On Power and Open-ended Process of Social Change

Resumo

This article aims to identify the factors which trigger social change, and what makes such possible. The argument opens by presenting a critical analysis of rational choice institutionalism for understanding the process of change. It is immediately followed by a section which argues that the identification of immanent power in all social relations represents the core factor for explaining the open-ended social processes of change. Furthermore, since social processes entail social changes, it is recognized that the interactions among ideational, material, structural and agential elements within time and space are crucial. For, it is argued that neither political, nor economic trends determine the outcomes of processes, because public and private functions and activities can play complementary roles of one another. It is also stressed that the internal appropriation of change contributes to the incremental, punctuated and evolutionary character of social change.