3.

4 Cultural Lag Theory of Disorganization (Ogburn)

In sociology the word Culture denotes acquired behavior which are shared by and
transmitted among the members of the society. Man learns his behavior and
behavior which is learnt is called culture. Singing, dancing, eating, playing belong
to the category of culture.

It includes all that man has acquired in the mental and intellectual sphere of his
individual and social life. It is the expression of our nature, in our modes of living
and thinking, in our everyday intercourse, in art, in literature, in recreation and
enjoyment. For the clear understanding of the term Culture here, it is necessary to
discuss some of the important definitions of culture.

Definitions:
According to White, Culture is a symbolic, continuous, cumulative and
progressive process.

Malinowski defines culture, as the handiwork of man and as the medium through
which he achieves his end.

Maclver and Page defines, Culture is the realm of styles, of values, of emotional
attachments, of intellectual adventures.

In the words of Green, Culture is the socially transmitted system of idealized

ways in knowledge, practices and beliefs, along with the artifacts that knowledge
and practice produce and maintain as they change in time.

Culture, as is defined by Tylor, refers to, that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society.

From the above definitions of culture, the features of culture may be summarized
below. They are:

(1) Culture is social, but not individual.

(2) Culture is idealistic.

(3) Culture is communicative.

(4) Culture is an acquired quality.

(5) Culture meets the recurring demand of mankind.

(6) Culture has the characteristics of adaptation.

(7) Culture has the quality of becoming integrated.

Concept of Cultural Lag:

To examine the role of cultural factors in social change, it is necessary to discuss
the concept of Cultural Lag.

W.F. Ogburn, an American sociologist introduced the concept of Cultural Lag

in his book social change: which was published in the year 1920. The word lag
connotes crippled movement. Hence cultural lag means the flatering of one aspect
of culture behind another. According to Ogburn there are two aspects of culture.
One is the material and another one is the non-material.

(i) Material Culture:

It includes those elements or things which are tangible, visible and touchable like
goods, tools, machines and furnitures etc.

(ii) Non-material Culture:

It includes those elements which are neither tangible nor touchable rather these are
experienced by men like customs, values, ideologies, religion and behavior pattern
etc.

It is found that technological innovations and discoveries stimulate the material

culture to a great extent. As a result, the changes are quick 4n material culture. But
non-material culture responds very slowly to such changes in material culture. So
the material culture goes ahead leaving behind the non-material culture. This is
called the cultural lag. For example-The development in the field of industry
requires a corresponding change in the system of education. The failure of
education to meet the needs of modern industrial development leads to cultural lag.
Major Points on Cultural Lag Theory:

1. Cultural Lag is the notion that culture takes time to catch up with
technological innovations, and that social problems and conflicts are caused
by this lag.

2. Dr. James W. Woodward explained that when the material conditions

change, changes are occasioned in the adaptive culture, but these changes in
the adaptive culture do not synchronize exactly with the change in the
material culture, this delay is the culture lag.

3. The term was coined by sociologist William F. Ogburn in his 1922

work Social change with respect to culture and original nature.

4. Cultural Lag Theory suggests that a period of maladjustment occurs

when the non-material culture is struggling to adapt to new material
conditions.

i. Material culture includes all of the physical

objects that people create and give meaning to. For example, cars,
clothing, schools and computers. An object only becomes part of
culture after meaning have been given to it. A computer has no
meaning until it is used as a tool.

ii. Non-material culture consists of thoughts

and behaviour that people learn as part of the culture they live in. It
includes politics, economics, language, rules, customs, family, religion
or beliefs, values, and knowledge.

5. Cultural Lag theory resonates with the ideas of Technological

Determinism, in that it assumes that technology has independent effects on
society at large.

6. Ogburn posited four stages of technical development: invention,

accumulation, diffusion, and adjustment.

7. Invention is the process by which new forms of technology are

created. Inventions are collective contributions to an existing cultural base
 that cannot occur unless the society has already gained a certain level of
knowledge and expertise in the particular area. Accumulation is the growth
of technology because new things are invented more rapidly than old ones
are forgotten, and some inventions (such as writing) promote this
accumulation process. Diffusion is the spread of an idea from one cultural
group to another, or from one field of activity to another, and as diffusion
brings inventions together, they combine to form new inventions.
Adjustment is the process by which the non-technical aspects of a culture
respond to invention, and any retardation of this adjustment process causes
cultural lag.

8. Cultural Lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of

material culture to evolve and change rapidly while non-material culture
tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time. Due
to the opposing nature of these two aspects of culture, adaptation of new
technology becomes rather difficult. This distinction between material and
non-material culture is also a contribution of Ogburn's 1922 work on social
change.

9. Cultural Lag creates problems for a society in a multitude of

ways. Where new technologies are considered. For example, the advent of
stem cell research has given rise to many new, potentially beneficial medical
technologies; however these new technologies have also raised serious
ethical questions about the use of stem cells in medicine.

Causes of Cultural Lag:

What is the cause of this cultural lag?

Regarding the answer we find many factors causing cultural lag.

They are:

(1)Difference in the degrees of changeability of various elements of culture.

(2)Changes in law.

(3)Mans psychological dogmatism.

Criticisms:
The theory of cultural lag of Ogburn is not free from the criticisms.
(a) There is no clear-cut distinction between material and non- material culture.
Again, it is not necessary that non-material culture should invariably lag behind
material culture.

(b) A major defect in Ogburns theory is that he uses the cultural lag for
expanding all gaps in the process of social change. Maclver has suggested the use
of different terms for the various types of disequilibrium and conflicts, such as
technological lag, technological restraint and cultural clash etc.

(c) According to the theory of cultural lag, while one thing progresses forward,
another lags. Hence this word should not be used in the context of those objects
which are the encouraging as well as the restraining and are similar and possess a
common standard of evaluation.

(d) Finally Ogburn has not provided any standard or scale to measure the units of
material and non-material culture. So it is difficult to find out whether one aspect
of culture changes faster than the other or not.

In spite of the above short comings, the theory of cultural lag of Ogburn has
been proved to be beneficial for understanding the cultural factors in bringing
about social change.