Shaped Technology: An Afterword

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-455
Author(s):  
Thomas Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Technology And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Shaping ◽  
Better Than

The informative and engaging essays in the foregoing collection suggest several interesting concepts that deserve further research and reflection. Over the past decade, the “social construction of technology” has become a concept often explored by historians (Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch 1987). Even though it has performed the useful function of discrediting technological determinism, the concept suggests too narrow a set of influences that shape technology. Two other concept, “nature-shaped technology” and “culture-shaped technology,” convey the character of technology more effectively. To designate “nature” as a shaper of technology reminds us that in a relatively prisine world the designer of technology negotiates with natural forces more than with human-built ones. To see culture as a shaper of technology suggests a broader range of influences affecting technology, not simply the social. “Shaping” conveys the notion of influence and avoids that of determinism better than “construction.”

The Networked Effect of Children and Online Digital Technologies

2018 ◽  
pp. 7312-7326
Author(s):  
Teresa Sofia Pereira Dias de Castro ◽  
António Osório ◽  
Emma Bond
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Social Shaping

Within the scope of how technology impacts on society three theoretical models: the social shaping of technology (SST), social construction of technology (SCOT) and the Actor-Network theory (ANT) are frameworks that help rethink the embeddedness of technology within society, once each is transformed and transformative of the other. More attention will be given to the ANT approach since it solves the technology/society dualisms unresolved by the previous proposals. This is a flexible epistemological possibility that can reach the ambiguity of contemporary life and the remarkable transformations brought by progress that have changed drastically childhood and children's contemporary lives.

The Networked Effect of Children and Online Digital Technologies

2019 ◽  
pp. 505-522
Author(s):  
Teresa Sofia Pereira Dias de Castro ◽  
António Osório ◽  
Emma Bond
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Social Shaping

Within the scope of how technology impacts society, three theoretical models—the social shaping of technology (SST), social construction of technology (SCOT), and the actor-network theory (ANT)—are frameworks that help rethink the embeddedness of technology within society, once each is transformed and transformative of the other. More attention will be given to the ANT approach since it solves the technology/society dualisms unresolved by the previous proposals. This is a flexible epistemological possibility that can reach the ambiguity of contemporary life and the remarkable transformations brought by progress that have drastically changed childhood and children's contemporary lives.

Oligopolies of the past? Habermas, Bourdieu, and conceptual approaches to news agencies

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1825-1841
Author(s):  
Heidi J. S. Tworek
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Wireless Technology ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
The Social ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Firms

This article uses the history of news agencies, particularly in Germany, to explore key theories about media transitions. First, many over-emphasize technology as an autonomous factor divorced from politics, economics, and culture. Historical methodologies remind us that technology is socially constructed, as I show using the example of wireless technology. Second, the economic dominance of platforms has become central to the debate about how to reform the Internet. This too draws on long-standing conceptual approaches to media, pioneered by Habermas. Like online platforms, news agencies were bottlenecks for news; their history reminds us that their dominance stemmed from politics as much as economics. Finally, I suggest that we need to include Bourdieu’s ideas of symbolic power and institutions to understand why certain media firms became so central. To understand news agencies, we can thus combine the work of Habermas and Bourdieu with theories about the social construction of technology to retrace the interaction between politics, economics, technology, and social norms that imbued news agencies with such power for so long.

Legal Reform and Social Construction: Violence, Gender, and the Law

1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (04) ◽  
pp. 829-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Frohmann ◽  
Elizabeth Mertz
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
The Social

As scholars and activists have addressed the problem of violence against women in the past 25 years, their efforts have increasingly attuned us to the multiple dimensions of the issue. Early activists hoped to change the structure of power relations in our society, as well as the political ideology that tolerated violence against women, through legislation, education, direct action, and direct services. This activism resulted in a plethora of changes to the legal codes and protocols relating to rape and battering. Today, social scientists and legal scholars are evaluating the effects of these reforms, questioning anew the ability of law by itself to redress societal inequalities. As they uncover the limitations of legal reforms enacted in the past two decades, scholars are turning—or returning—to ask about the social and cultural contexts within which laws are formulated, enforced, and interpreted.

Social Construction of Technology

Entanglements ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Tosoni ◽  
Trevor Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relevant Social Groups ◽  
Scientific Facts ◽  
Nonhuman Agency ◽  
Interpretative Flexibility

The chapter focuses on the Social Construction of Technology approach (SCOT) by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, introducing the reader to its initial formulation (1984), and to the subsequent extensions – and sometimes reformulations – elaborated in more than 30 year of empirical research. It first clarifies how the Empirical Programme of Relativism, elaborated by the Bath School to address the social construction of scientific facts, was adapted to technological artifacts. In particular the concepts of relevant social groups, interpretative flexibility, closure or stabilization are in-depth discussed. Regarding relevant social groups, the chapter dedicates a peculiar attention to users, sellers and testers, all understudied in the original formulation of SCOT. The chapter then clarifies SCOT’s take on materiality, and discusses its main differences with the idea of nonhuman agency proposed by Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Finally, it goes back to the Golem Trilogy to discuss with the author the specific take on politics implied by SCOT.

Talking Heads vs. Virtual Workspaces: A Comparison of Design across Cultures

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Heaton
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Cooperative Work ◽  
Computer Supported Cooperative Work ◽  
Technology Design ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Talking Heads ◽  
Cscw Design ◽  
The Social

The past decade has seen the development of a perspective holding that technology is socially constructed. This paper examines the social construction of one group of technologies, systems for computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). It compares the design of systems for computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in Scandinavia and Japan with particular attention to the influence of culture on the resulting products. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the argument that culture is an important factor in technology design, despite commonly held assumptions about the neutrality and objectivity of science and technology. The paper further proposes an explanation for why, despite similar technical backgrounds and research interests, CSCW design is conducted differently and produces different results in Denmark and Japan. It argues that, by looking at CSCW systems as texts which reflect the context of their production and the society from which they come, we may be better able to understand the transformations that operate when these texts are ‘read’ in the contexts of their implementation.

Bedrock or social construction? What Anthropocene science means for political theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Arias-Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Scientific Concept ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Quest For Meaning ◽  
Natural Scientists

How should political thinkers deal with environmental science? The question has acquired a new urgency with the rise of the Anthropocene, a scientific concept rapidly assimilated by the social sciences and the humanities. In that respect, some critics have levelled against it the well-known objections that environmental political thinkers and philosophers have directed towards science at large in the past. Anthropocene science might lead towards planetary governmentality, imposing a reductive way of understanding both the planet and sustainability. This article will claim that a clear demarcation between scientific and sociopolitical enquiries is needed. Political thinkers should take the findings provided by natural scientists as the basis for normative exploration and the quest for meaning. Arendt’s reflections on truth and factfulness will help to make this point.

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