What is social transformation?

In Lecture 2 we have introduced the concept of social transformation and said that in our context social transformation means change towards improvement. All social sciences and all human ideas have overtly or covertly aimed at improvement of social order. But there are wide differences between ideas of good society, meaning of improvement of the human condition, and methods of building a good society. The differences in methods are no less significant than in the goals. On the one hand we have moralists who attach more importance to changes in transformation of man’s moral character as the condition of social transformation, and on the other, we have institutionalists who attach more importance to changes in structures of social institutions. This is true that we need both moral reforms and institutional reforms, and yet there is a tendency to put stress more on one over the other as a more effective and lasting solution to transformation. In this and the next lecture we will talk about this issue in some detail.