Fashionable Functions: A Google Ngram View of Trends in Functional Differentiation (1800-2000)

International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 34-58, 2014

28 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2014 Last revised: 8 Nov 2019

See all articles by Steffen Roth

Steffen Roth

Excelia Business School; Kazimieras Simonavičius University

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

Computer communication is revolutionizing modern society to the same extend as the invention of writing or the printing press have unsettled the archaic or the ancient society, respectively. In the present article, this idea will be exemplified by a demonstration of how the Google Ngram viewer – an online graphing tool which charts annual counts of words or sentences as found in the largest available corpus of digitalized books – allows for checks and challenges of familiar self-definitions of modern society. As functional differentiation is considered the central unique feature of modern societies, the hypotheses focus on the testing of prominent modern trend statements and predictions, such as the secularization, politicization, economization, and mediatization of society. All hypotheses are tested through a comparative analysis of word frequency time-series plots produced by means of the Google Ngram Viewer. The results show that the importance of individual function systems to society features signifcant change in time and considerable regional differences. Furthermore, the findings suggest adopting a skeptical position on some of the most frequent common senses of trends in functional differentiation and corresponding self-defnitions of society.

Keywords: Culturomics, Economization, Function Systems, Functional Differentiation, Google Ngram, Mediatization, Politicization, Secularization, Social Systems

JEL Classification: Z1, Z10

Suggested Citation

Roth, Steffen, Fashionable Functions: A Google Ngram View of Trends in Functional Differentiation (1800-2000) (2014). International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 34-58, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2491422

Steffen Roth (Contact Author)

Excelia Business School ( email )

102 rue de Coureilles
Les Minimes
La Rochelle, 17024
France

Kazimieras Simonavičius University ( email )

Dariaus ir Girėno g. 21
Vilnius, 02189
Lithuania

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