SOC 3116 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: The Acolytes Protection Agency, Technological Determinism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 3116
• Professor: Tonio Sadik

Document Summary

10/12/16 (9) traditional media and contemporary society (cont. ) Flew and smith highlighted the distinction between technological determinism and the social shaping of technology perspective. Technology determinism: this looks at the relationship between new technologies and society. It sees social change as driven by technological change (social change is technological determined). New technologies are invented in an independent sphere, and then create new societies or new human conditions. Lock-in" that shapes society and culture in a wider sense: this perspective reflects the dominant paradigm of mainstream society that says that if we do not follow technology closely, we will fall behind. We need to reflect on how much a particular technology is worth at a specific point in time and how popular it is within the mainstream. It is also important to be able to look at alternatives. Social shaping of technology: this is the major alternative to technological determinism.