Technological invention: Post-modernism and social structure

Journal/Book: Technol Soc. 1997; 19: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, England OX5 1GB. Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. 195-205.

Abstract: Post-modernist perspectives have enlivened the study of technology in the 1990s, encouraging much-needed theoretical development Post-modernist thought has brought with if a recognition of the limitations of the social constructivist vision of technology and technological change, and offered new insights into social processes and practices This paper identifies the potential of post-modernist theories of technology for overcoming persistent theoretical problems of reification, Cartesian dualism, and anti-materialism. Then a number of areas are examined in which new theories of technology are clearly unsatisfactory, particularly in regard to the relationship between technology and social structures of power and inequality. Finally, several suggestions are made for a more adequate theorization of technology and technological invention.

Note: Article Collyer FM, Univ Canberra, Canberra, Act, AUSTRALIA

Keyword(s): INNOVATION

Zurück | Weiter