Conceptions Of Democratic And Authoritarian Technologies

Technology has made wonderful advances in the last century. It has made everyday task much easier and more efficient for its users, it has become an essential item in most people lives. Ursula Franklin and Langdon Winner have both done extensive studies on technology and have come up with their own theories on technology. Franklins theory focuses on “Technology as Practice” and Langdon Winner’s focuses on “Conceptions of Democratic and Authoritarian Technologies.” That being said, the two have a number of similarities in their theories. The first similarity is the belief that technology is central/everything works around or through it. The second similarity is that technology can be broken up into different strands throughout society. This

They believe that everything that we do has a connection to technology. Franklin believes that, “Technology is a way of doing something and that technology is linked to culture” (Flisfeder,2014, Lecture). When Franklin says technology is linked to culture and that technology is a way of doing something, it means that technology has a large impact on society and its trends and fads. An example of technology being linked to culture and doing things would be social media. Social media is one example of what Franklin calls “strength in approach” (Quan-Haase, 2013, p.5). “Strength of approach emphasizes how technology becomes normalized within society over time and thereby points out how tech is a structuring force in how we live”(Quan-Haase, 2013, p.5). Social media has become something that has almost taken over society. In Hong Kong the government had to ban the usage of certain social media outlets, because people were using it to spread awareness about the events going on inside Hong Kong. As for Langdon Winner, he says, “Technologies build order in the world” (Flisfeder, 2014, Lecture). What that means is that technology provides structure. An example of the technology that would build order in the world could be the creation of passports. Passports are used to identify a person and where they come from. Technology is constantly evolving to better benefit its users and Winners and Franklin

Franklin believes that technology can be broken into two different strands, either holistic or prescriptive. “Prescriptive technology can be most easily be described as technology that is broken down into steps, steps that are carried out by a different person” (Flisfeder, 2014, Lecture). An example of this would be an assembly line, where there are multiple stations put in place to help create one complete product. Holistic technologies on the other hand as discussed in lecture are “technologies where there is an individual controller/creator” (Flisfeder, 2014, Lecture). Unlike in prescriptive technology where the work is equally distributed to multiple people, in holistic technology it just includes one person or station that is able to do all the work. As for Langdon Winner, he too believes that technology can be broken off into multiple strands/stages. The two stages that Winner believes technology is broken into are: authoritarian technologies as well as democratic technologies. Authoritarian technologies, as described in lecture, are “system-centred, powerful but unstable” (Flisfeder, 2014, Lecture). An example of authoritarian technology could be an atomic bomb or a nuclear reactor. They are both examples because they both need to be controlled by some sort of authority, as well are very unstable. One cannot leave an atomic bomb by itself and expect it to