Sociology and Technology
You have read about the three sampler technologies selected to start the course. Each technology offers promise for greatly improving food safety, the economy, and the health and well-being of people worldwide. Each one also raises concerns about potential negative effects on the environment and on our health and well-being.
Given inevitable dilemmas that must be faced in evaluating relationships among science, technology, and society, the public is faced with fundamental questions they expect will be addressed by sociologists in their efforts to shape societal institutions in ways that promote productivity, efficiency, and equitable distribution of resources. Answering these questions defines the research, teaching, and outreach agendas for sociologists.
Some key questions posed to sociologists are:
- What are the costs and benefits of adopting or rejecting a particular technology?
- In what ways is technology development affected by power relationships in society?
- What are the best types of technologies for the economy, for the environment, for families?
- What are the correct ethical guidelines to take in evaluating new technologies?
- What types of decision-making processes can we expect the public to engage in as they evaluate new technologies?
- What can be done and what should be done to help citizens address the complex issues involved in evaluating new technologies?
- Can contentious public discourse erode public confidence in science and technology? If so, what actions might facilitate thoughtful and respectful decision-making about new technologies?
- Which technologies likely will be accepted by the public and which ones likely will be rejected?
- What strategies can be used to influence the public to either adopt or reject a new technology?
Possible Approaches to the Sociology of Technology
The examples listed above reflect the types of questions posed to sociologists. What, then, should be the structure of this course in exploring them? Consider three not mutually exclusive approaches that can be taken to organize this course.
Societal Structure and Functioning
One approach would be to focus our attention upon understanding how technologies can significantly affect the structure and functioning of societal institutions.
- What have been the effects of birth control procedures on the size of families, on the strength of family ties, and on the meaning of family in American society?
- How have petroleum-based production systems affected environmental quality?
- Have environmentally-friendly production systems improved environmental quality and what negative effects, if any, have they had on productivity and efficiency?
- What have been the societal consequences of the development of cell phones, computers, antibiotics, new construction materials, and on and on....
That is, are we better off today than we were yesterday? And can we improve the living conditions for future generations? These types of issues motivate sociologists to investigate relationships among science, technology, and society.
By the way, sociologists view technology more broadly than the average person. To a sociologist, "feminism," and "global thinking," to name two examples of nonmaterial innovations, along with material innovations, are considered to be technology. Environmentalism, for example, is a nonmaterial technology important to understanding the structure and functioning of America.
Distribution of Costs and Benefits
All new technologies have some negative consequences for everyone and bring about less access to societal resources for some. That is, it is inevitable that technology is flawed and, given that some persons always will have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, technology adoption always will create some "losers."
- Can we anticipate negative consequences of new technologies?
- Are negative consequences distributed, intentionally or unintentionally, in an inequitable manner?
- Do powerful segments of society manipulate technology development and dissemination in such a manner as to exploit resources from the less powerful and thereby unevenly distribute negative consequences to them?
- What types of societal-level policies might be instituted so as to mitigate inequitable distribution of negative consequences?
Thus, this approach to investigating linkages among science, technology, and society focuses on how power relationships influence technology development and risk management.
Human Agency
Sociological interest in human agency focuses on citizen involvement in technology policy. The central questions regard the role of the active citizen in shaping technology policy and obligations of societal institutions to solicit and respond to citizen input.
- How do citizens (oftentimes, we will use the word consumers) influence the adoption or rejection of new technologies?
- How do consumers react to hearing information about new agricultural technologies?
- Do citizens behave rationally in evaluating complex technologies?
- What types of communication messages are most (and least) effective in conveying complex information to consumers?
- What are effective strategies for gaining adoption of complex and controversial agricultural technologies?
- What is the role of the social scientist in facilitating well-reasoned public decision making about complex technologies?
- Can controversial decision-making take place in a manner that respects the opinions of others?
In summary, a focus on human agency involves understanding public responses and facilitating well-reasoned and respectful discourse regarding technology. This type of inquiry provides the scientist not only with an understanding of these issues but theoretical and applied knowledge for acting as a change agent; that is, as someone who helps influence the adoption or rejection of complex and controversial technologies.
