Social Shaping of Technology vs Technological Determinism.

Williams, R. & Edge, R. (1997). What is the Social Shaping of Technology?. The Research Centre for Social Science.
These authors criticise the exaggeration of the inherent qualities of technology. What is SST? What is technological determinism? What does SST offer in contrast?

SST refers to the “Social shaping of technology”, which basically means how social factors have a role in shaping new technological developments, rather than studying the impact that a particular type of technology may have on society. This often involves looking at socio-economic factors that influence particular trends and identifying areas which are important in maintaining a technological community that is democratic and accessible to its citizens.

“SST is seen as playing a positive role in integrating natural and social science concerns; in offering a greater understanding of the relationship between scientific excellence, technological innovation and economic and social well-being; and in broadening the policy agenda, for example in the promotion and management of technological change (European Science Foundation/Economic and Social Research Council 1991, Newby 1992).”

It also involves how policy regarding technological development is implemented through consideration of scientific, social and economic demands rather than the neo-classical tradition which tend to have a linear a focuses such as market demand for a product. Instead it attempts to incorporate or construct frameworks which have its origins in a variety of intellectual traditions.

One of the important points raised in the article is the academic movement towards understanding what these social factors are and implementing new frameworks to shed light on older studies as well. The foundation of SST is based on the premise that technological developments occur as a series of choices made by the innovator. The concern of SST studies is the identification of these social factors that inform these choices and their social implications.

SST arose as a criticism of traditional literature which emphasised the concept of Technological determinism as being central to its analytical framework.

In the lecture Kent describes how Technological determinism works around some basic assumptions, which are now considered to be outdated such as “Class development is driven by how things are produced, Technology is apolitical, we were always going to have them. And identifies how the “moral dimension is removed from these kinds of things - the raw technology” is problematic. Asserting that “Its an inaccurate assumption because it prevents us from seeing our responsibility/ is outdated.”

"SST stands in contrast to post-Enlightenment traditions which did not
problematise technological change, but limited the scope of enquiry to
monitoring the social adjustments it saw as being required by technological
progress."

The article also identifies several shortcomings of these approaches and describes the importance of the formation of new and relevant frameworks which take these failings into consideration.

The Confession: A Novel