Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs

Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles,

Bakelites, and Bulbs

Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change

Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Rene

Aranzamendez, Ellen Bahr, Paul Debraski

1

Introduction

• Understanding the place of technology in our lives and in our society.

• Examples from three technological advances:

• The safety bicycle

• Bakelite plastic

• Fluorescent bulbs

• Technology and society are human constructs



2

Bijker (be é-ker)

• Dutch engineering student in the 1970s

• Drawn to Science Technology Society movement (STS)

• Risks of nuclear energy

• Environmental degradation

• Followed Social Construction of

Technology apprach (SCOT)



3

Classification, bad

• Tried to dissolve STS boundaries

– Seamless web

• Abhorred linear thinking



4

A vague diagram



5

Summary

• Technological inventions are created within society; cannot be viewed distinctly

• Gives three concrete stories and ties them in to their societal frameworks

• Keywords:

• Relevant Social Group

• Interpretive Flexibility: Closure/Stabilization

• Technological Frame

• Power



6

Part 1: Of Bicycles…



7


• Early 19 th century, Baron von Drais’ draisenne



8


• Early 19 th century, Baron von Drais’ draisienne



9




10




11




12




13




14


• Relevant user group – are the social groups centered around the technology, in this case, the Ordinary bicycle.

– Users: Young men of means and nerve

– Non-users: Everybody else

– Manufacturers: industrialized machine industries de-stabilized by Franco-German war



15


• Interpretive flexibility – the definition of the artifact according to the relevant user group

– For young men of means and nerve – it is a working technology, slightly dangerous, but that was, partly, the point.

– For everybody else – it is a non-working technology. It was unsafe.

– For manufacturers – how do you develop it for wider use?



16




17




18




19

“The Fourth Kingdom”

The Social Construction of

Bakelite



20

Baekeland

Lone inventor?



21

Two New Concepts

• Technological Frame

• Degree of Inclusion

But first, some background to the story of

Bakelite…



22

What is Bakelite?

• Trademark for a molding material patented by

Baekeland in 1907

• Formed in condensation reaction that occurs when phenol and formaldehyde are combined

• Insoluble, infusible, and unaffected by other chemicals

• First truly synthetic plastic

• Moldable but hardens



23

Precursors to Bakelite and

Relevant Social Groups

• Old “Plastics”

– Resin, horn, tortoiseshells, ivory, etc. (luxury market)

• New Plastics Made from Natural Materials

– Rubber – useful but ugly

– Celluloid – useful but flammable

• Search for Synthetic Plastics

– Concern about scarcity of natural resources

– Precursors created demand for consumer products (emergence of new social group)

– Phenol-formaldehyde experiments



24

Discovery of Bakelite

• Turn-of-the-Century

• Phenol-formaldehyde research in disarray

• Baekeland tries to find patterns in chaos

• Applies for patent for product he calls

Bakelite:

– Product A: Liquid

– Product B: Elastic

– Product C: Hard yet gummy

– Product D: Hard and insoluble

• Laboratory notes show he was interested in commercial applications



25

“Technological Frame”

• Each relevant social group has own

Technological Frame

• Builds when relevant social groups interact around an artifact

• Provides the goals, ideas and tools needed for action (solving problems)

• Outcome is constrained by the social group, but outcome is not predetermined.

• Also applies to non-technical groups such as consumers, managers, politicians, etc.



