Science, Tech, Math › Social Sciences Social Change Share Flipboard Email Print Social Sciences Sociology Key Concepts Major Sociologists Deviance & Crime News & Issues Research, Samples, and Statistics Recommended Reading Psychology Archaeology Economics Ergonomics Maritime By Ashley Crossman Updated March 04, 2016 Definition: Social change is any alteration in the cultural, structural, population, or ecological characteristics of a social system. In a sense, attention to social change is inherent in all sociological work because social systems are always in the process of change. In order to understand how social systems work or hold together, we much understand, on some level, how they change or fall apart. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Crossman, Ashley. "Social Change." ThoughtCo, Jan. 29, 2020, thoughtco.com/social-change-3026584. Crossman, Ashley. (2020, January 29). Social Change. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/social-change-3026584 Crossman, Ashley. "Social Change." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/social-change-3026584 (accessed January 22, 2021). copy citation