USERS AND TECHNOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

I203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information

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Two theoretical perspectives for technological development and change

Technological Determinism

Social Constructivism

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Quick Question: What is Technology?

“The chief hazard attributable to the concept of technology, as currently used, is the mystification, passivity, and fatalism it helps to engender. Today we invoke the word as if it were a discrete entity, and thus a causative factor--if not the chief causal factor--in every conceivable development of modernity. Although we cannot say exactly what that "it" really is, it nonetheless serves as a surrogate agent, as well as a mask, for the human actors actually responsible for the developments in question.”

-Leo Marx

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Technological determinism: Billiard Ball Metaphor Revisited

Technological change comes from outside society as part of an autonomous scientific development

Technologies have their own inertia, totally separate from the influences of people.

At the extreme, technology causes social change

Key Argument: Technological determinists argue that new, superior

technologies will ultimately push aside competitors and society adapts as a result.

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Consequences of Technological Determinism

At the Macro level, technology causes social and historical changes.

At the Micro level, technology affects social and social-psychological processes as individuals use technology and tools.

The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist.

Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy

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Examples of Determinism

Lynn WhiteThe invention of the

stirrup led to Feudalism.See: White, L. Medieval

Technology and Social Change. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.

“The history of the use of the horse in battle is divided into three periods: first, that of the charioteer; second, that of the mounted warrior who clings to his steed by pressure of the knees; and third, that of the rider equipped with stirrups.”

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More Examples of DeterminismThe automobile created suburbia.See: McShane, C. Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the

American City. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. 1995.

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Do Machines Make History?

Heilbroner: 1) Can we explain why technology evolves

in the sequence that it does?

2) How does the mode of production (i.e., hand-mill) affect the superstructure of social relationships?

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Sequence of Technology (Heilbroner)

Simultaneity of Invention

Absence of Technological Leaps

Predictability of Technology

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How does a technology affect society? (Heilbroner)

Evidence: 1) Composition of Labor Force 2) Hierarchical Organization of Work

“Had Marx written that the steam-mill gives you society with the industrial manager, he would have been closer to the truth.” (p. 341)

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“Technologies do no doubt, as Richard Sclove (1995) puts it, 'constitute part of a society's core political infrastructure', just as do laws regulating behavior and taxation, but I think it's worth making the point that they are not likely to be any more predictable in their effects than those.”

Critiques of Tech Determinism

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The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) Perspective

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Understanding the Social Construction of Technology

Both technical processes and social processes shape technological development.

Thus, what we think of as ‘technology’ is produced through many factors, including: Behaviors of individuals and groups Economy and markets Consumer needs and wants

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Main arguments of SCOT (Pinch and Bijker)

Technology can develop differently based on the social circumstances in a given environment.

This occurs through “interpretive flexibility”: any object can mean different things to

different relevant groups.

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Interpretive Flexibility

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Main arguments of SCOT (continued)

Stabilization Over time, negotiations lead

to convergence.

Closure Closure is a social process in

which the technological artifact reaches a final, consensual form.

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Relevant ‘Social Groups’ in SCOT

What is a ‘relevant social group’? “all members of a social

group share the same set of meanings, attached to a specific artifact” (Pinch and Bijker 1987)

Different groups may lead to different interpretations.

Resulting “technology” is a negotiation between these groups.