Sociology 415
In the previous section, we learned that the sociology of technology addresses issues of technology development and dissemination within three areas: societal well-being, equitable distribution of risks, and human agency. Because explorations into societal well-being and equitable distribution of risks typically fall within the domain of professional sociologists, Sociology 415 focuses its attention primarily upon human agency. Sociology 415 covers risk evaluations, consumer perceptions, technology communication, social issues of public policy formation, and strategies for gaining either the adoption or rejection of agricultural technologies. That is, the course addresses issues that are likely to have the most pragmatic applications to commercial and public sector endeavors outside the domain of professional sociology.
Course Outline
Sociology 415 is organized within three units.
Unit One--Science, Technology, and Society--covers relationships among science, technology, and society, the philosophy of technology, the philosophy of science, and social philosophy. With these philosophical issues in mind, the remaining two units discuss applied topics in risk assessment, management, and communication.
Unit Two--Risk Assessment and Management --describes seven approaches to evaluating risk. It also addresses issues of public policy formation, public discourse about complex, controversial technologies, and the role of the media in risk assessment and management.
Unit Three--Risk Communication--reviews techniques for and ethical issues regarding communicating with the public about complex and controversial technologies. It presents strategies to gain adoption or rejection of new technologies.
Each unit contains multiple sections. Web pages for each section include a Compass inset box with Key Questions and Examples of key questions as they relate to the sampler technologies. The Key Questions presented at the beginning of each section clarify the purpose for learning the material in that section. Each section includes also one or more Applications in Context inset boxes that give examples of how to apply the course material, as related to the sampler technologies.
In general, we want to ask:
- What are the relationships among science, technology, and society?
- What should be the role of the sociologist in understanding and improving the quality of these relationships?
- How can the sociologist facilitate well-reasoned and respectful public decision-making about complex and controversial technologies?
- How can the sociologist influence the adoption or rejection of technology for the well-being of society?
Unit One: Science, Technology, and Society
A. Relationships Among Science, Technology, and Society
How do science and technology affect the well-being of social systems?
How do social institutions and public policies affect science and technology?
In this section, we learn the importance of public attention to relationships among science, technology, and society. We learn how economic, cultural, and political features of society affect and are affected by science and technology. How does science and technology development work in practice? How does science affect and how is it affected by public perceptions and policies? What are some important take-home messages for all citizens in a democracy regarding the enterprises of science and technology development?
B. Philosophy of Technology, Science, and Society
Philosophy of Technology
What are the ways in which people think about technology?
In what ways do differing philosophies of technology affect technology development and policy?
What are current paradigms (i.e., broad, philosophical perspectives) about technology? Is more technology always a good thing or always a bad thing? Are current paradigms leading Americans to make decisions about technology that later will create significant problems for our society? A quotation I like to use to justify the content of Sociology 415 is, "The choice of technology, whether for a rich or poor country, is probably the most important decision to be made" (George McRobie, Conservation Letter, October, 1976). Even if it is not the most important decision to be made, certainly technology choice is critical to societal well-being. The paradigm citizens use to evaluate technology--to decide what is good and bad technology--can have a significant effect on the well-being of future generations.
Philosophy of Science
What is science?
What are the relationships among science and society?
If we are going to learn how to significantly influence public decisions regarding new technologies, we must have a good sense of the strengths and limitations of science. We will need to become wiser about what science can accomplish and the many ways in which it fails to achieve objective analysis of technology. That is, if we are going to learn to gain adoption or rejection of technology, we need to know our product; we need to know how scientific research and technology development take place.
The conclusion we inevitably will arrive at is that it is impossible for scientific research, and therefore for technology development, to be unbiased and objective. Knowing this inevitability will give us a sound philosophical perspective by which to view technology and public opinions about technology.
Social Philosophy
What are the fundamental principles of sociology?
How can these principles be used to understand linkages among science, technology, and society?
Sociology is guided by three paradigms: social structure, critical, and human agency. These paradigms are represented above in the description of three approaches that might be taken in organizing this course. The social structure paradigm focuses upon societal structure and functioning, the critical paradigm attends to power relationships and inequalities, and the human agency paradigm emphasizes the role of citizens in shaping their society. This course focuses upon human agency. But it includes sections that discuss social structure and critical evaluations and it incorporates the perspectives of social structure and critical thinking into its presentation of risk communication and the diffusion of innovations.
Unit Two: Risk Assessment and Management
A. Risk Assessment
What are the approaches used to assess risk?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach?
The materials presented thus far provide the philosophical basis to begin the applied unit of Sociology 415. We start by learning seven approaches to technology risk assessment. This information is critical because we need to know the source of risk assessments and the strengths and weaknesses of each source. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to risk assessment helps us understand public responses and how to tailor risk communication messages to fit different types of risk assessment. Importantly, as responsible change agents, we need to know the limitations of different types of risk assessment. The key point of this section is that technology should be evaluated simultaneously from multiple approaches wherein each approach might yield different findings about the wisdom of adopting a technology.
