1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459366003321

Autore

Smith Anthony D

Titolo

The concept of social change [[electronic resource] ] : a critique of the functionalist theory of social change / / Anthony D. Smith

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Abingdon, Oxon ; ; New York, : Routledge, 2010

ISBN

1-136-97108-4

1-282-56955-4

9786612569555

0-203-85167-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (146 p.)

Collana

Routledge revivals

Disciplina

303.4

Soggetti

Social change

Social evolution

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Book Cover; Title01; Copyright01; Title02; Copyright02; Contents; Preface; chapter 1 Functionalism and social change; chapter 2 The 'neo-evolutionary' revival; chapter 3 The stages of evolution; chapter 4 Modernism and modernisation; chapter 5 Revolution; chapter 6 Equilibrium and change; chapter 7 Evolution and history; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Anthony Smith's important work on the concept of social change, first published in 1973, puts forward the paradigm of historical change as an alternative to the functionalist theory of evolutionary change. He shows that, in attempting to provide a theory of social change, functionalism reveals itself as a species of 'frozen' evolutionism. Functionalism, he argues, is unable to cope with the mechanisms of historical transitions or account for novelty and emergence; it confuses classification of variations with explanation of processes; and its endogenous view of chan