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Sociotechnology (short for "social technology") is the study of processes on the intersection of society and technology. [1] Vojinović and Abbott define it as "the study of processes in which the social and the technical are indivisibly combined". [2]
The central concept defining a technological society is technique. Technique is different from machines, technology, or procedures for attaining an end. "In our technological society, technique is the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity." [1]
A Sociotechnical System, therefore, often describes a 'thing' (an interlinked, systems based mixture of people, technology and their environment). Social technical means that technology, which by definition, should not be allowed to be the controlling factor when new work systems are implemented.
The importance of stone tools, circa 2.5 million years ago, is considered fundamental in the human development in the hunting hypothesis. [citation needed]Primatologist, Richard Wrangham, theorizes that the control of fire by early humans and the associated development of cooking was the spark that radically changed human evolution. [2]
Manifest functions are the consequences that people see, observe or even expect. It is explicitly stated and understood by the participants in the relevant action. The manifest function of a rain dance, according to Merton in his 1957 Social Theory and Social Structure, is to produce rain, and this outcome is intended and desired by people participating in the ritual.
Social construction of technology (SCOT) is a theory within the field of science and technology studies. Advocates of SCOT—that is, social constructivists—argue that technology does not determine human action, but that rather, human action shapes technology. They also argue that the ways a technology is used cannot be understood without ...
Technological determinism is a reductionist theory in assuming that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. [1]
Closely related to social technology is the term social engineering. Thorstein Veblen used 'social engineering' in 1891, but suggested that it was used earlier. [16] In the 1930s both 'social engineering and 'social technology' became associated with the large scale socio-economic policies of the Soviet Union.