Theory of Social Changes by Ogburn's

Explanation of social change must be sought in culture change rather than in the biological nature of man.

Reason

• Little biological evolution in human race in last few 1000 yrs.
• Much social evolution.

4 Factors Explaining Cultural Evolution

1. Invention;
2. Accumulation;
3. Diffusion;
4. Adjustment

A) Invention

Inventions result from operations of 3 further factors
• Mental ability

• Individuals with the needed mental abilities have appeared in all societies.
• But, the larger the population, the more such individuals there will be

• Demand

• Contributes to making of inventions.
• Determines whether an invention, once made, will be used

• Existence of cultural elements

• The more cultural elements there are, the easier it is to produce new inventions by combining several existing ones

B) Accumulation

• Occurs when more new elements, that is, inventions, are added to the cultural base than are lost by obsolescence.
• The larger the accumulation is, the easier it is to make new inventions.

C) Diffusion

• Spread of an invention from one area to another. Given means of communication, an invention made in one place are travel widely.
• Eg. nations living at communications crosswords may make enormous progress simply by receiving a wide variety of inventions from various sources

D) Adjustment

• Each time an invention is made, some social change has occurred that requires adjustment.
• An invention in one part of a culture may create an adjustment in a related part of the culture.
• The adjustments do not occur instantaneously, but are made after a delay, and are called ‘cultural lags’.

According to Ogburn…

• A common pattern of social change in the 20th century is for a technological advance to affect an economic organization.
• This in turn causes a change in a social institution such as the family or govt.
• Finally causes a change in the social philosophy of a people.
• Invention is not the unique cause of all social change (as noted previously) there must be a demand of an invention or it won’t be used.
• Such demand may precede or follow the invention.