What is functionalist theory of social change?
Re. the first question, functionalism claims that social change occurs when it is functional (i.e. useful) for it to do so. This will often take the form of functional deviance, where the first individuals to realise that some new action is useful and therefore do it are at first regarded as deviants by the rest of the society, but eventually the majority see the use of the innovation and begin to do it, so in the end it becomes the new social norm. An example is the use of contraception. Marie Stopes, the first woman to write a birth control manual in the UK, was threatened with imprisonment for obscene publishing. Today, writing a guide to contraception would be regarded as a useful & legitimate job by most people in UK society. Functionalists would argue that as changes in employment and in the infant mortality rate made contraception useful, it therefore became socially accceptable. I can’t help with the second question.
