Economics and Technological Change - Literature review Example

How does the social shaping perspective help us to understand the social and organizational implications of technological change? Introduction The influence of technology on social life is tremendous in recent times. The arrival of digital technologies and internet has revolutionized social life in one way or another. Social shaping technology perspective has gained a lot of popularity in recent times, especially in the UK and Europe because of its importance in advancing social sciences. It helps people to get more awareness about the relationship between science, technology and innovation with social wellbeing and policy making. It should be noted that the ultimate aim of any innovation or technological advancement is to improve social life or life standards of the people. In other words, technology is used to shape social life in one way or another. Therefore, it is difficult to think about a social life that is free from the influence of technology at the moment. According to Williams and Edge (1996), Social Shaping of Technology (SST) is a concept that claims that there are choices (conscious or unconscious) inherent in every individual that force him to think about innovation and creativity. The social shaping perspective emerged from a long-standing critique of crude forms of technological determinism (Edge, 1988). There is no point in thinking that innovation and creativity are generated only in the minds of wise people alone. In fact, these things are inherited in almost every human being. However, some forces are necessary to bring out the creativity and innovative ideas from the minds of people. As per the scientific principles, inertia is a human tendency. In other words, human has a tendency to stay in his present state as much as possible. A force is necessary to change his present state. Most of the people keep innovative ideas in their mind as long as the circumstances demand its use. Circumstantial forces usually help people to bring out their ideas. According to MacKenzie and Wajcman (1999), the social shaping of technology in most of the cases is a process in which there is no single dominant shaping force. In other words, multiple forces usually contribute to the social shaping of technology. This paper discusses how the social shaping perspective helps us to understand the social and organizational implications of technological change? How the social shaping perspective helps us to understand the social and organizational implications of technological change? Technology is changing day by day because of the rapid advancements in science. For example, analogue signals were used for the propagation of TV signals in the past. However, these signals were unable to provide better viewing abilities to the people. As a result of that people realised the necessity of new or updated technology for better viewing experience of television programs. Thus digital technology has been invented and introduced in the TV signal propagation and reception. Even though the signal quality of digital transmission is extremely good, high definition television sets, LCD TVs or LED TVs are required for better viewing experience. Traditional television sets are incapable of reproducing high quality images received from digital transmission. In short the necessity for new technology is arising as time goes on. That is why MacKenzie and Wajcman (1999) mentioned that in the case of shaping of technology, shaping should not be understood as always being direct and conscious. In fact the circumstances are forcing the shaping of technology. The rapid advancements and popularity in internet technologies have brought some new necessities in the social life. For example Lenert (2004) pointed out why Canadian Internet Company, iCraveTV, captured broadcast television signals off the air and retransmitted them over the internet. He has pointed out that the necessity of broadcasting television signals through internet was arisen mainly because of the pressure from the social groups. It should be noted that modern generation is spending a lot of time in front of the internet. In fact they are not getting enough time for TV watching. Such people can still access television programs if it is broadcasted through internet. “The example of iCraveTV directs attention to questions about the interactions of domestic and transnational forces in the shaping of internet and World Wide Web technologies (Lenert, 2004, 235). The social shaping perspective says two things:1) the nature of technologies and the direction of change were unproblematic or pre-determined and 2) technological change produces social and organisational change (Williams and Edge, 1996). The first argument cannot be accepted fully. It should be noted that the development of nuclear power technology was for constructive purposes. However, it is widely misused for destructive purposes at present. Even internet is misused in many ways nowadays. Therefore, there is no point in arguing that the nature of technologies and the direction of change were unproblematic or pre-determined. At the same time, the second argument seems to be more acceptable since all the new technologies developed in this world have affected the society and organizations in one way or another. According to MacKenzie and J. Wajcman (1985), technology and organisation cannot be treated as entirely separate categories. As per their views, the social settings of organisations shape technologies and vice versa. The mutual relationship between technology and organisation cannot be neglected. No organization, profit making or non-profit making, can function effectively without adequate technologies. For example, at least computers and office equipment are required even for a non-profit making organization. For profit making organizations, technology plays a vital role in increasing their profit. Inadequate or outdated technologies would never help an organization to develop properly whereas new technologies and innovative ideas help an organization to conquer the business world. The example of Apple Inc. is relevant here. It should be noted that Apple Company was on the verge of destruction in the 80s and 90s mainly because of the competition from arch rival Microsoft. However, the company was able to introduce some innovative products such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc at the beginning of 2000. The rest is history now. Apple Inc. became the most valuable technology company at present. Moreover, they pushed Microsoft far behind and became the second biggest company in the world in terms of market capitalization (Kim, 2010). The case of Apple Inc. clearly reveals that innovative ideas and advanced technologies would help an organization to develop properly in this heavily competitive business world. It should be noted that Apple was able to realise the need of the society for new technologies in time. It is worth to remember that Microsoft has introduced tablet computers a decade before the introduction of Apple’s iPad. However, Microsoft’s tablets failed to conquer the market at that time since the need for tablet computers at that time was extremely low. At the same time, Apple was able to read the need for tablet computers in the market or society at the right time. In other words, societal needs are changing day by day. The unpopular products in the past may become popular now because of the changes in social life and the advancements in technology. Microsoft’s failure and the Apple’s success remind us that technology should work in line with the social needs in order to help organizations to develop properly. It is therefore illogical to treat technologies and their social contexts as separate entities. The definition of technology must incorporate the social context in which it emerges and becomes embedded (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1985). According to Winner (1993), as in the case of other areas of social life, masculinity is dominated in the technology world also. In his opinion, the technology world failed to see womens involvement in production and in the consumption of many technologies. For example, a substantial portion of the mobile phone users in this world are females. In highly patriarchal societies such as Saudi Arabia, women use Facebook and Twitter like modern technologies to express and share their view and ideas to the public. It is impossible for them to speak publicly against any of the traditions in their society. At the same time, many of the women in oppressed societies are using modern technologies to improve their living standards. In fact technology helps not only the oppressed women community but also the oppressed men community as well. For example, the recent revolutions in Egypt and Libya are rightly labelled as Social network or Facebook revolutions. This is because of the fact that the energy and motivation for the people in these countries for conducting a successful protest against the autocratic administrations were obtained from social networks. It should be noted that while communicating with people in the democratic world, the people in Egypt and Libya got more awareness about the extent of social injustice they were facing in their country. In short, social network technologies helped the people in some countries knowingly or unknowingly to conduct successful missions against autocracy. Radical Relativism is a philosophical theory which claims that there is no absolute truth. It says that the meaning of truth for one person need not be the same for another person (Prezi, 2015). For example, there are many thieves and corrupted people in this world who argue that they engage in robbery and corruption activities in order to attain social justice. They justify their activities citing the example of social injustices prevailing in a society. In their opinion, the power and wealth of the society should be equally distributed. Otherwise, it is moral and ethical to steal the wealth of rich people. Radical relativism encourages such a profound scepticism about existing social structures of power and interest (Winner, 1993). According to Winner (1980), technologies are not neutral, but are fostered by groups to preserve or alter social relations. Because of cultural reasons or social customs, the technology that is used extensively in one part of the world need not be used in another part of the world. For example, censoring of information is taking place in China. As a result of that, Google forced to stop its operations in China recently. China believes that modern technologies such as Google’s search engine would cause many threats to the communist administration there. As a result of that, China does not want to use Google’s search engine technology there. Similar to that in China, there are many other autocratic administrations in this world. All such administrations enforce some restrictions on free flow of information through modern technological channels such as Facebook, Twitter etc. There is no point in simply arguing that technologies are socially shaped without citing the shaping forces of technology (Coombs et al., 1987). For example, it is believed that Iran is currently trying to achieve nuclear arsenal. The necessity arouse for Iran to develop nuclear weapons because of the threats it faces from America and Israel. In other words, Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power is shaped by the external forces such as the threats from other countries. On the other hand, there are many other countries that are not much interested in developing nuclear arsenal. For example, Spain or Italy are not much worried about developing nuclear arsenal since their problems are more related to economics rather than military or politics. In short, the social situations, economic realities and political situations force societies to determine which type of technology is more suited for them. In seeking to grasp the complexity of the socio-economic processes involved in technological innovation, SST has been forced to go beyond simplistic forms of social determinism which, like technological determinism, see technology as reflecting a single rationality - for example an economic imperative, or the political imperative of a ruling elite”. For example a critique has been made of the dominant neo-classical tradition of economic analysis, with its assumptions that technologies will emerge readily in response to market demands (Williams and Edge, 1996, p.866). The evolution of new technology is ultimately dependent on market demands as well as social, political and economic climate in a society. For example, economic and political climate in China is more stable compared to that in other countries. At the same time, social situations in China are not so good. As a result of that, China is developing technologies suitable to counter the challenges raised by the social groups. On the other hand India and Pakistan are looking at each other suspiciously. Both these countries believe that the opposite is trying to create issues and problems against them. As a result of that, these two countries are spending a lot for the development of war technologies and also for the purchase of new weapons. Countries such as Greece are currently struggling because of economic problems. Such countries are trying to develop innovative ideas in the economic circles with the help of technology. In short, the development and implementation of new technologies in a society is highly dependent on its social, political and economic climates. Conclusions The influence of technology on present social life is immense. Technology can bring many changes in the social, economic and political circles. It is not necessary that all technologies affect human life positively alone. Some technologies affect social life positively while other technologies affect social life negatively. In any case, it is logical to say that we are living in a technology dominated world at present. The purpose of the development of all new technologies is to improve the human life in one way or another. However, there are instances in which new technologies did succeed in increasing the threats against the survival of human generation in this world. If used properly, technology and innovation can help human generation to lead a more civilized and advanced life in this world. References Coombs, R., P. Saviotti and V. Walsh, 1987, Economics and Technological Change (Macmillan, Basingstoke). Edge, D., 1988, The social shaping of technology, Edinburgh PICT Working Paper No. 1, Edinburgh University. Lenert, E. 2004. A social shaping perspective on the development of the world wide web The case of iCraveTV. New Media & Society April 2004 vol. 6 no. 2 235-258 Kim, R. 2010. Apple Passes Microsoft As Top Tech Company, [Online] Available at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/BUDJ1DL0IU.DTL [Accessed 28 January 2015] MacKenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. 1985, The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got Its Hum (Open University Press, Milton Keynes). MacKenzie, D. Wajcman, J. 1999. The Social Shaping of Technology Publisher: McGraw Hill Education / Open University; 2 edition (June 1, 1999) Prezi, 2015. Radical relativism. [Online] Available at: https://prezi.com/ong1j0utqnoo/radical-relativism/ [Accessed 28 January 2015] Williams R and Edge D. 1996. The Social Shaping of Technology, Research Policy, Vol. 25, 1996, pp. 865–899 Winner, L., 1980, Do Artefacts have Politics? Daedalus 109, 121-136. Winner, L., 1993, Upon opening the black box and finding it empty: social constructivism and the philosophy of technology, Science, Technology & Human Values 18(3), 362-378. Read More