; Porpora, 1989; López and Scott, 2000; Stinchcombe, 2000), social structure is defined here as a system of socio-economic stratification, social institutions, organizations, national policies and laws that help structure the norms, roles, behaviors, and values of community members⁴.

In both sociology and psychology, a rupture in the social structure is at the heart of definitions of social change. For example, for Breakwell and Lyons (1996), changes involve the disintegration of previous national and international order and sets in motion a process of re-definition and re-evaluation of societal norms, belief systems, and power structures. While the communal sense of continuity and permanence is challenged, social change often represents a period of massive transformations in political, social, and economic structures (e.g., Goodwin, 1998; Kim and Ng, 2008; Chen, 2012). This conceptualization is similar to the definition inspired by sociologists and provided by Silbereisen and Tomasik (2010, p. 243) where “social change is understood as a more or less rapid and comprehensive change of societal structures and institutions, including changes to the economic, technological, and cultural frameworks of a society (Calhoun, 1992)” or to Kohn's definition of radical social change: “we refer not to the pace of change but to the nature of the change—the transformation of one political and economic system into a quite different system” (Kohn et al., 1997, p. 615).

When research focuses on collective action, social structure is placed at the root of their definition. For example, “Breakdown Theories” in sociology argue that social movements result from the disruption or breakdown of previously integrative social structures. This theory regards collective action as a form of social imbalance that results from the improper functioning of social institutions (Tilly et al., 1975). Macionis et al. (2008) also suggest that, “revolutionary social movements attempt to target the whole collectivity by radically changing social institutions” (p. 452). Put differently, for social movements and collective action to occur, social institutions—consequently, the social structure of society—needs to be altered. In other words, social change “is the sudden shifting of power from group to group” (Schrickel, 1945, p. 188). To many authors, DSC involves a rupture in the social structure (e.g., Prilleltensky, 1990) where people need to “negotiate their way through or around social structures” (May, 2011, p. 367).

The third characteristic of DSC that emerged from the literature is the rupture in the normative structure of society. While reading on the subject, I noticed an important distinction between social structure and normative structure. As mentioned in the previous section, that distinction pointed to a duality that is also observed by theorists in sociology who attempt to define social structure (e.g., Giddens, 1979; Mayhew, 1980; Porpora, 1989; López and Scott, 2000). Although both the social and normative structures refer to the functioning of a society, they each point to two different aspects of communities and groups. As discussed earlier, the social structure is associated with macro processes such as social institutions (e.g., Government), whereas the normative structure is related to micro processes as they principally refer to community members' habitual behaviors and norms.

Based on the work of Taylor and de la Sablonnière (2013, 2014), the normative structure is defined here as the behaviors of most community members whose aim is achieving collective goals. In other terms, when the normative structure is clear, people know what to do and when to engage in specific behaviors in order to meet the overarching goals of the collectivity. The definition of normative structure also takes its inspiration from an array of different domains in the scientific literature. Mainly, it comes from the definitions of social change that most often involve a change in behaviors and habits that are disrupted with the event of a dramatic and rapid social change. For example, Bishop (1998, p. 406) clearly states that social change in its transformational form refers to “the ability of a group to behave differently, even to creating brand-new elements, within the same social identity.” This definition concurs with definitions of many more authors, such as Delanty's (2012) concept of “normative culture” or May's (2011), where the mundane “ordinary” activities take a central place in social change.

Research and theories on social change have put normative structure as one of its central tenants. For example, Tomasik et al. (2010), argue that social change involves “changes of the macro-context that disturb habits, interrupt routines, or require novel behaviors relevant for a successful mastery” (p. 247). These authors also assert that when a gradual social change occurs, “old options of thinking and behaving are usually still available whereas abrupt social change is often associated with an immediate blocking of old options” (Pinquart and Silbereisen, 2004, p. 295). Therefore, in the latter case, it will be necessary to develop new ways of doing things.

Jerneić and Šverko (2001) argue that “major political and socioeconomic changes may strongly influence people's life role priorities, which are otherwise relatively stable behavioral dispositions” (p. 46). In fact, the normative structure of a society is comprised not only of norms and behaviors, but also of roles that people have in their everyday lives. When a DSC occurs, these normative elements of people's lives are all greatly affected to the point where they need to be redefined. Similarly, McDade and Worthman (2004) refer to “socialization ambiguity,” a state present in the context of DSC where “inconsistent messages or conflicting expectations regarding appropriate beliefs and social behavior during the course of socialization may be a substantial source of stress for the developing individual” (p. 52; see also Arnett, 1995; Tonkens, 2012).

