Social construction
of technology
Lecture 4, ARIN2600 Technocultures
Chris Chesher
Digital Cultures
University of Sydney
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/digitalcultures

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

Geared facile bicycle
‘lady racer’
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
http://www.phsc.ca/shields.html

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 socially
Meaning is in the artefact
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 study
Development 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)