Social Construction of

Technology
WIEBE E. BIJKER
Meaning of constructivist
Scientific facts seen as being constructed rather than as intrinsic
properties of those facts and machines
• Social constructionism holds that individuals and groups produce
their own conceptions of reality, and that knowledge itself is the
product of social dynamics.
• Reality is socially constructed and that these processes of social
construction should be the object of the sociology of knowledge
• social construction of mental illness, deviance, gender, law and class.
Two branches
• Research to study technological change in society.
• Theory about development of technology and it’s relation to
technology
Mild and Radical
• Mild variety stress the need to take social context into account when
dealing with development of science and technology.
• According to the radical proponents science and technology is socially
constructed.
• In other words, the truth of scientific statements and the technical
working of machines cannot be explained as being derived from
nature but as constituted in social processes
Factors that lead to emergence of SCOT

1. Science–technology–society (STS) movement

• Scientific literacy and interdisciplinary programs
2. The sociology of scientific knowledge
• Science as a social activity dealing with social conditions and effects of science
3. History of technology
• Researchers from these three traditions convened in an international
workshop in 1984 in the Netherlands. The subsequent volume from
that workshop, edited by an STS-er, a historian of technology and a
sociologist of scientific knowledge has been heralded as the starting-
point of the social construction of technology.
Changing dynamics
• Social construction of technology developed like any normal scientific
program: its agenda, central concepts, and even unit of analysis
shifted in response to research findings and discussions among
scholars.
• In that sense, one can distinguish early and late (or recent) versions of
the social construction of technology.
Technological Determinism
• Technological determinism assumes that a society's technology
determines the development of its social structure and cultural
values.
• Effects
• Technology develops autonomously
• Technology determines to an important degree societal development
Problem with technological determinism
• It entails a teleological, linear and one-dimensional view of
technological development
• Suggests that social and political interventions in the course of
technology are impossible
The Theory of SCOT
• Similar to Hegel’s dialect and extend the concept of paradigm shift
out of pure science.
• Evolution of any artifact consist of three steps
• It involves “relevant social groups” and interpretive flexibility”
• It involves “stabilization” and closure
• Broader theoretical frameworks develops about the resultant technological
frame which shape thinking and acting of members of relevant social group
Technology ,Ideas and alternative ideas
• Denying determining internal logic in technology development
• Associating technology with obduracy/stubbornness/rigidity
• The recognition that technology could have been otherwise
• Which in turn affects cultural values and social rules that are
embedded in technological framework.
Ethics and Technology
• Ethics comes into picture due to alternative ideas which could lead to
totally different outcomes
• SCOT does not provide any context independent and intrinsic way to
deal with the issue of ethics.
• Pragmatic approach with grouping of similar cases the solution
Difference between science and technology
• Similar pairs
• Economics and technology
• Technology and sociology
• Politics and technology
• Boundary cannot be defined theoretically
• Empirical study important in classification as in the topic being
discussed in general.
• Transistors
Epistemology
• the conceptual locus for identifying and studying different styles of
technological thinking in SCOT.
• Technological frames comprise also criteria to identify
• primary problems
• secondary problems
• and problem-solving strategies
Politicizing technological culture of modern
society
• Modern, highly developed society cannot be fully understood without
taking into account the role of science and technology .It includes
• Showing hidden political dimension
• Putting issues on political agenda
• Opening issues for political debate
• Technology is socially and politically constructed
• Society(culture and politics) technically built
• Hence technological culture consists of sociotechnical ensembles.
• Political decision related to big tech projects play crucial role and
strengthens the SCOT theory
Political debates and scientific literacy
• Makes sense to extend the number of people involved in decision
making related to science and technology.
• Political deliberations in forms of public consensus ,conference ,
debates and citizen jury useful
• SCOT assumes all relevant social group have some form of expertise
• Scientist/Engineers have superiority over other but same time do not
have the entire picture of the society