SOC100H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Ozone Depletion, Risk Society, Technological Determinism
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SOC100H5 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Chapter 13: technology, the environment, and social movements. Hiroshima divided the twentieth century into two distinct periods: the period before hiroshima being the era of naive optimism (technology could do no wrong), and the time after with technology being viewed more warily. Technology: the application of scientific principles to the improvement of human life. Normal accident: an accident that occurs inevitably, although unpredictably because of the complexity of modern technologies. Risk society: a society in which technology distributes environmental dangers among all categories of the population, although to varying degrees. Technological determinism: the belief that technology is the main factor shaping human history. Scientific discoveries only become useful technologies when society finds a need for them. Technology and society influence each other; scientific discoveries, once adopted on a wide scale, often transform societies, but scientific discoveries are turned into useful technologies only when social needs demand.
