Social construction of technology

Lecture 4, ARIN2600 TechnoculturesChris ChesherDigital Cultures

University of Sydneyhttp://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/digitalcultures

SCOT

Previously in Technocultures

• Technology as experience, freedom and control (McCarthy & Wright; Chun)

• Marshall McLuhan

• Medium is the message / probes / tetrad

• Donna Haraway

• Cyborg myth & changing dominations

Social construction of technology (SCOT)

• Engineering & development is always social

• subject to many influences (fashion, funding, feedback)

• Technologies don’t exist until social groups make them work for their purposes

• Changes in technology emerge from social contestations

http://www.phsc.ca/shields.html

Geared facile bicycle

‘lady racer’

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

SCOT

• critique of technological determinism

• symmetric & impartial treatment of successful & unsuccessful technologies

• interpretive flexibility: different meanings can coexist around the same things

• heterogeneous engineering

SCOT assumptions

• social groups define which (part) artefacts are problems to be addressed

• technical problems are closed by social consensus, not technical solutions

• social groups make meanings of artefacts

• for different social groups, the same object is a different artefact

Comparing approaches to technology

Traditional view Social construction

Linear development Multidirectional

Research & improvement Variation & selection

Meaning is in the artefact Meaning is socially constructed

Problem solving Social processes

Technical solutions Closure with consensus

How to do SCOT

• Identify different groups positioned in relation to an innovation

• What does it mean for each group? (What are the attractions & problems)

• Identify moments of variation & selection

• Identify processes of stabilisation & closure

Case studyDevelopment of the personal computer

Observations on computer history

• Dramatic changes in communities of users

• Changing meanings of computers, even with technical continuities

• Different communities of users continue

• Closure in one domain has often seen other domains open (e.g. networking)

SCOT & SAGE

• Military threat of enemy missiles

• strategic framing

• real time operation is essential

• Political imperatives & opportunities

• Heterogeneous engineering:

• propaganda & technology

SCOT & Business users

• Priority on costs & worker efficiency

• Accountability for purchasing & implementation decisions

• Profitability & speed

• Communication

• Record-keeping & risk management

SCOT & Hackers

• Community of technology users who gain social capital from technical mastery

• Fluid movement between producers and consumers of technology

• Limitations on experimentation are a problem

• Even difficult innovations are welcomed

SCOT & home users

• Value of educating self & children

• Limited finances

• computer can’t cost too much

• financial software is attractive

• Limited space in the home

• Computer is confusing & intimidating

SCOT, mobile & ‘cloud’

• Meaning of computers changes as they become ‘ubiquitous’

• lightness, smallness, portability

• special purpose devices (phones) have narrower meanings but wider userbase

• location & timeliness

• meaning of ‘cloud’ computing is not stable

DEBATE!

• Tutorials this week will feature debates between SCOT supporters and critics.

• Read the readings carefully so you can make a convincing case

Due next week!

• Assignment 2. Analysis of the influences on, and influence of, a technocultures reading

• Choose one of the readings in the course reader. Write an analysis of (i) the influences that informed this text, and (ii) the influence that this text has had on other writers.

Next weeks’ topic

• Week 6/7: Technology and class (lecture)

• Mid-semester break

• Week 7: Technology and class (reading)