Technological determinism
Technology follows its own logic and new technologies reshape social structure and culture. Lynn White's stirrup thesis and McLuhan's "the medium is the message" are common examples.
Social construction of technology
Pinch and Bijker studied the nineteenth-century bicycle and argued that whether the high-wheeler or the safety bicycle prevailed depended on how relevant social groups such as young sportsmen, women and older riders interpreted and negotiated it. Key ideas are interpretive flexibility, relevant social groups and closure.
Winner's challenge
In Do Artifacts Have Politics?, Langdon Winner cited Robert Moses's low Long Island overpasses, said to block buses and limit access for poorer residents, to argue that artifacts can embody politics. The factual basis of the example was later disputed.
Significance
Many scholars now favor co-production, in which technology and society shape each other, a view that sits alongside Kuhn's account of scientific revolutions.
References
- Pinch, T. J., & Bijker, W. E. (1984). The social construction of facts and artefacts. Social Studies of Science, 14(3), 399-441.
- Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136.
- Bijker, W. E., Hughes, T. P., & Pinch, T. (Eds.). (1987). The Social Construction of Technological Systems. MIT Press.
- Smith, M. R., & Marx, L. (Eds.). (1994). Does Technology Drive History? MIT Press.