Class Discussions:
"The Seamless Web" can be seen as related to the debate between formative approaches and substantive approaches. See how Polanyi discussed economics.
Technology is seen as a category, but it has an undeniable social dimension. The material dimension is entangled with social relations.
Technology, Society, and Science are analytical categories. Scholar have tried to analyze the relations between Science and Society, Science and Technology, and Technology and Society:
- The SCOT scholars have argued that these categories are inter-related, but their insistence proves that these categories are currently separated.
- It pushes the problem further. Einstein: "You cannot find the solution at the level of the problem." As Langdon Winner's criticism goes, artifacts gave technology stability. The material dimension has its own determinism.
Most interesting terms: interpretive flexibility and technological frame (because it forms an internal logic; it suggests configuration. "Frame" indicates the historical dimension, and "technological" is related to cosmology and ontology).
Technological systems are prone to automation. It's not merely material but mechanic.
Questions to think about
- How is the technological frame related to cosmology/ontology?
- How is interpretative flexibility related to affordances?