Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future

by Deborah G. Johnson, Jameson M. Wetmore

Overview

An anthology of writings by thinkers ranging from Freeman Dyson to Bruno Latour that focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values and how these may affect the future.

Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262600736
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/17/2008
Series:	Inside Technology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	648
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Deborah G. Johnson is Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics and Department Chair, Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia.

Jameson M. Wetmore is Assistant Professor at the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

Trevor Pinch is Goldwin Smith Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University and coeditor of The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (anniversary edition, MIT Press).

Wiebe E. Bijker is Professor at Maastricht University and the author of Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change (MIT Press) and other books.

Thomas P. Hughes is Professor of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bruno Latour, a philosopher and anthropologist, is the author of We Have Never Been Modern, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Facing Gaia, Down to Earth, and many other books. He coedited (with Peter Weibel) the previous ZKM volumes Making Things Public, ICONOCLASH, and Reset Modernity! (all published by the MIT Press).

Langdon Winner is the Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Daniel Sarewitz is Professor of Science and Society and Cofounder and Codirector of the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University and the author of Frontiers of Illusion.

Jameson M. Wetmore is Assistant Professor at the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

W. Patrick McCray, Professor in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of four other books, including the prize-winning The Visioneers.

Dominique Vinck is Professor at Pierre Mendès-France University and at the Polytechnic National Institute of Grenoble. He is also a member of CRISTO, a research center associated with CNRS that focuses on sociotechnical innovation and industrial organizations.

John L. Pollock is Regents Professor of Philosophy and Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona.

Judy Wajcman is Professor of Sociology in the Demography and Sociology Program at Australia National University.

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

Johnson and Wetmore's collection of papers on the interplay between technology and society is the most comprehensive I've seen, exposing just how rich, complex, multidimensional, and vital that interplay actually is. Be prepared for quite an intellectual ride!

—Wm. A. Wulf, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, and President Emeritus, National Academy of Engineering

From the Publisher

Johnson and Wetmore's collection of papers on the interplay between technology and society is the most comprehensive I've seen, exposing just how rich, complex, multidimensional, and vital that interplay actually is. Be prepared for quite an intellectual ride!

—Wm. A. Wulf, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, and President Emeritus, National Academy of Engineering

Wm. A. Wulf

Johnson and Wetmore's collection of papers on the interplay between technology and society is the most comprehensive I've seen, exposing just how rich, complex, multidimensional, and vital that interplay actually is. Be prepared for quite an intellectual ride!

Editorial Reviews

Technology and Society is a highly readable book, mostly useful at the undergraduate level for its applied focus on future and values. The different textual genres serve well the ambition to make STS perspectives relevant in policy and in sociocultural negotiations about technopolitics. Technology and Society will encourage its audience to become concerned about its global sociotechnical future, and hopefully to feel empowered for this task.—Isabelle Dussauge, Technology and Culture—

From the Publisher

Technology and Society is a highly readable book, mostly useful at the undergraduate level for its applied focus on future and values. The different textual genres serve well the ambition to make STS perspectives relevant in policy and in sociocultural negotiations about technopolitics. Technology and Society will encourage its audience to become concerned about its global sociotechnical future, and hopefully to feel empowered for this task.

—Isabelle Dussauge, Technology and Culture

Reviews

Technology and Society is a highly readable book, mostly useful at the undergraduate level for its applied focus on future and values. The different textual genres serve well the ambition to make STS perspectives relevant in policy and in sociocultural negotiations about technopolitics. Technology and Society will encourage its audience to become concerned about its global sociotechnical future, and hopefully to feel empowered for this task.

Technology and Culture - Isabelle Dussauge