ABSTRACT
A theory of contemporary change has become a major goal for most of the leading functionalists today. For the ‘neo-evolutionist’ school it furnishes a test case. Contemporary changes are massive, rapid, continuous yet elusive, varied and apparently unpredictable, They occur at every level of society, they vary in scope and pace, they can be classed as both qualitative and quantitative. Above all, they are global. This is what distinguishes recent change from previous examples. Even the barbarian invasions or the irruptions of Islam and the Mongols were limited, geographically as well as socially. Recent change however penetrates profoundly as well as spatially. It is intellectual no less than economic, technological as well as political. New groups are created. Old institutions are dismantled or change their form entirely. Man’s relationship with his environment and neighbours is altered with every generation. Trends, fashions, beliefs and practices succeeded each other as if mirroring these alterations in the social structure. In communications, education, production and consumption habits, war, justice, art, administration, family life, taxation, leisure pursuits, dress, personal conduct, in every sphere we find novelties and changes which seem to increase with each generation and to broaden their impact by standing upon the shoulders of their predecessors.
