Social Shaping Perspectives

8 important questions on Social Shaping Perspectives

What is a social shaping perspective?

When technology is shaped ideas, interests and politics point to the contribution of creative users, political network and cultural imagination.

Society affects technology by economics, politics and culture.

What are the three social shaping perspectives?

Large Technical Systems (LTS)
Actor Network Theory (ANT)
Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

What are the different stages of SCOT?

1. Interpretative flexibility, different relevant social groups (RSG) give the different meaning to technology. Design Flexibility, multiple ways of constructing technologies.
2. Closure, Rhetorical closure and Redefinition of the problem.
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What does Rhetorical Closure entail?

When social groups see the problem as being solved

What does redefinition of the problem entail?

Other questions/problems occur and then solved.

What are the shortcomings of SCOT?

- Too extreme, a one sided approach

- Does not explain how users shape technology
- Social resistence ignored

Compare Social shaping to the traditional theory

SCOT: Multi-directional process, technology shaped by social factors, design has ethical implications.
Traditional: Linear process, technology is autonomous and shapes society, design is neutral.

What is Feenbergs perspective?

Feenberg makes us love technology again, technology changes the world more than it changes the actor. He claims that the technical and the social cannot be separated without losing sight of important dimensions. The essence of technology has been main focus, as being rational control, efficiency and something independent of social life.

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