This rupture in the normative structure of society is present not only when radical changes such as natural disasters occur, but also when social change is the result of collective actions within a society. Subašić et al. (2012) acknowledge that “what we do is evidently shaped by social norms, by institutional possibilities, and institutional constraints. But equally, we can act—act together that is—to alter norms, institutions, and even whole social systems” (p. 66). Therefore, when members of a society come together and engage in collective actions, an important aspect of society they aim to change deals with the norms and normative structure.

The importance of the normative component involved in DSC is in accordance with the Normative Theory of Social Change, developed by Taylor et al. (Taylor and de la Sablonnière, 2013, 2014; see also de la Sablonnière et al., 2009b). According to their theory, any group—whether it be at the collective, community or country level—functions along the basic 80-20 principle in times of stability. According to this principle, most of the citizens in a functioning society (i.e., 80% of them) will exhibit normative behaviors that agree with the normative structure of the society in order to accomplish collective goals such as achieving a healthy society, and by extension, personal goals such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It is the 80% that provide social support, when necessary, to the 20% of citizens who do not function successfully in the society. In theory, as long as there is a decent majority of people who conform to the normative structure, a society should function relatively smoothly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes, when a society is confronted with DSC, its normative structure is ruptured which may lead to societal dysfunction or important disruptions in the “usual” behavior of group members. In such a situation, the amount of group members exhibiting behaviors that are in agreement with the collective goals of the group will be lower than usual. Therefore, it is possible that instead of having 80% of group members acting according to the normative rules of the society, only 30 or 40 % of individuals will follow these rules. In this case, it becomes very difficult for people to restore the functional equilibrium of the normative structure as only a few group members are in a position to provide the necessary social support for the entire society to function properly (Taylor and de la Sablonnière, 2014). What is suggested here is consistent with the work of Albert and Sabini (1974). These authors refer to the importance of a supportive environment, or social support, which has a sufficient presence in “slow change,” but not when the context is one of rapid change.

The fourth characteristic of social change is threats to the cultural identity of a group. This characteristic is a difficult one to label since different authors use different terms to describe a threat to cultural identity (i.e., lack of clarity, identity conflict, identity crisis, lowered identification, identity confusion). As opposed to terms such as identity conflict, identity crisis, lack of identity clarity and identity change, “threat to cultural identity” was chosen for its capacity to suggest a potential modification in identity. To be considered DSC, the cultural identity in its current form must somehow be jeopardized, challenged, or lowered. Values and beliefs are, per se, questioned and the individual may sense a general lack of clarity and feel threatened to the core of his group identity, value system, or beliefs.

Many scientists have defined and researched collective and/or cultural identity. Recently, Ashmore et al. (2004) have defined collective identity as “first and foremost a statement about categorical membership. A collective identity is one that is shared with a group of others who have (or are believed to have) some characteristic(s) in common” (p. 81). This definition is similar to the one from Taylor (1997), in which cultural identity is referred to as the beliefs about shared rules and behaviors (Taylor, 1997, 2002; Usborne and de la Sablonnière, 2014).

When a social change occurs, it threatens the cultural identity of all community members. In the present paper, inspired from previous work on cultural identity, I define threat to cultural identity as a serious threat to identification and to the clarity of the shared beliefs, values, attitudes, and behavioral scripts associated with one's group. Throughout the literature I reviewed, cultural identity threat was manifested according to three main themes. The first theme that stood out is that threats to identity are associated with a loss of identity or an identity change (e.g., subtractive identification pattern; de la Sablonnière et al., 2016). Some authors directly mention the threat to cultural identity within the context of major social change (e.g., Vaughan, 1986; Smelser and Swedberg, 1994; Sztompka, 2000; Wyn and White, 2000; Van Binh, 2002; Terry and Jimmieson, 2003). For example, in his paper on how cultures change as a function of mass immigration Moghaddam (2012) argues that globalization results in sudden contact among different groups of people from different countries. This form of sudden contact has often resulted in the extinction of many cultures and languages such as Indigenous peoples around the world. Therefore, globalization makes people feel that their collective identity is threatened. Specifically, they experience a loss in many components of their cultural identity including their values and their language (see also Van Binh, 2002). The process described by Moghaddam is similar to the one proposed by Lapuz (1976) who argues that when social change occurs rapidly, people's beliefs and values are threatened since the old guidelines are no longer available. One consequence of this threat is that people become confused as values and beliefs contribute to the emotional security and psychological survival of individuals (Lapuz, 1976; Varnum, 2008). This is in agreement with Albert's (1977) proposition: “Rapid change constitutes a major threat to self-identity” (p. 499). Similarly, in their book entitled Changing European Identities, Breakwell and Lyons (1996) discuss the mechanisms associated with change in identities in the context of the development of the European Union and refer to a loss of national identity. This change in cultural identity is similar to what Wall and Louchakova (2002) describe as a “shift in the cultural collective consciousness” (p.253). This consists of a change in the American self and the emergence of new selves, more independent and alive in the context of change (see also Neves and Caetano, 2009; May, 2011).

