The conceptual and theoretical implications of employing different functional models of social change at the community level are outlined in this paper. While no new theoretical or methodological ground is broken, a class of models is recommended that appear infrequently in sociological literature, yet are well suited for representing social change. In particular, the ramifications of additive, multiplicative, and mixed models are explored. Regardless of whether the variable being examined is rate of social change or amount of social change, the additive model has little to recommend its use. If the researcher is interested in the amount of change, then a mixed model seems the best form to be employed. If the interest is in the rate of change, the multiplicative form may be more desirable. Social change can be viewed as a contingent process in which the state of development interacts with change agents to produce a new stage of development. Furthermore, change agents themselves do not operate in isolation, but in a complementary fashion to produce social change. (Author/JM)