Page 243 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change Sukanya Das, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 11: Theories of Social Change

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Evolutionary Theories
11.2 Cyclical Theories
11.3 Structural-Functional and Conflict Theories
11.4 Synthesis of Social Change Theories
11.5 Linear Theory
11.6 Mechanisms of Social Change
11.7 Summary
11.8 Key-Words
11.9 Review Questions
11.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Discuss evolutionary theories
• Explain cyclical and linear theories
• Understand mechanisms of social change
Introduction

Social change is constantly encountered in our daily lives. This is because the society we live in is
itself changing all the time. The concept of social transformation is very closely linked to social change.
Sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably. Sociologists have been trying to answer and
explain, in main, three basic questions of social change. First, the question of whether social change
is good or bad; second, the causal factors of social change: and third, the impact of social change to
society. Modern sociology helps us understand and provide with explanation the complex set of
changes that societies experience in the process of human history. In this unit, we shall discuss the
concepts and various aspects of social change and social transformation.
Social change, in sociology, the alteration of mechanisms within the social structure, characterized
by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behaviour, social organizations, or value systems.
Throughout the historical development of their discipline, sociologists have borrowed models of
social change from other academic fields. In the late 19th century, when evolution became the
predominant model for understanding biological change, ideas of social change took on an
evolutionary cast, and, though other models have refined modern notions of social change, evolution
persists as an underlying principle.
Other sociological models created analogies between social change and the West’s technological
progress. In the mid-20th century, anthropologists borrowed from the linguistic theory of structuralism
to elaborate an approach to social change called structural functionalism. This theory postulated the
existence of certain basic institutions (including kinship relations and division of labour) that determine
social behaviour. Because of their interrelated nature, a change in one institution will affect other
institutions.

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