The Social Itinerary of Technical Change

Two Studies on the Diffusion of Innovation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2497768
AutoresElihu Katz (University of Chicago, autor correspondente)
Ano1961
Volume20
Fascículo2
Páginas70-82
Data de publicação1961-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHuman Organization (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-7259 • E-ISSN: 1938-3517
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.17730/humo.20.2.322v6303331k1x37
OpenAlexW2044254800
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas26

Rapid social and technical change is the hallmark of modern, urban society. The last few years, for example, have seen an upturn in the birth rate; an invasion of small, foreign-made automobiles; the triumph of the hula hoop; the rise and fall of the sack dress; the widespread acceptance of antibiotics and tranquillizers; and so on. Despite all of this, there are surprisingly few studies of the diffusion of innovation in the sense of tracing the movement of: 1) a given new practice; 2) over time; 3) through specific channels of communication; 4) within a social structure. This is all the more remarkable given that one would be hard put even to define various fields of behavioral research without reference to the process of diffusion. Marketing, for example, obviously, has to do with the diffusion of products; anthropology has to do with the transmission and change of culture; sociology is concerned, among other things, with the consequences of technical change, or with the spread of fads and fashions. Yet, these additions have tended to ignore the itinerary of change in the sense in which the diffusion process is defined above

Business · Diffusion · Diffusion of innovations · Economic geography · Economics · Epistemology · Innovation diffusion · Political science · Process (computing) · Sack · Social change · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Diverse academic and cultural studies · Engineering · Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting · Law · Marketing