B. Critiques of Risk Assessment
How does the public evaluate risk?
Can we assess risk better?
John Adams, in his book, Risk, turns our attention to understanding public perceptions of risk. We learn that risk is not easily measured, agreed upon by diverse audiences, or managed. In asking, "Can we assess risk better?" Adams is not so much posing a problem that has a one best solution as challenging us to become more involved in understanding and evaluating relationships among science, technology, and society.
C. Risk and Public Policy
What are some pragmatic and ethical approaches for a public to take in evaluating risk and setting risk policy?
K.S. Shrader-Frechette, in Risk and Rationality, asks, "How does a society evaluate and regulate risks associated with technology?" In answering this question, she explores conflict between science and populist movements, the contrasting philosophies of cultural relativists and naive positivists, false dichotomies between "actual" and "perceived" risk, and problems with quantitative risk assessment. Shrader-Frechette concludes her book by presenting workable risk management principles.
E. The Media and Risk Management
How does the media affect public decisions about new technologies?
What should be the role of the media regarding public discourse about new technologies?
Dr. Eric Abbott, from the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communications, conducts research on the risk communication cycle, public views of technology, and communication strategies for presenting high risk technology to the public. Dr. Abbott uses the example of food safety to describe how the mass media views public concern about technology and how the media and scientists can best present controversial topics to the public.
D. Risk Communication: Theories
Is the quality of the "social fabric" at risk as a result of contentious public discourse about complex technologies?
Can society flourish in the "risk-assessment battlefield"?
Paul Slovic, a psychologist, and William Freudenburg, a sociologist, express concerns about the quality of public discourse about complex and controversial technologies. They wonder if the social fabric of society might be harmed by contentious, overly adversarial public debate about new technologies. They discuss obligations of societal institutions to facilitate well-reasoned discourse that is respectful of the opinions of others to alleviate negative social consequences on the "risk-assessment battlefield."
Unit Three: Risk Communication
A. Risk Communication: Applications
What is the best approach for communicating about technology and risk to the public?
What are effective procedures for reducing/creating public outrage about a new technology?
This section describes guidelines for risk communication. Risk is conceptualized as hazard + outrage, where hazard is assessment of technical risk and outrage is public responses to hazard that reflect trust, perceived fairness, and other nontechnical issues. Suggestions are offered about how to present technical risk to the public, how to reduce outrage, and how to manage risk communication about complex and controversial technology.
B. The Diffusion of Innovations
How can the change agent influence the adoption of new technologies?
What are the ethical obligations of the change agent?
If public opinions about technology cannot be swayed by risk communication alone, then what are approaches to gaining adoption/rejection of technology? In this section, we learn the processes that take place in public decision-making about technology and risk. We learn the time sequence of events that occur leading to adoption/rejection decisions. As part of this education, we learn how to influence the adoption/rejection of technology.
The principle textbook, The Diffusion of Innovations, Fifth Edition, written by Everett Rogers, describes procedures for gaining adoption of technology. The same procedures can be used to gain rejection of technology. In some cases, the sociologist might believe that technology adoption is desirable for the well-being of a society (e.g., adoption of condom use as protection from HIV infection) and in other cases might strive for technology rejection (e.g., rejection of dangerous and illegal drug use). Other times, the sociologist might not have sufficient evidence to claim that either adoption or rejection necessarily will make society better (e.g., it would be difficult to claim, from a scientific perspective, that American society would be better or worse off if laws allowing abortions were banned). We will learn strategies that can be used to influence public opinion regarding technology decisions. The choice of whether to seek adoption or rejection is up to you. What we will focus upon, in addition to learning diffusion strategies, is learning the ethics of using diffusion strategies.
Course Summary
In Sociology 415 we will learn about relationships among science, technology, and society. We will learn how philosophical paradigms affect societal choices about technology. We will learn what types of messages are effective at what stages of the diffusion process in influencing public opinion. We will learn how to gain adoption/rejection of complex and controversial technologies.
Related Courses
These ISU courses provide instruction on topics covered in Sociology 415.
ECON 460: Agricultural, Food, and Trade Policy. Description and analysis of economic problems of U.S. agriculture. Explanation and economic analysis of government policies and programs to develop agriculture, conserve agricultural resources, address consumer food concerns, stabilize farm prices, and raise farm incomes. The influence of macropolicy, world economy, and international trade on U.S. agriculture.
JLMC 424: Public Relations Campaigns. Development of public relations and corporate communications campaigns for business and social institutions. Projects involve budgeting, media selection, campaign strategy, and creative execution.
PHIL 343: Philosophy of Technology. Conditions under which technological innovations contribute to human emancipation, relationship of technology and democracy, utility and limits of technical rationality, and problems of ensuring that benefits of technological advance are communally shared.
PHIL 480: Controversies in Science. Philosophical treatment of a branch of science that has (or has had) significant social, political, religious and/or moral implications.