The second theme is associated with the lack of identity clarity in the event of DSC. This lack of clarity is due to uncertainties or inconsistencies in the definition of one's identity. A clear cultural identity is defined as “the extent to which beliefs about one's group are clearly and confidently defined” (Usborne and Taylor, 2010, p. 883; see also Taylor, 2002). It has been theorized and demonstrated that an unclear cultural identity can result in lower self-esteem (Usborne and Taylor, 2010). Thus, if the entire collective is experiencing an unclear cultural identity, it may affect people's ability to function effectively in their society. Similarly, Macionis et al. (2008) refer to inconsistencies in the context of socialization in times of important change. People try to seek out new roles, try new “selves” (Macionis et al., 2008, p.461). They need to adapt to the inconsistent model their societies are projecting, which leads to “socialization ambiguity” (McDade and Worthman, 2004, p. 49). Because social change brings uncertainty in society, it can affect many aspects of individuals' lives such as family relations (Noak et al., 2001), and aspects associated with the self such as “emotions, values, perceptions, identity” (Wall and Louchakova, 2002, p. 266).

Finally, as a third theme, authors refer to conflicting identities within the context of dramatic contextual change. For example, Becker conducted a study to find out how rapid social change, such as introducing television in a community that had never owned televisions before, would impact body images of girls and women in that community (Becker, 2004). She found that television caused confusion and conflicts about ideal body images, and consequently “reshap[ed] [their] personal and cultural identities” (Becker, 2004, p. 551). In some cases, it even led to eating disorders (Becker, 2004), which has a direct link with the way people evaluate and perceive themselves. In other words, this DSC altered their identity. In fact, severe contextual changes can challenge the meaning of identity and threaten its existence (Ethier and Deaux, 1994; Macek et al., 2013). Similarly, Hoffman and Medlock-Klyukovski (2004) argue that contemporary organizations are “typically marked by conflicting interests and contradictory demands on individuals” (p. 389). This is similar to Chen (2012) who refers to the need for a transformation and the need to create new cultural norms and values when confronted to the context of social change (Chen, 2012).

When there is stability, the actual state of a society is maintained and the majority of group members are actively attempting to attain society's goals. As Weinstein (2010) describes it, it is a state in which “the established order appears to be operating effectively, and disturbing influences from within or from other societies are insignificant” (p. 9; see also Bess (2015) where no change is equated with stability). Indeed, none of the four characteristic of social change are present. For example, the social and normative structures fluctuate little, and changes do not affect what is defined as normal behavior in a community (Harmon et al., 2015). Indeed, personal change, such as bereavement or divorce, still occurs for some members of society. However, in the event of a personal change, the social or normative structures are not disrupted, mainly because the collective social support system remains functional and people can rely on that support in case they experience changes in their individual lives. This is also consistent with the findings of Albert and Sabini (1974) who argue that changes occurring in a supportive environment or in a peripheral element of society are perceived as less disruptive than those occurring in a non-supportive environment because the strain upon society is attenuated.

Consistent with previous research, stability can be defined as a situation where an event, regardless of its pace, does not affect the equilibrium of a society's social and normative structures nor the cultural identity of group members. The event, may, however, impact an isolated number of individuals. An example that might clarify this definition of stability is the event of an election. Although many people can get excited and seem to be affected by this event, an election does not necessarily bring about a rupture in a society, even if it involves a change of political party. The core elements of society remain stable and citizens resume their activities without feeling their lives have been overly disrupted by the election and its outcome. If, for instance, supporters of the defeated party feel sad and hopeless about the defeat, plenty of other citizens will be available to help them cope since most of them will not be affected by the change of government. However, in a different context, the event of an election may trigger DSC; for example, when it leads to a social revolution.

