USERS AND TECHNOLOGY:
PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
I203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information
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 socialpsychological processes as
individuals use technology and
tools.
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The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the
steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist.
Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy
Examples of Determinism
Lynn White
“The history of the use of the horse in
battle is divided into three periods: first,
The invention of the stirrup
that of the charioteer; second, that of
the mounted warrior who clings to his
led to Feudalism.
steed by pressure of the knees; and
See: White, L. Medieval Technology and third, that of the rider equipped with
Social Change. Oxford: Clarendon
stirrups.”
Press, 1962.
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More Examples of Determinism
The 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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Critiques of Tech Determinism
“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.”
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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.
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