This document provides an overview of the State, Technology & Social Policy module. It introduces topics that will be covered over the next 8 weeks through lectures, seminar presentations, and virtual seminars. Students will be divided into small groups to work on policy issues and present their findings at an end of module conference. The first virtual seminar discusses whether technology controls us or if we control technology, exploring the concepts of technological determinism and the social shaping of technology. While technological change is complex with many influencing factors, technology can impact power dynamics in society.

1. The State, Technology & Social Policy Week 2 - Introduction

2. Session Overview Introductions Module Content Lecture Practical Session

3. Module Format Lectures discussion/interaction Seminar Presentations two per week Virtual Seminar week 2 to 8 weekly summary/discussion in class week 9 off in lieu of face-to-face work

4. Module Format Technology Think Tank small groups work on policy issues agenda set by virtual seminar brief report (2-4 pages) present at conference

5. End of Module Conference (King’s Manor) 10 Think Tank Preparations Cyberspace 9 Technology & Social Divisions 4: Risk and Online Communities A/EW/105 8 Technology & Social Divisions 3: Cybercrime A/EW/105 7 Technology & Social Divisions 2: Surveillance and Social Sorting A/EW/105 6 Technology & Social Divisions 1: Is There a Digital Divide? A/EW/105 5 Technology & Society 3: Are ICTs Changing the Nature of Government? A/EW/105 4 Technology & Society 2: Are ICTs Transforming Contemporary Society? A/EW/105 3 Virtual Seminar Technology & Society 1: Do We Control Technology or Does It Control Us? A/EW/105 2 Topic Location Wk

6. Core Reading Diverse topics – no single text Lengthy reading list Module web site – ‘virtual reader’ Electronic sources academic journals – new research news media – contemporary debates think tanks – new policy thinking

7. Allocation of Work Tasks Seminar Presenters Weekly Virtual Seminar Leaders

8. Technology and Society I Do we control technology or does it control us?

9. Session Objectives explore issues about the ‘power’ of technology explore issues around the ‘control’ of technology to ask ‘do we control technology or does it control us?’

10. The ‘Power’ of Technology The ‘power’ of technology is a long standing conundrum in social sciences Some (e.g. Dowding) argue that inanimate objects cannot have power BUT: existence of technology makes a difference Pandora’s Box type effect Irrespective of issue of power a question of control is important

11. The Luddites Who were they? Early working class movement (1812) Industrial Revolution – textile industry Notts, Lancs, Yorks Resisted specific technological deployments Destroyed machines threatening trades

12. The Luddites Chant no more your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood His feats I but little admire I will sing the achievements of General Ludd Now the Hero of Nottinghamshire The guilty may fear, but no vengeance he aims At honest man's life or Estate His wrath is entirely confined to wide frames And to those that old prices abate

13. The Luddites ‘ All these demands looked forwards, as much as backwards; and they contained within them a shadowy image… of a democratic community, in which industrial growth should be regulated according to ethical priorities and the pursuit of profit be subordinated to human needs’ EP Thompson

14. The Luddites Ended on the scaffold Defeat inevitable? Crushed by technology or state? Any human agency?

15. Technology out-of-control Frankenstein’s Monster human invention improve Frankenstein’s life develops life of its own master or servant?

16. Autonomous Technology Winner: Autonomous Technology Technology out of control Humans have no choice of direction of change Frakenstein’s monster “ the belief that somehow technology has gotten out of control and follows its own course independent of human direction” (Winner). “ a relentless and constant pressure for change [that] affords no opportunity to decide how” (Street 1992).

17. Autonomous Technology Claims technological development has its own logic Doesn’t matter who works on projects Simultaneous inventions human values over-ridden by logic Argues technological solutions always triumph

18. Autonomous Technology Has distopian overtones: ‘ all protest is senseless, and the individual who would insist on freedom would become a crank. There is no personal escape from the apparatus which has mechanised and standardised the world. It is a rational apparatus, combining utmost expediency with utmost convenience, saving time and energy, removing waste, adapting all means to ends...’ (Marcuse).

19. Technological Determinism A moderate ‘cousin’ Sees technology as a key driver of change ‘makes no particular claims about the ideological rationale provided by technology or about the extent of its impact’ (Street).

20. Technological Determinism Argues technology poses ‘questions’ for society people can choose to resist change resistance will lead to disadvantage Hobson’s choice More positive outlook than autonomous technology

21. Technological Determinism Hard & Soft views of determinism Hard view discredited? ‘ not a good candidate as a theory of social change’ MacKenzie and Wajcman (1999: 4) Causes of change are complex rather than direct

22. Social Shaping of Technology Generally accepted that technological change is socially shaped Human decisions impact on: direction of development nature of deployment who has access Technology itself is only one variable

23. Social Shaping of Technology POLITICS military technology nuclear weapons chemical weapons ICTs in government policy networks resist change social security officials v medics nurses v doctors

24. Social Shaping of Technology ECONOMICS & BUSINESS information technology Microsoft music and video technology Betamax video control of supply chain

25. Social Shaping of Technology SOCIAL RELATIONS reproductive technologies male dominance of medical profession built environment bridges in Florida

26. Technological Determinism Soft view still popular Complexity of social change does not rule out technology as key driver of change Mobile phones Cars Winner: Somnambulism

27. Methodological Issue Difficulty of distinguishing cause & effect Methodological Luddism Complex – many factors more than one social factor technology can make a difference

28. Actor-Network Theory re-promotes technology as a key variable accepts social relations impact on technology... ...vice-versa also true

29. Actor-Network Theory humans and technologies have impact ‘actors’ ‘principle of symmetry’ connected together in ‘networks’ shape, constrain, enable action

30. Actor-Network Theory ‘ it is mistaken to think of technology and society as separate spheres influencing each other: technology and society are mutually constitutive’ (MacKenzie and Wajcman )

31. Actor-Network Theory Cars Information Technology

32. Conclusion: Complex Interactions Complex process of continuous interactions Giddens: Structuration Theory Agents shape structures Structures shape agents Reflex, iterative process No different from any social change?

33. Conclusion: Complex Interactions Distinguishing cause and effect is difficult Truth is complex Answer to original question? we have choices we have power power unevenly distributed technological change can impact on power

34. Finally... Practical Workshop Virtual Seminar Set-Up & Training Coffee Break First Meet in D/114 at 15.15