TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL THEORY

STSS 6040, Fall 2004, Sage 5711

Tues. 6:00-8:50

Seminar Leader:  Langdon Winner

Office:  Sage 5707

Office Hours:

Tues & Fri.. 1:00 to 2:00 and by appointment

Office Phone:  276-8498; email: winner@rpi.edu

This is a graduate seminar examining interactions between technology and modern society as seen from the vantage point of social and political theory.   The class has three objectives: (1) careful reading of works in history, literature, philosophy, and social science that seek a illuminate our understanding of technology's place in human experience; (2) developing a grasp of key themes and issues in a manner compatible with each student's view of social theory and science and technology studies; (3) applying this knowledge to contemporary social and political issues that involve technological choice.

Meetings.  We will meet once a week.  Please read the assigned selections carefully.  Come prepared to discuss the readings and your thoughts on them.  Two seminar members will join in leading the discussion each week.

Readings.  Several books for the course are on sale in the campus bookstore.  Articles and book chapters for many of the “common readings, marked “**” on the syllabus, will be copied and placed in the STS graduate student lounge.  Copy these and return them promptly.  For several sessions of the seminar the choice of readings is negotiable and may include writings not listed. Choose books and articles you find to be important and relevant to your concerns.  More than one person can read and discuss a particular book.

Weekly papers:  Students will write a paper each week, approximately two pages single-spaced, one that combines a concise summary of the readings they have done with a commentary about central concepts and issues.   Papers should identify features that are especially useful or problematic in the books and articles.   The papers should be distributed to the class by email no later than 7:00 p.m. Monday evening prior to the Tuesday seminar.  [Please include “THEORY” as the first word in the subject line for your emails, followed by your last name. This will help distinguish your contributions from the mound of spam we all receive.]   Try to read all the papers as part of your preparation for the session.

Exam.  As a way to focus your thinking and to help prepare for the STS field exam, there will be a take home final exam.  Students will prepare and exchange sample questions that will serve as the basis for the questions asked.  You may prepare for the exam in any way you like (group discussions are encouraged), but the writing must be your own.   The final will be will be distributed in class December 5 and are due in my STS mailbox no later than 4:00 on Friday, December 8.  

Research paper.  All members of the seminar will write a term paper on a question or theme that interests them.  Please consult with Mr. Winner early in the term about the topic and approach you’ve chosen.  Each student will give oral presentation of her/his term paper late in the term.  Papers are due on Friday, December 8.

Grades.  You will be evaluated as follows: (1) participation in class discussion, 25%; weekly papers: 25%; take home final exam, 25%; term paper, 25%.

Here are some examples of topics your term paper might cover.

1.  Study of a contemporary social or political issue related to existing technology or pending technological choice or policy, e.g., reproductive technology and control of the body; manufacturing technology and the definition of work; global production and its consequences; new media and social expression; the philosophy and practice of sustainable development, etc.

2.  Comparison of ideas in two or more thinkers -- Ellul, Foucault, Heidegger, Marx, Mumford,  Haraway, Sclove, etc. -- whose writings illuminate a particular dimension of technology and human experience.

3.  Theoretical reflections on a contemporary sociotechnical landscape: computer networks, megamalls, nanotech start-up firm; fertility clinics, security systems, high performance workplaces, gated “communities,” material cultures of the homeless, etc.

4.  Critical evaluation of key differences between two or more schools of thought in technology and social theory, e.g., liberalism, Marxism, pragmatism, constructivism, actor network, etc.

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August 31:  Introduction

Organizational meeting to discuss aims and activities of the seminar.  What is "technology"?  Why does it matter?  What is “theory”?  What should a theory of technology and society seek to accomplish?  What place does theory have in our lives and works?  There will also be a brief lecture, “Technology Criticism and Its Legacy”.

September 7:   Technology and theory: from revolution to …?

Common readings:

Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach," pp. 143-145;

             The German Ideoloogy, pp.146-200

            "Marx on the History of His Opinions," pp. 3-6

Capital, Volume I, selections, pp. 319-328, pp. 392-411.    

            Optional readings in Marx, The Grundrisse, selections, pp. 278-293;

and  Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England, pp. 579-585.

                [All of the above in The Marx-Engels Reader, R. Tucker (2nd ed.)]

            **Jeffrey Sconce, “tulip theory”

[Note:  The paper for this week should compare theoretical approach evident in Marx with the contemporary theorizing discussed in Sconce’s essay.]

September 14:   Cultural backgrounds for technological change

            Common readings: 

Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization, entire

          ** Langdon Winner, “Silk Purses from Sow’s Ears”

[Note:  The paper should address key conceptions of technology and social change from the readings.]

September 21:  Does technology shape society?

Common readings:  ** Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change, ch. 1  

Selected readings (choose one):

Frederick Winslow Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management

Alfred D. Chandler, The Visible Hand

David Noble, America by Design

David Noble, Forces of Production

Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society

Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx, Does Technology Drive History?

