Theories of social change: Evolutionary Theories, Cyclical Theories, Functionalist Theories, Conflict Theories)

Does society keep improving, or does it rise and fall like a wheel that always returns to where it started? That is not an idle philosophical question — it is the disagreement between the four major theories of social change this topic covers, and it shapes whether a reformer sees their own era as progress or merely another turn of a familiar cycle.

In two minutes

The four major theories of social change — evolutionary, cyclical, functionalist and conflict — offer competing explanations of the direction and cause of change: linear progress, recurring cycles, functional adjustment toward equilibrium, and struggle between groups with opposed interests.

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