Week 8 - SCOT and SST

Social Construction of Technology basically states that human action shapes technology and not vice versa(Wikipedia). This is quite in contrast to technological determinism. The core concepts of SCOT is based on interpretative flexibility, relevant social groups, design flexibility, problems and conflicts and closure. Interpretative flexibility means how you interpret a technological artifact. For example, a cell-phone might be highly beneficial for an office employee while for a kid it might be an instrument of nuisance as he might get addicted to gaming, internet, etc. By Relevant social groups, I mean stakeholders. They can be either the end user, the producer or other people on whom there is considerable impact due to the existence of the product. Design flexibility suggests that there are multiple ways to design a technological artifact. Differences in interpretations actually give rise to various conflicts during artifact design. The last thing, closure is subject to debate, as there are open questions as to whether there is really closure, but it states that in SCOT it is important to see how closure is achieved.

Social Shaping of Technology (SST) on the other hand, relates to the concept of the ‘choices’ factor that is inherent in the construction of systems and artifacts. What it aims at understanding is if a technology is not determined by any initial pre-determined logic, there might be various choices or paths that have different technological outcomes (Wikipedia).

Class Readings
1. MacKenzie, Donald and Wajcman, Judy, eds. (1999) ''The social shaping of technology. ''2nd ed., Open University Press, Buckingham, UK. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28638/1/Introductory%20essay%20(LSERO).pdf

2. Williams, R., Edge, D. (1996). “The social shaping of technology.” Research Policy, 25, pp. 865—899. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.115.1643&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Homework
Discuss the basic elements of Social Construction of Technology and the Social Shaping of Technology. Critique the theory. Show how you could use a SCOT or SST theoretical lens to look at the design of an artifact within your own area of research?

My writeup here

Other Class Resources
1. More resources (Function 4 )