In contrast with stability, a context where there is inertia involves a situation that does affect a large number of people, if not most of the people composing a society. Inertia is defined as a situation where an event, regardless of its pace, does not either reinstate the equilibrium of a society's social and normative structures or clarify the cultural identity of group members.

In times of inertia, if a “positive” event occurs, there is no sustainability to maintain its positive impact. Here, the example of Belarus is used, a country where the population has been in a state of inertia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Lukashenko has been the president of the country since 1994. Under his autocratic rule, Belarus is known as the last dictatorship in Europe. Many Belarusians are longing for a more democratic and open society, yet the country remains in inertia. Buchanan et al. (2005) describe a situation of inertia as an “absence of appropriate activity, a lack of capability, a failure to pay attention to signals, and thus as an impediment rather than a desired condition” (p. 190). Inertia is seen as an undesirable situation where constructive change is not possible because the organization (or the group) does not have the capacity (e.g., lack of resources or will) to carry out the needed change. These authors also argue that when a change is implemented, its sustainability requires managers and staff (or community members) to share the same objectives. Uncertainty about the future must be minimal.

Accordingly, one can assume that the criteria underpinning sustainability in the event of a change are already absent in a society that has stagnated due to inertia. Therefore, inertia in a society such as Belarus constitutes a context where the population is uncertain about the future and does not share the same long-term goals as its government. There is a desire for positive social change, but the actual structure of the society makes it difficult for any change to be implemented and be sustained. Indeed, for a positive change to be maintained, it must have the support of individuals in power since they have the appropriate resources to address society's problems. Unsurprisingly, sustainability of such a change is threatened by an autocratic style of governing (Buchanan et al., 2005).

In sum, inertia differs from stability. In the case of inertia, most members of society desire a change from the actual state of their group, but are unable to properly sustain change due to a lack of collective social support and an unclear cultural identity. In contrast, in the case of “stability,” the society functions in an efficient manner when meeting the collective goals.

Incremental social change is defined as a situation where a slow event leads to a gradual but profound societal transformation and slowly changes the social and/or the normative structure or changes/threatens the cultural identity of group members. The slow pace is necessary for incremental social change to occur. Moreover, at least one of the other three characteristics needs to occur. In their recent paper, Abrams and Vasiljevic (2014) speak of “growth,” which could represent one form of incremental social change that involves “wider acceptance of shared values and tolerance of different values” and of “recession” where “disidentification” with current groups can occur (p. 328).

One of the most cited examples of incremental social change is technological innovation (e.g., Rieger, 2003; Weinstein, 2010; May, 2011; Hansen et al., 2012). Often, there is no social structural rupture associated with the wide use of technology and normative structure as well as social support remain intact. Given its incremental nature, this type of social change does not instantly produce conflict between old and new behaviors. For instance, when television was introduced, people bought it without knowing the consequences of the implementation of this new technology in their life (Becker, 2004; Macionis et al., 2008; Weinstein, 2010). Today, in retrospect, we know that buying a television set entailed a plethora of new behaviors that altered our society and our way of living. Indeed, some changes in society seem to be a “by-product of our pursuit of other goals and interests” (Subašić et al., 2012, p. 62). The long time span that is typical for incremental social change makes its outcomes unpredictable and unintentional. For instance, as Weinstein states (Weinstein, 2010), “It would be impossible to assess exactly what role electronic telecommunication has played in our global revolution, in part because its effects continue to reverberate and magnify as you read this” (p. 4).

The cell phone is a particularly good example of incremental social change. When it came onto the buyer's market, only a few exclusive people possessed one. However, over the years, it became increasingly normative to have a cell phone and, today, it is almost inconceivable not to have one. Furthermore, when cell phones were first marketed, they were used mainly for business rather than for social purposes, which is the current primary use (Aoki and Downes, 2003). In the same vein, other technological changes, such as the emergence of personal computers (Kiesler et al., 1984; Robinson et al., 1997), Internet (DiMaggio et al., 2001; Brignall III and Van Valey, 2005), and social media (Robinson et al., 1997; O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011; Oh et al., 2015) will, in the future, be recognized as key events in the historical transformation of social structures and social norms. Such technology does not represent a DSC, but a social change nonetheless as it has modified the way people interact with one another in an incremental manner. As the change occurs for a relatively long period of time, there is consistency in the pattern of change, which allows social structures to adapt and, thus, to remain intact (Nadler and Tushman, 1995). Individuals experiencing incremental social change are therefore able to adapt, given that the collective social support is not altered. For example, there is support for people that have yet to possess a cell phone; if they want to buy one, but do not understand how it functions, there are plenty of people that can help them adapt to this new technology. Even if technological change is conceptualized here as an incremental change, it is possible that technology is used to provoke a DSC, for example by instigating an important social revolution (Rodriguez, 2013).

