Social Conflict and social change are a couple that influences each other. Conflict inevitably drives social change. Social changes also inevitably lead to conflict. These conditions can manifest in large or small sizes. Every society that exists on this earth in their life will certainly experience what is called changes. The existence of these changes will be known if we compare by examining society at a particular time which we then compare with the state of society in the past. Changes that occur in society are a continuous process. This situation means that every society will, in fact, experience changes.

Conflict as a cause of social change

• Marx stated that “social change is not a smooth, orderly progression which gradually unfolds in harmonious evolution. Instead, it proceeds from contradictions built into society which are a source of tension and ultimately the source of open conflict and radical change.”
• In years past after Nigerians independence, there have been a series of changes occurring resulting from conflict from one military regime to another as well as one political group to the other. Same is the context in Naxalite Movements in India.
• According to Coser, no group can be entirely harmonious, for then it would lack process and structure. Group formation is a result of both association and dissociation, so that both conflict and cooperation serve a social function.
• Dewey cited in Coser said “Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us with observation and memory. It instigates invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving. Conflict is a sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity. This largely reveals how conflict ushers in change both in ideas and structures.
• According to Marx, each social system contains elements of strain and of potential conflict; also that this conflict leads not only to ever changing relations within the existing social structure but the total social system undergoes transformation through conflict.
• For instance, the Niger Delta region has witnessed and experienced social changes recently both in infrastructure and social structures. This change was only through conflict that had hitherto existed within that region.
• Also to point was political crises in Kwando Local Government Area of Benue State in 2003 where through conflict; there was a change in the political governance of the area through conflict with the use of guns, a change that was possible only through innocent bloodshed and loss of properties.
• A.R. Desai - Social background for Indian Nationalism - It also highlights the need for social conflict in the British era which led to the Indian freedom movement.

Conflict as a consequence of social change

• Due to social change, various changes take place in societal structure and framework. New classes come into existence and new class relations develop. Such new forces tend to challenge old order which provides space for conflict in society - Dialectical Relations between the older and newer forces causes conflicts.
• For example- Industrialisation and subsequent rise of capitalism and imperialism had resulted in competition for colonial possessions. Such a scenario had resulted into conflicts among colonial powers which ultimately culminated into.
• Dysfunctions of Green Revolution causing Agrarian class conflict.

The phenomenon of social conflict is closely interlinked with the phenomenon of social change, social order and social control. Social conflict is both a cause as well as a consequence of social change.