Technology and Society

Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.

ISBN 0262600730   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780262600736 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1021 Publisher MIT Press Ltd   Published in Cambridge, Mass. Imprint MIT Press   Series title Inside Technology Series Format Paperback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 18 Nov 2008   Width (mm) 178 Library of Congress 2008002813   Spine width (mm) 27 DEWEY 303.483   Academic level Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21   Interest age From 18 Pages 648

1		"Technology and Social Justice" by Freeman J. Dyson		5
2		"The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster		13
3		"The Prolongation of Life" by Francis Fukuyama		37
4		"Reproductive Ectogenesis: The Third Era of Human Reproduction and Some Moral Consequences" by Stellan Welin		51
5		"Nanotechnology: Shaping the World Atom by Atom"		63
6		"Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" by Bill joy		69
7		"Do Machines Make History?" by Robert L. Heilbroner		97
8		"The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts" by Trevor J. Pinch and Wiebe Bijker		107
9		"Technological Momentum" by Thomas P. Hughes		141
10		"Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts" by Bruno Latour		151
11		"Code Is Law" by Lawrence Lessig		181
12		"The Intersection of Culture, Gender, and Technology" by Patrick D. Hopkins		195
13		"Do Artifacts Have Politics?" by Langdon Winner		209
14		"Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots" by George Ritzer		227
15		White by Richard Dyer		257
16		"Manufacturing Gender in Commercial and Military Cockpit Design" by Rachel N. Weber		265
17		"Pas de Trois: Science, Technology, and the Marketplace" by Daniel Sarewitz		275
18		"Amish Technology: Reinforcing Values and Building Community" by Jameson M. Wetmore		297
19		"Will Small Be Beautiful? Making Policies for Our Nanotech Future" by W. Patrick McCray		323
20		"Sociotechnical Complexity: Redesigning a Shielding Wall" by Dominique Vinck		355
21		"The Naked Launch: Assigning Blame for the Challenger Explosion" by Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch		369
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" Technology and Society is a highly readable book, mostly useful at the undergraduate level for its applied focus on future and values. The different textual genres serve well the ambition to make STS perspectives relevant in policy and in sociocultural negotiations about technopolitics. Technology and Society will encourage its audience to become concerned about its global sociotechnical future, and hopefully to feel empowered for this task." Isabelle Dussauge Technology and Culture "Johnson and Wetmore's collection of papers on the interplay between technology and society is the most comprehensive I've seen, exposing just how rich, complex, multidimensional, and vital that interplay actually is. Be prepared for quite an intellectual ride!" Wm. A. Wulf , Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, and President Emeritus, National Academy of Engineering

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