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L5 - SOCIAL CHANGE
MOSTAFIZUR RAHMAN
Architect & Industrial Area Planner

email – mostafizurs@gmail.com
mobile - 8556053166
Definition of Social Change

Usually social change refers to a significant

change in social behaviour or a change in social

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system rather than minor changes within a
small group.

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

Social change can originate from either within a
society, or from outside of a society.

1. Internal sources of social change are those factors

that originate within a specific society that singly or
in combination with other factors produce

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alterations in social institutions and social
structure.
2. External sources of social change are events that
originate outside of a society to bring about change
to social institutions or structures

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

Main factors of Social Change:

1. Demographic Factors
2. Biological Factors
3. Cultural Factors

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4. Technological Factors
5. Environmental factors
6. Psychological factors
7. Other factors

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

Theories of Social Change:

1. Evolutionary Theory
2. Cyclical Theory
3. Economic (Mandan) Theory of Social Change

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4. Conflict Theory
5. Technological Theory

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

1. Evolutionary Theory
With the advent of Darwinian Theory of biological
evolution, society and culture began to be regarded
as undergoing the same changes and demonstrating
the same trends

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Theory of Unilinear Evolution:
• progressive nature of social change
• no place of repetition of the same stage in this
theory
Universal Theory of Evolution
• change in our non-material culture, always lag
behind changes in material culture
Multilinear Theory of Evolution
Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166
2. Cyclical Theory
societies and civilizations change according to cycles
of rise, decline and fall just as individual persons are
born, mature, grow old, and die

On the basis of analysis of Egyptian, Greek Roman

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and many other civilizations, sociologist concluded
that the Western civilization is now on its decline.

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

3. Economic (Mandan) Theory of Social
Change:
The Marxian theory rests on this funda­mental
assumption that changes in the economic ‘infra-
structure’ of society are the prime movers of social
change

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 The ‘infra-structure’ consists of the ‘forces of
production’ and ‘relations of production’.

Forces of production
1. means of production (land labor capital)
2. mode of production (Technology, immovation)
Relation of Production (Socio-economic relation,
class)
Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166
4. Conflict Theory
Conflict theorists do not believe that societies
smoothly evolve to higher level. Instead, they
believe that conflicting groups struggle to ensure
progress (Coser, 1956). 

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There is no society, changing or unchanging, which
does not have conflict of some kind or another. 

The modem conflict theory is heavily influenced by

the ideas of karl Marx. 

Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166

5. Technological Theory
When it is said that almost whole of human
civilisation is the product of technological
development, it only means that any change in
technology would initiate a corresponding change in
the arrangement of social relationships.

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For Marx, the stage of technological development
determines the mode of production and the
relationships and the institutions that constitute the
economic system. 

“Any technological change which is great enough

will produce some other social change as a
consequence” (Cohen, 1968).
Mostafizur Rahman : 19838 : mostafizur.19838@lpu.co.in : 8556053166