INTRODUCTION

This book attempts to deal with one big question: What happens to people's everyday relationships when there are significant changes in their society? These changes can be dramatic, such as a war or an invasion or the sudden collapse of a political social system, as in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. These changes can also be the result of the fears that accompany new terrorism threats or the anxieties that can follow a planned handover of a people's authority to a new governmental system (as in the transitions of Macao and Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland in the late 1990s). Changes can also be more subtle, but no less significant, such as when significant populations are on the move. Such a movement may impact significantly on both the migrating groups and their new host societies.

According to Lauer, “Social change is normal and continual, but in various directions, at various rates, and at multiple levels of social life” (Lauer, 1977, p. 6), and some argue that change may be one of the most constant parts of our environment (Segall et al., 1990). Yet, while every society is undoubtedly in some state of flux all the time, most of these changes are relatively small and gradual: There are no wars at home, little dramatic shift in political systems, and only small changes in migration patterns.