Diffusion, Cultural Lag and Society


     There are a number of contrasting theories that have been used to explain social change as well as technological change. Natural cycle theories focus on how societies come to exemplify the same patterns (or cycles) historically. Historian Arnold Toynbee (1946) illustrated the cycles followed by civilization and, like Oswald Spengler (1926), he believed that societies would naturally follow a cycle of establishment, growth and decline. Some contemporary thinkers have suggested that like Mesopotamia and Greece of the past, the United States – especially in its over-consumption and overuse of natural resources – is a society in decline. Another line of theories, conflict theories of social change, also suggest an inevitability of social change. Of course this approach is rooted in Karl Marx’s notion of revolution that he believed would accompany the end of capitalism. As we learned in Chapter 2, Marx suggested that a system built on capitalism (the thesis) and which exploited workers (the antithesis) was determined to result in a revolution initiated by the workers (the synthesis). Marx’s view of society through the lens of dialectical materialism offers a powerful analysis of how economic conditions can lead to massive and decisive social change. A third set of social theories on change are known as diffusion theories and are associated with the work of Charles Ogburn (1886-1959).

     Ogburn is credited with developing some of the most lasting explanations of social change in sociology. We will recall that in the chapter dealing with Crime, Deviance and Social Control, that French social theorist Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) focused on the role of imitation in social life – namely, how were people influenced to mimic the behavior of others, even in cases of unpopular behaviors? Tarde identified three laws that seemed to summarize the rules of imitation in society. These included the following:

     Similar to Tarde, Ogburn believed that imitation played a major role in shaping society. His views of society included three processes: invention, discovery and diffusion (1964). He suggested that invention – the process by which new combinations of things or ideas are derived from existing ones – played a significant role in social change. Discovery, the second of his concerns, occurred when a material condition or idea is presented to the social world for the first time. We can include in this area the discovery of new lands, species or technological ideas (such as the splitting of the atom). Diffusion, the movement of an invention or a discovery to another place, is the third of Ogburn’s concerns.

     Ogburn also identified the idea of cultural lag – the situation in which culture lags behind technology. We can think of a number of situations in which technology has seemed to outpace culture. One example is that of genetic engineering and biotechnology. Although, technologically speaking, we have the ability to make changes to living organisms (including our own bodies) through these new means, culturally speaking, we have not yet caught up to these capabilities. There is significant uncertainty and debate as to the ethics of cloning, of selecting the sex of one’s child before birth, of the use of stem cells for research into possible cures for Parkinson’s disease and other maladies – and so on. Technological capabilities on the bio-engineering front continue to accumulate. Cultural consensus on which capabilities we might wish to pursue and why, however, is far from having been attained. In other words, cultural development is lagging behind technological development. Some individuals have assumed that groups such as the Amish demonstrate cultural lag. In fact, the lifestyle of the Amish is not a valid example of cultural lag as they conscientiously choose to avoid the disturbance of technology in their lives. The website below related to the Amish is produced not by the Amish themselves but by individuals in tune with Amish values.

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