Social Construction Of Technology Essay

746 Words3 Pages

According to Casey (2000) the Social Construction of Technology comprises of the following; Interpretive flexibility; this refers to the way in which different groups of people involved in a technology have different understanding of that technology including the understanding of its technical characteristics(Hinduja, 2003). The design of technology is an open process that can produce various outcomes and is dependent on the social circumstance of development (Hollinger, 1991). This distinguishes SCOT from other constructivist approach in the history of technology (Keel, 2005). Secondly it comprises of relevant social group; "all members of a certain social group share the same set of ideas attached to a specific artifact" (McKemmish and Rodney, 2008). These groups are the agents in the agency centered approach whose actions manifest the meanings the impact to artifacts and can be identified as Actors (Schultz, 2002). The development of …show more content…

This instance is most often looked for in the dichotomy of society and technology. Approaches which lean toward society being this instance begin with the assumption that technology and its resulting consequences are planned and inaugurated by social actors, most often large institutional entities (Hollinger, 1991). The main focus is either on the political economy of the object of study (Hickey, 2009) or on the social construction of the artifact of interest (Demers, 2001). Particularly the latter, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), "points to technology as being through and through social." (Huber et al, 2011) The most extreme position on this side of the spectrum is "social