SOCS2100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Social Darwinism, Unschooling, Ethnocentrism
29 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCS2100
Organizational Management and Social Behavior
March 28, 2018
WEEK 5
Material Culture
Material culture – something that we make
Stuff – everything not in the natural environment
Technology - the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry
• Doesn’t have to be a device
• Things made to
What does it have to do with organizations?
• Material technology changes organizations
Is change inevitable?
• Yes, due to human nature
• Adapt
It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil
of any human being – John Stuart Mill
• Reduced manual labor
• People lose jobs due to mechanical inventions
Think of implications if introducing technology to organizations. There may be
consequences.
Electricity one of best inventions ever.
There is a moral discourse around change.
Is technology is determining structure of organizational structure/effectiveness? Or is
structure not determined by technology?
Exponential - becoming more and more rapid, accelerating rate
Material Culture
- Encompasses all the physical objects produced by members of any particular
culture – Barfield
- All cultures and societies have material culture: all human beings have
relationships with objects, their environment, and the physical/material world in
which they live.
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Document Summary
Stuff everything not in the natural environment. Technology - the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry: doesn"t have to be a device, things made to. What does it have to do with organizations: material technology changes organizations. Think of implications if introducing technology to organizations. Exponential - becoming more and more rapid, accelerating rate. Material culture (cid:1688)encompasses all the physical objects produced by members of any particular culture(cid:1689) barfield. All cultures and societies have (cid:1688)material culture(cid:1689): all human beings have relationships with objects, their environment, and the physical/material world in which they live. Technology: often spoken about as if it is a new thing that we have been dealing with for only the last generation or two. In fact, technology and technological change is always a part of human society: examples, stone age to bronze age to silicone age, military axe to guns to icbms, cooking hearths, ovens, microwaves.