26

“Degree of Inclusion”

• As actors can be members of more than one relevant social group, they can also be influenced by more than one technological frame

• “Degree of inclusion” in a technological frame depends on extent to which an actor’s interactions are structured by that frame

• Bijker: Innovation often comes from inclusion in more than one technological frame



27

Baekeland’s Inclusion in

Technological Frames

• Photochemist

– Experience as photochemist (inventor of photographic paper) led him to attempt to map all possible variables of the phenol-formaldehyde reaction

• Electrochemist

– Interested in producing raw materials for industry

(not consumer products)

• Businessman

– Interested in whether processes can be scaled up



28

Museums

Early Contacts with Industry

Consumers

The Social

Construction of Bakelite

Patent

Litigation

Industrial

Designers

World War I



Collaboration with Industry

29

The social construction of fluorescent lighting

The majesty of daylight



30

Overview

• Lightbulbs invented in 1880 by Edison

• This chapter focuses on 1938-1940s

• Interplay between INDUSTRY,

GOVERNMENT & CONSUMERS

• Engineers had devised fluorescent lighting long before the socially constructed final product appeared



31

Key players

• 1890s

• MAZDA LIGHTING

– Comprised GE and Westinghouse

• UTILITIES

• FIXTURE MANUFACTURERS

• PUBLIC

• GOVERNMENT



32

Consolidation

• 1901

• GE, Westinghouse, Others

• Others consolidate into National Electric

Lamp Company.

• GE provided capital by purchasing 75% of stock

• GE owns 97% of U.S. electric lighting market



33

GENERAL ELECTRIC:

Antitrust/Mergers/Cross-licensing



34

Utility companies

• Private companies, collective organizaton

• Organized as licensees of Mazda

– Dependencies

– “Understandings”

• Utilities promoted Mazda lamps

• Mazda promoted higher consumption



35

Fixture companies

• No electric co. made accessories

• RLM Standards Institute

– Established industry standards

– Favored Mazda

• (who happened to collaborate in the standardization)



36

1930s

• Despite Great Depression—belief in technology

• Technology was the buzzword

– Object, process, knowledge, symbol

• Electricity—Symbol!

– Sense of wonder



37

World’s Fair 1939

• http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPL

AY/39wf/front.htm

• Utopian

• Introduced new technologies, including fluorescent lighting —an opportunity!



38

From tint to daylight

• Originally for tint lighting—specialty

• High-efficiency daylight fluorescent

• “3 to 200 times as much light for the same wattage”

• “Amazing efficiency”

• “Most economical”

• “Indoor daylight at last.”



39

Uh-oh: Relevant Social

Groups

• Utilities feared lost revenues

– Tried to emphasize the “tinted” aspect

• Even Mazda was concerned

– How long would this bulb last?

• Independents

– Hygrade-Sylvania

• Public

• Fixture Makers



40

Nela Park Conference

• April 24-25, 1939 in Cleveland

• “Fluorescent Council of War”

• Create High-Intensity Daylight Lamp

• Nix High-Efficiency Lamp



41

GE vs. the Govt.

• GE’s power continues through WWII

• 2 lawsuits involving GE were dismissed because they “interfered with the war effort”

• Military was using fluorescent bulbs



42

POWER

• Transitive capacity to harness the agency of others to comply with one’s ends.

• Is exercised, not possessed

• Previously—

– Economists would talk of technology without mentioning social power

– Sociologist would not discuss technological power.



43

Semiotic power

• Reaching closure, where interpretive flexibility is reduced, is the first step of semiotic power.

• Which means:

– More people in a relevant social group

– New relevant social groups

– Elaborating the meaning of artifacts



44

Constraints & Enablers

• Stabilization results in fixity of meaning

• Fixity of meaning represents power.

– Shapes technological frames which specify actions of relevant social group members

• Constrain actions (no high-efficiency bulbs)

• Enable actions: routines, patents

• Removes controversy from history

– GE ads for high-intensity



45

Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs

Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles,

Bakelites, and Bulbs

Introduction

Bijker (be é-ker)

Classification, bad

A vague diagram

Summary

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

Part 1: Of Bicycles…

“The Fourth Kingdom”

Baekeland

The social construction of fluorescent lighting

Overview

Key players

Consolidation

Utility companies

Fixture companies

1930s

World’s Fair 1939

From tint to daylight

Uh-oh: Relevant Social

Groups

Nela Park Conference

GE vs. the Govt.

POWER

Semiotic power

Constraints & Enablers

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