Despite technology being the most adequate example, other incremental changes can be observed in other aspects of society such as in medicine. Indeed, advancement in medicine such as effective birth control (Goldin and Katz, 2002) was also the cause of a profound incremental social change. The example of contraception is crucial as the pill deeply affected gender roles in society by empowering women by giving them the capacity to control their sexuality. The pill had not only direct positive effects on women's career investments, but also on the opportunity of attending school longer. The pill forever changed women's involvement in our societies and the repercussions of this incremental social change still echo to us through struggles for gender equality, but also in the form of women actively involved in every level of the modern workplace, including higher managements and governmental position. In other words, the gradual nature of incremental social change makes it a profound change in society that neither disturbs the social structure nor the collective social support system.

DSC has been defined as “profound societal transformations that produce a complete rupture in the equilibrium of social structures because their adaptive capacities are surpassed” (de la Sablonnière et al., 2009a, p. 325). Although this definition is based on previous sociological work (Parsons, 1964; Rocher, 1992), it is adapted here according to the four characteristic of DSC. Specifically, I suggest that DSC be defined as a situation where a rapid event leads to a profound societal transformation and produces a rupture in the equilibrium of the social and normative structures and changes/threatens the cultural identity of group members.

As with incremental change, DSC induces fundamental transformations in society. However, the shift occurs at a much more rapid pace, provoking a break with the past. Some authors have highlighted this sense of discontinuity by referring to DSC as the disintegration of a previous social order or as the break in a frame of reference (Golembiewski et al., 1976; Nadler and Tushman, 1995; Breakwell and Lyons, 1996). They also use terms such as the “construction of something new,” a “reconceptualization,” or a “re-definition.” Indeed, the breakdown of a social structure conveys the need for the reconstruction of core elements in a society. Accordingly, DSC can be conceptualized as a complete rupture in the social structure that marks the end of one period and the beginning of another one, or where a type of society is transformed into another (Tushman and Romanelli, 1985; Kohn et al., 2000; Weinstein, 2010). Other researchers, such as Rogers (2003), also see rapid social change as intertwined with the social structure. More specifically, Rogers (2003) states that rapid social change can threaten social structure by surpassing the adaptive capacities of individuals. Unsurprisingly, DSC is the most disruptive type of change not only for the social structure but also for the majority of society members experiencing it, i.e., the normative structure as well as cultural identities are challenged. As DSC entails a re-definition of values, norms and relations, individuals can no longer rely on their habits and routine; they need to learn new skills and new definitions and more challengingly, unlearn the old ways of doing things (Nadler and Tushman, 1995; Tomasik et al., 2010). Consequently, DSC is described as a painful and confusing experience for individuals (Hinkle, 1952; Lapuz, 1976; Nadler and Tushman, 1995; Kohn et al., 2000; Wall and Louchakova, 2002; Rioufol, 2004; Hegmon et al., 2008).

A good example of DSC is the breakdown of the Soviet Union. If I return to Zoia's example, it is clear that all the people in Kyrgyzstan and in the Former Soviet Union were affected by the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Zoia is not the only one who lost all her savings: the vast majority of people lost their savings within a matter of days. In terms of social support, whom could she have relied on if all of her friends were also in the same situation? Regarding to the fall of the former Soviet Union, Goodwin (2006) argues that older people were inclined to receive less social support in part because the majority of the population, including family members, were struggling with several jobs just to provide themselves with basic needs. Furthermore, elderly citizens could not even rely on formal social services because the collapse of the former Soviet Union caused a decline in formal state support, which left them no time to rebuild their retirement income. This illustrates the rupture in the structure of society that can be found when a DSC occurs as well as the effect on the majority of ordinary group members who cannot rely on collective social support.

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.