Dimensions of Culture

Having looked at how culture has been defined, we can now break it down into its working parts. Sociologists distinguish three dimensions of any culture: the cognitive dimension, which is about how members of a group process and make sense of what they perceive; the normative dimension, which consists of the rules -- both informal and formal -- that guide conduct; and the material dimension, which covers the tools, technologies and objects a group uses. These three are not separate, freestanding boxes; a working culture needs them to function together, and when the material side changes faster than the normative side can keep up, the mismatch produces what sociologists call culture lag. The following sub-sections examine each dimension in turn, and then move on to how c …