Social Change: Sociological Theories of Social Change
Social change is a change in the social structures and functions of those structures. The term social change is also used to indicate the changes that take place in human interactions and interrelationships. For example, a change in the structure and functions of family) and a change in the functions of a family For Maciver and Page, Society is a web of social relationships and hence social change means change in the system of social relationships. These are understood in terms of social processes and social interactions and social organization. Auguste Comte the father of Sociology has posed two problems- the question of social statics and the question of social dynamics, what it is and how it changes. Sociologists not only outline the structure of society but also seek to know its causes also. According to Morris Ginsberg, social change is a change in the social structure.
Change is the law of nature. What is today shall be different from what it would be tomorrow. The social structure is subject to incessant change.. Individuals may strive for stability, societies may create the illusion of permanence, the quest for certainty may continue unabated, yet the fact remains that society is an everchanging phenomenon, growing, decaying, renewing and accommodating itself to changing conditions and suffering vast modifications with time. Our understanding of it will not be complete unless we take into consideration this changeable nature of society, study how differences emerge and discover the direction of change.