Cultural Lag

Cultural Lag, William Fielding Ogburn, Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature, material culture and non-material culture, Sociology, University of Calcutta, UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT, ignou

A society that exists cannot exist without its culture, which makes culture as the integral part of any society. The culture is so diverse and complicated in its nature that each and every society has its own unique features with certain changes at intervals, thus making culture dynamic in its characteristic. Let’s try to understand the phenomenon of cultural lag in this article which is closely associated with the culture.

Cultural lag is the ideal concept to describe the happenings within a society’s social system where the norms and beliefs along with the ideas and values cannot keep a pace with the changing technology of the society that is used in the regulation of the social life. That is the condition where the non-material culture lags behind the material culture. In response to the differential changes within the society, the phenomenon of cultural lag occurs.

For instance, many of the nations have developed nuclear weapons which does not have a uniformly acceptable international system so that can be regulated, controlled and also used, from which it is evident that technological change is yet to make a development in the norms that could be used. This cultural lag between the material and non-material culture leads to many social problems which lead to conflicts in the society. Cultural lag finds its place in identifying the erupting problems with explanation and future prediction.

William Fielding Ogburn introduced the term Cultural Lag as a concept in his book which was published in 1922, Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature. Ogburn made a careful differentiation between the material and non-material culture, where he emphasized on the view of rapid change in the material culture as compared to the non-material culture.

According to him, the aspects of non-material culture persists longer the aspects of material culture due to its intensity along with the strength for resistance to change as a common societal phenomenon. As previously discussed, that the occurring changes in the material culture (technology and inventions) stimulate the changes in the non-material culture (ideas, customs, values, etc.), thus non-material culture invariably lag behind the material culture.

The change in different parts of the culture in a society does not change at the same speed and at the same rate; as a result technology (material culture) comes rapidly than the non-material cultural changes. The interval in the time of the manifestation of the new traits and the completion of the forced adaptation is referred to as the cultural lag according to William Fielding Ogburn.

Cultural lag evokes social problems in the society associated with ethical issues. The failure of the development of social consensus for the use of the modern equipments and technologies could contribute to the breakdown of social solidarity rising social conflict. In our society many sorts of cultural lag does exist due to the constant changes that are occurring very moment. Thus comparison between different cultures and their judgment of superior and inferior should be eliminated by fostering the uniqueness of the culture.

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To know more you can visit these significant topics:
Ogburn’s Theory of Cultural Lag, Cultural Pluralism, Cultural Relativism, Culture

Reference:

• Ogburn, W. F., (1922). Social Change. B. W. Huebsch Inc., New York.
• Ritzer, George and Ryan, J. Michael, (2011). The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Turner, Bryan S., 2006.  The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge University Press.
• Brinkerhoff, David B., White, Lynn K., Ortega, Suzanne T., and Weitz, Rose, 2011. Essentials of Sociology. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
• Rao, C.N. Shankar, 2006. Sociology : Primary Principles Of Sociology. S Chand.

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Related Questions:

Short notes on Cultural Lag.

What is Cultural Lag?

William F. Ogburn’s concept of Cultural Lag.

Theory of Cultural Lag.

Relation between the material and nonmaterial cultures within Cultural Lag.

Significance of Cultural Lag in Sociology.

Example of Cultural Lag.

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