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Innovation Without the Word: William F. Ogburn’s Contribution to the Study of Technological Innovation

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Abstract

The history of innovation as a category is dominated by economists and by the contribution of J. A. Schumpeter. This paper documents the contribution of a neglected but influential author, the American sociologist William F. Ogburn. Over a period of more than 30 years, Ogburn developed pioneering ideas on three dimensions of technological innovation: origins, diffusion, and effects. He also developed the first conceptual framework for innovation studies—based on the concept of cultural lags—which led to studying and forecasting the impacts of technological innovation on society. All in all, Ogburn has been as important to the sociology of technology as Robert K. Merton has been to the sociology of science and Schumpeter to the economics of technological innovation.

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Notes

  1. For some very brief biographical information and a list of Ogburn’s, see Odum (1951), Duncan (1964) and Jaffe (1969). This represents almost the entire list.

  2. For an early criticism of Ogburn’s view on biology and psychology and their contribution to culture, see Allport (1924 ).

  3. Inorganic, then organic, then superorganic. See Spencer (1877: chapter 1).

  4. On Ogburn’s evaluation of the contribution of anthropology and economics to technological studies, see Ogburn (1937a, b ). On his evaluation of history and technology, see Ogburn (1942).

  5. In a later paper, Ogburn put material culture, or technology, on a par with the natural and social environments, namely as a third environment per se (Ogburn 1956).

  6. A paper on Gilfillan’s life and works would be invaluable, but none exists. Occasionally, I use some of Gilfillan’s papers to complement Ogburn’s arguments.

  7. The concept of independent invention has been widely used and criticized since Ogburn, particularly for methodological reasons. On Ogburn’s awareness of the limitations, see Ogburn and Thomas 1922a, b: 93.

  8. Ogburn’s exponential curve has been criticized regularly throughout history. See for example: Sorokin (1933) and Schmookler (1966: 59–63). For an influential user, see Price (1961, 1962).

  9. And to G. Tarde, Gilfillan, Schumpeter and many others: O. T. Mason, A. P. Usher, J. Rossman and H. G. Barnett.

  10. To Ogburn, minor does not refer to the physical dimension of the technology but to its social influence.

  11. In sociologists’ hands, the idea became a leitmotif, although one had to wait until the 1980s and after for empirical studies of what came to be called technological “development”. For an early discussion of technological development among sociologists, see Jewkes et al. (1958: chapter 8).

  12. A brief mention of the phenomenon appeared in the report from Ogburn’s Committee on Technological Trends, discussed below (US National Resources Committee 1937b: vi).

  13. Nevertheless, the concept of social invention is widely discussed, alongside that of mechanical invention, in Ogburn and Nimkoff 1940: Part 7.

  14. Ogburn has been criticized for his emphasis on measurement. Sociologist P. A. Sorokin strongly criticized Recent Social Trends (1933) because of the “predominance of quantitative description” (Sorokin 1933). Ogburn replied in the same issue of the journal. See Ogburn 1933a.

  15. Ogburn’s combination of several statistics, or multiple indicators, to measure science and technology preceded Merton’s (1938: 8–54).

  16. The most explicit definition of effects does not come from Ogburn but from Gilfillan: “The effect of an invention is not what was done with it, but the difference and remainder when we subtract from what was done with it, that which would have been done without it, using its substitutes (…)” (Gilfillan 1945: 75). See also Gilfillan (1953: 201–202).

  17. Other works worth mentioning are Rosen and Rosen (1941), Allen (1957, 1959) and Gilfillan (1953).

  18. China, India, UK, USA and USSR.

  19. Other variables were population, natural resources and the economic system.

  20. The average intervals are: “between when the invention was first thought of and the first working machine or patent, 176 years; thence to the first practical use, 24 years; to commercial success 14 years, to important use 12 years; or say 50 years from the first serious work on the invention, to important use from it” (Gilfillan 1935b: 96).

  21. Economy.

  22. Including government.

  23. Attitudes.

  24. Accompanying documents to the report are: a summary (US National Resources Committee 1937a), a pamphlet (Ogburn 1938a), a paper from Ogburn based on his introduction to the report (Ogburn 1941a) and a textbook rendition of the report (Rosen and Rosen 1941).

  25. The exponential growth of inventions (as measured by patents, multiple discoveries, production and use of inventions), the S-shaped curve of diffusion (jump-like curve: stability, change, stability), lags (33 years), social effects (standard of living) (Ogburn 1959) and business cycles (Ogburn and Thomas 1922b; Ogburn 1923).

  26. One more distinction between Schumpeter and Ogburn deserves mention. Schumpeter’ ideas on innovation put emphasis on the role of major innovations and of a few entrepreneurs (as in Great Men theories), then large firms, while Ogburn sees innovation as a cumulative series of small steps and the result of many individuals’ efforts. The two views correspond to different philosophies of history, and both have been influential in subsequent studies on science, technology and innovation. However, over time, Ogburn’s kind of philosophy has become the preferred (or dominant?) one among many academics. For an excellent critique of economists’ views on major innovations, see Rosenberg (1976, 1978).

  27. As with Ogburn, Gilfillan used the term innovation only twice (Gilfillan 1935b: 59, 1937b: 20).

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    Benoît Godin

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Appendix

Appendix

Ogburn’s Vocabulary

Ogburn made few uses of the term innovation. His preferred terms were material culture, then, from the 1930s onward, technology. Invention and discovery as terms were also used in every writing. For a time he also made use of machines (Ogburn 1933a, 1934c, 1938a) and occasionally he elected to use the term knowledge (Ogburn 1932b). All of these terms were used interchangeably, and meant both technical (and social) inventions and scientific discoveries: For example, “the word technology will be used to include applied science and will be interchanged with invention and scientific discovery (…)” (Ogburn 1938b: 1). In fact, Ogburn had a broad concept of invention. He identified three meanings of invention and/or technology (Ogburn 1942; Ogburn 1957c). First, a strict definition refers to technological invention. A second meaning includes scientific discoveries, both basic and applied, and was widely used by Ogburn. A third meaning, which he preferred, includes social inventions and considers the social aspects of technology: what it does, and its use and function. This meaning suggests that the sociologist as student of technology gives attention to the social effects of technology.

Ogburn made use of the term innovation only twice (Ogburn 1941a: 3, 14, 16, 18, 1950: 378), while the chapter by B. J. Stern in Ogburn’s Technological Trends and National Policy (1937) used it widely, concurrently with other terms like technological change. To Ogburn, innovations are “inventions that have served to transform the environment profoundly”. Then, in the fourth edition of Sociology, published five years after Ogburn’s death, his collaborator Meyer M. Nimkoff replaced invention by innovation in the title of the chapter dealing with the social effects of invention (but used the term only once in the chapter, without explicit definition) (Ogburn and Nimkoff 1964: 697; 710). By that time, innovation was in fact getting increased attention in the sociological literature (Stern 1927; Chapin 1928; Hart 1931; Gilfillan 1935b Footnote 27; Nimkoff 1957; Rogers 1962).

Whether Ogburn was consciously reluctant to use the term innovation is most probably impossible to know. That the term innovation was rather “pushed” by Nimkoff is attested by its occurrence in Ogburn’s works written with this author (and its absence elsewhere). The first edition of Sociology used it frequently in part 7 dealing with social change (Ogburn and Nimkoff 1940: 828, 832, 836, 838, 858, 863). See also Nimkoff (1957).

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Godin, B. Innovation Without the Word: William F. Ogburn’s Contribution to the Study of Technological Innovation. Minerva 48, 277–307 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-010-9151-1

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