A presentation of a paper, where I developed theoretical framework of my dissertation 'Politics of Mobile code and networks' at the ICA 2013 conference, in London

1. Erasmus Research Centre for
Media, Communication and Culture
Understanding backbone of technology:
a conceptual model to research Code
Lela Mosemghvdlishvili
Jeroen Jansz
Guest lecture "gendered technologies" by Lela Mosemghvdlishvili is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

4. Social Shaping of Technology
 Technological development is not determined by its ‘inner logic’
 Different technological paths are possible

5. Which of possible paths/solutions get standardized?
What if these different technological paths/solutions
have different effects on… ?

6. Limitations of SST

7. Critical Theory of Technology

8. Critical Theory of Technology
“Technical code”
“Democratic Rationalization”
(Feenberg, 1999, 2010)

9. Code
a critical layer of technology
a link between human activity and machine/hardware
language in its structure
means of production
earlier forms of ‘user participation’
prescriptive and performative
delegated agency

10. Discussion
Normative model
Recognizes negotiability of technology
Aims to:
Politicize development of technology
• subject to inquiry technical codes
• empower agency in technological
design/development

11. mosemghvdlishvili@eshcc.eur.nl
jansz@eur.nl