James Womack, et al, The Machine that Changed the World

September 28:  Social and political constructions of technology

            Common readings:

** Langdon Winner, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" in The Whale and the Reactor

** Wiebe Bijker and Trevor Pinch, "The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts," in The Social Construction of Technological Systems

**Pinch, Trevor. 1996. “The social construction of technology: A review,” in Technological change: Methods and themes in history of technology, edited by R. Fox. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

Select one of the following:

Weibe E. Bijker and John Law (eds.) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Socio‑Technical Change

Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy

Robert Proctor, Cancer Wars

Cynthia Cockburn  and Susan Ormrod,  Gender and Technology in the Making

Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch, The  Social Construction of Technological Systems

October 5:  Anthropology and sociology

Common readings:

**Fortun, Kim. 2001. Advocacy after Bhopal, Chapter 4, “Working Perspectives.”

**Rapp, Rayna. 1999. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus, Chapter 5, “Waiting and Watching.”

**MacKenzie, Donald. 1996. Knowing Machines, Chapter 10, “Tacit Knowledge and the Uninvention of Nuclear Weapons,” with Graham Spinardi.

Select one of the following:

Downey, Gary L., and Joseph Dumit (Eds.). 1998. Cyborgs and Citadels: Anthropological Interventions in Emerging Sciences and Technologies.

Escobar, Arturo. 1995. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World.

Fortun, Kim 2001. Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders.

MacKenzie, Donald. 1996. Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change.

Pfaffenberger, Brian, “Technological Dramas.” Science, Technology and   

Rapp, Rayna. 1999. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America.

Suchman, Lucy. 1987. Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication.

Willis, Paul. 1981. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs.

October 12: No class

October 19:  Historical perspectives on technology

            Select one of the following:

Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men

Ronell, Avital, Ronell,  The Telephone Book: Technology, Schitzophrenia, Electric Speech.

William Cronin, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.

Venus Green, 2001. Race on the Line: Gender, Labor and Technology in the Bell System, 1880-1980.

Rayvon Fouche, Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J.

Historical perspectives on technology (cont.)

Gabriele Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II.

David Mindell, Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control and Computing before Cybernetics

Jeffrey Meikle, American Plastic : A Cultural History

David Nye, American Technological Sublime

Staudenmaier, John. 1985. Technology’s Storytellers: Reweaving the Human Fabric.

October 26:  Technology and critical theory

            Common readings:

** Richard Bernstein, "Heidegger's Silence? Ethos and Technology," in The New Constellation

Andrew Feenberg, Questionning Technology (entire)

Optional Readings:

            Lewis Mumford, The Myth of the Machine:  The Pentagon of Power

            Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society or Propaganda

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

            Martin Zimmerman, Heidegger's Confrontation with Modernity

            Richard Sclove, Democracy and Technology

Langdon Winner, The Whale and the Reactor

Darin Barney, Prometheus Wired

Week of November 2:   Technology and gender

[we will reschedule the date for this class to avoid conflict with election eve]

Common reading:  Donna Haraway, Modest-Witness@Second-Millenium.Femaleman-Meets-Oncomouse: Feminism and Techoscience (selections)

Choose one of the following:

Anne Balsamo. Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women.

 Francesca Bray Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China.

Linnda Caporael, et al, “Tinkering with gender.” In Research in Philosophy and Technology. Vol. 13. Technology and Feminism, edited by J. Rothschild. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Cynthia Cockburn  and Susan Ormrod,  Gender and Technology in the Making

Kim Fortun. Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders.

Adrian Forty. Objects of Desire.

Eileen Green  and Alison Adam. 2001. Virtual Gender.

 Venus Green, Race on the Line: Gender, Labor and Technology in the Bell System, 1880-1980.

Nelly Oudshoorn. Beyond the Natural Body:  An Archeology of Sex Hormones.

Carole Tavrus The Mismeasure of Woman.

This week will also include individual consultations on the progress of your term projects in separate office hours.

November 9:  Global perspectives

            Common readings:  Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development (selections)

            Choose one of the following:

      Francesca Bray, Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China.

Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society

Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity

Ron Eglash, African Fractals: modern computing and indigenous design

Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace.

Alondra Nelson, Thuy Linh N. Tu, et al, Technicolor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life

Peña, Devon Gerardo1997. The Terror of the Machine: Technology, Work, Gender and Ecology of the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Paul Willis, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

November 16:  Information technologies

Common readings:

**Linnda Caporael,  “Anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism: Two faces of the human machine.” Computers in Human Behavior 2:215-234

Langdon Winner, “Mythinformation,” in The Whale and the Reactor

Choose one of the following:

Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.

Ron Eglash, African Fractals: modern computing and indigenous design

Batya Friedman, (ed.). Human Values and the Design of Computer Technology.

Eileenn Green and Alison Adam. 2001. Virtual Gender.

Stefan  Helmreich, Silicon Second Nature: Culturing Artificial Life in a Digital World.

Friedrich Kettler,  Discourse Networks, 1800 / 1900.

Beth Kolko, (ed.)  Race in Cyberspace

Sarah Kiesler (ed.) Culture of the Internet.

Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.

Pierre Levy,  Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace.

Pippa Norris,  Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide.

Lucy Suchman,  Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication.

November 23: No class

November 30: Student presentations

December 7:   Student presentations.  Take home final distributed in class.

December 10: Term paper and take home final are due in Mr. Winner’s box in the STS office no later than 4:00 p.m.