Shaping Technology / Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change - Couverture rigide

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0262023385 ISBN 13 : 9780262023382

Editeur : The MIT Press, 1992

Synopsis

Building on the influential book The Social Construction of Technological Systems, this volume carries forward the project of creating a theory of technological development and implementation that is strongly grounded in both sociology and history.

Technology is everywhere, yet a theory of technology and its social dimension remains to be fully developed. Building on the influential book The Social Construction of Technological Systems, this volume carries forward the project of creating a theory of technological development and implementation that is strongly grounded in both sociology and history. The 12 essays address the central question of how technologies become stabilized, how they attain a final form and use that is generally accepted. The essays are tied together by a general introduction, part introductions, and a theoretical conclusion. The first part of the book examines and criticizes the idea that technologies have common life cycles; three case studies cover the history of a successful but never produced British jet fighter, the manipulation of patents by a French R&D company to gain a market foothold, and the managed development of high-intensity fluorescent lighting to serve the interests of electricity suppliers as well as the producing company. The second part looks at broader interactions shaping technology and its social context: the question of who was to define "steel," the determination of what constitutes radioactive waste and its proper disposal, and the social construction of motion pictures as exemplified by Thomas Edison's successful development of the medium and its commercial failure. The last part offers theoretical studies suggesting alternative approaches to sociotechnologies; two studies argue for a strong sociotechnology in which artifact and social context are viewed as a single seamless web, while the third looks at the ways in which a social program is a technology.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Wiebe E. Bijker is Professor at Maastricht University and the author of Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change (MIT Press) and other books.

John Law is Professor in Sociology at the University of Keele, Staffordshire, England.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: The MIT Press
• Date d'édition: 1992
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0262023385
• ISBN 13: 9780262023382
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 352
• Éditeur: Bijker Wiebe E., Law John
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible