Social change is the central problem of sociology. Sociologists have explained the question on how social change comes about largely by the close analysis of particular change processes and by refining definitions. Social change theories encompass a very broad range of phenomena, including short-term, and long term, large-scale and small scale changes.
Social change refers to any significant alteration over time in behaviour patterns and cultural values and norms. In functionalism, social change is represented by transformation in the social morphology, or the structure of social relations that link individuals into a coherent entity, society and the moral structure or the body of laws. Functionalism sees the changes to happen within the society itself without any intervention from external forces. Functionalists regard the changes as inevitable and happen automatically. Due to the growth in organizations and the development of industrialization, the existing relations of production need to be expanded and renewed to contain the development of the forces of production. Talcott Parsons (1902-1979), a leading functionalist saw society in its natural state as being stabled and a balanced. …
