William Fielding Ogburn (June 29, 1886 – April 27, 1959) was an American sociologist who was born in

Butler, Georgia Butler is the county seat of Taylor County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 1,972 at the 2010 census. Geography Butler is located at (32.557, -84.239). The city is located along U.S. Route 19, which is the main route through the cit ...

and died in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

. He was also a statistician and an educator. Ogburn received his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 s ...

and his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degrees from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He was a professor of sociology at Columbia from 1919 until 1927, when he became chair of the Sociology Department at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. He served as the president of the American Sociological Society in 1929. He was the editor of the

Journal of the American Statistical Association The ''Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA)'' is the primary journal published by the American Statistical Association, the main professional body for statisticians in the United States. It is published four times a year in Mar ...

from 1920 to 1926. In 1931, he was elected as the president of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, which also elected him as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

in 1920. He was also known for his idea of " culture lag" in society's adjustment to technological and other changes. He played a pivotal role in producing the groundbreaking Recent Social Trends during his research directorship of President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

's Committee on Social Trends from 1930 to 1933. He was one of the most prolific sociologists of his time, with 175 articles under his name.

Social change

Perhaps Ogburn's most enduring intellectual legacy is the theory of social change he offered in 1922. He suggested that technology is the primary engine of progress, but tempered by social responses to it. Thus, his theory is often considered a case of

Technological determinism Technological determinism is a reductionist theory that assumes that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. The term is b ...

, but is really more than that. Ogburn posited four stages of technical development: invention, accumulation, diffusion and adjustment. ''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 The difference between material culture and non-material culture is known as cultural lag. The term cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and the resulting social problems that are cau ...

References

External links

American Sociological Association
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Guide to the William Fielding Ogburn Papers 1908-1960
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
1886 births 1959 deaths Columbia University faculty Presidents of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the American Sociological Association Fellows of the American Statistical Association American statisticians People from Butler, Georgia {{US-sociologist-stub