ABSTRACT
What does it mean to say that present society is no longer modern, bourgeois, industrial, but has become (or is becoming) postmodern, post-bourgeois, postindustrial?
Traditionally, the problems that these questions raise have been translated into interrogatives such as, what constitutes a social change and how does it occur? Conversely, those who have taken a polemical point of view towards all ‘substantialistic’ approaches have asked themselves, how is social change possible? Although every theory of social change presupposes understanding it in a certain manner, it is rather rare to find a comprehensive theory venturing to understand social change. In this chapter, I would like to reflect upon what ‘understanding’ social change means. My objective is to develop a relational theory of ‘understanding’.
