Concepts of Social Change

• Social change


  Changes in human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions
• Social change


  • Civil rights, women's rights, and LBGTQ rights
  • Transformation of cultures, institutions, and functions
• Theories of social change


  • Evolutionary
  • Functionalist
  • Conflict
• Evolutionary theory


  • Society always evolves into "higher levels"
  • Societies that don't adapt fast enough will fall behind
  • Concluded Western societies must be "superior" because of their "advanced" state
• Functionalist theory


  • Society is like a human body, each part is like an organ
  • Individual parts can't survive on their own
  • All parts of a society must be harmonious, if not society is "no more than a pile of sand" that's vulnerable to collapse
  • When one part suffers, all the other parts must adjust
  • Society always works toward stabilization
• Conflict theory


  • Society is by nature, unequal and competitive
  • The rich and powerful control the rest of society by exploiting vulnerable groups
  • This sows conflict, provoking people to action
  • Social change occurs as a result
• What triggers social change

  • Conflict changes (Inequalities based on class, race, gender, religion, and more)
  • Demographic changes
  • Cultural changes
• Cultural change


  • Effect of the internet
  • Discoveries like Europeans "discovering" America
  • Discoveries also impact a society's culture
• Types of social change


  • Fabian change - gradual and reformist incremental amelioration after the manner of the Fabian
  • Society radical change - improvements roots and branch in the style of political Radicalism
  • Revolutionary change - abrupt, radical and drastic change, with implications of violence and of starting afresh( perhaps most popular as a political bogeyman)
• Social change occurs when societal institutions, structures, and cultures undergo a significant shift
• Social change gets the world closer to gender equality
• Social change improves worker rights
• Social change protects the LGBTQ+ community
• Social change improves racial equality
• Social change is good for business
• Social change helps the environment
• Social change keeps governments accountable
• Social change addresses problems at the root
• Social change empowers citizens
• Social change makes life better for future generations
• Programs for social change in the Philippines


  • Peace and order - measures designed to effect a more equitable distribution of agricultural land especially by government action
  • Land reform - purposive change in the way in which agricultural land is held or owned, this methods of cultivation that are employed, or relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy.
  • Economic reforms - refers to deregulation, or at times to reduction in the size of government
  • Social services - range of public services provided by the government, private, profit and non-profit organizations
• Elements of socio-cultural change


  • Industrialization
  • Urbanization
  • Technology
  • Population
  • Education
  • Recreation
  • Bureaucracy
  • Medicine and public health
• Types of social change

  • Transformational change - a New-age version of radical change, and thus difficult to define
  • Continuous change, open-ended change - change(allegedly) for the sake of change
  • Top-down change - reliance in leadership
  • Bottom-up change - reliance on the huddled masse