Technological determinism and social construction of technology: perspectives on society

Technology has certainly had an impact on the history of man. Not only have the devices and processes that have emerged from advancements in technology had their effect so has the relationship of technology to politics, economics, science, and the arts. Technology has affected how man interacts with man and as history is a record of man's interactions with each other technology has affected history.

Not surprisingly, historians have adopted different approaches to examining the effect that technology has on history. Essentially, two approaches have emerged to dominate the field: technological determinism and social constructionism.

The essence of technological determinism is that it is the introduction of new technology changes society and that these changes are often unexpected. For example, proponents of technology determinism would argue that the introduction of printing changed society from one driven by oral communication into a society driven by writing and literacy or that the introduction of the automobile caused society to become less dominated by urban areas and toward a suburban life-style.

Proponents of technological determinism believe that it is technology that determines how members of society behave and act and it is how members of society react to technological change that dictates how history develops and not that it is technology that develops in reaction to the behavior and needs of society. Technological determinists believe that it is technology that drives economic forces in society and that it is the economic forces in society that shape society. Therefore, it is also technological determinism that also shapes society.

Critics of technological determinism have gained recognition in recent years. Their chief argument is that such approach is far too simplistic and ignores the interrelationship between society and technology. In response to these criticisms has emerged the social constructionism approach. Social constructionism views technology as developing in response to societal needs but it cautions the observer to take a critical stance toward how one understands or view the world. It warns that one should be suspicious of assumptions and how the world appears. In applying such theory to history, social constructionists see that how matters develop during a specific period are dependent on the social and economic circumstances in existence during such period. In understanding history, therefore, it is important to understand the factors affecting society at any given moment in time and that it is a combination of relative factors that determine how history develops as opposed to the simple introduction of new technology as the technological determinists would argue.