USERS AND TECHNOLOGY:

PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

I203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information

Some theories for technological
development and change

 Technological Determinism

 Social Constructivism

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 Related but Distinct

PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT & CHANGE

Technological Social
Determinism Constructivism

THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE / EPISTEMOLOGY

Positivism / Subjectivism /
Empiricism Post - Modernism

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Does society determine technologies, or do
technologies determine society?

 The ‘Star Trek’ problem:

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But Seriously…

 The problem we face is very real in our

understanding of technology and information
history: Does technology/IT primarily affect society
and happen as natural course of development, or
are technologies/IT emergent from social processes?

 Put differently, do technologies develop “under

their own immanent logic”?
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Technological determinism

 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

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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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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.

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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.”

“…but notice that technologies tend to do this independently

of their nominally intended (or 'focal') purposes. We do not
normally regard fountains, pipes (or, for that matter,
microwave ovens, hypodermic syringes, garden hoses or
numerically controlled machine tools) as devices that shape
patterns of human relationship, but that is nevertheless one of
their pervasive latent (or 'nonfocal') tendencies”
Sclove (1995 : 89)
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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

 Technology can develop differently based on the

social circumstances in a given environment.

 Concept of “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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