Shaping technology/building society : studies in sociotechnical change

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Title:

Shaping technology/building society : studies in sociotechnical change

Author:

Bijker, Wiebe E.

ISBN:

9780262521949

Edition:

1st MIT Press pbk. ed.

Publication Information:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1994, c1992.

Physical Description:

vii, 341 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Series:

Inside technology

Series Title:

Inside technology

Contents:

The life and death of an aircraft : a network analysis of technical change / John Law and Michel Callon -- What's in a patent? / Geof Bowker -- The social construction of fluorescent lighting, or how an artifact was invented in its diffusion stage / Wiebe E. Bijker -- Controversy and closure in technological change : constructing "steel" / Thomas J. Misa -- Closing the ranks : definition and stabilization of radioactive wastes in the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1945-1960 / Adri de la Bruhèze -- Artifacts and frames of meaning : Thomas A. Edison, his managers, and the cultural construction of motion pictures / W. Bernard Carlson -- The de-scription of technical objects / Madeleine Akrich -- Where are the missing masses? : the sociology of a few mundane artifacts / Bruno Latour.

A summary of a convenient vocabulary for the semiotics of human and nonhuman assemblies / Madeleine Akrich and Bruno Latour -- Technology, testing, text : clinical budgeting in the U.K. national health service / Trevor Pinch, Malcolm Ashmore, and Michael Mulkay -- Postscript : Technology, stability, and social theory / John Law and Wiebe E. Bijker.

Subject Term:

Technology -- Social aspects.

Added Author:

Bijker, Wiebe E.

Law, John, 1946-

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015681543	303.483 B594S 1994	1	Searching... Unknown
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015681584	303.483 B594S 1994	2	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

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.