Technology and Society Wajcman (2002)

Technology and Society Wajcman (2002) criticizes much of the literature on technological change as being implicitly, even if unintentionally, couched in technological determinism, itself based on assumptions that technology is driven by the motives of profit and dominance. Instead, she suggests that the shape technology takes has much to do with a variety of influences such as the availability of capital to thoroughly develop and market one technology over another one, perhaps even over an intrinsically better one.

Frank Bass (1969) characterized market behavior as imitation following innovation in which a relatively small number of consumers act as opinion leaders who are imitated by the vast majority of other consumers. When the market has become saturated (or nearly so) by a particular product, the opinion leaders perceive the need to acquire a newer product/model or brand. Placed within the context of the current research, Bass' growth model has a corollary in that we can expect technological innovations to exhibit self-reinforcing trends over time.

The more thoroughly diffused through a market a given product is, the more that product's characteristics are going to influence consumers' repurchase patterns within the same product category. Wallace (1956) states that societies change in big ways because of the accumulation of subtle incremental changes. These changes slowly alter society until the culturally accepted norms become unable to operate in them or lose their necessity for inclusion. It is seldom necessary to write long letters when brief notes or phone calls can be made quickly and cheaply.

The loss of letter writing as a feature of regular human interaction is a subtle incremental change. When sufficient changes accumulate, increasing cultural distortion leads the society toward dysfunctionality or a new state of equilibrium via cultural revitalization. One example of a revitalization movement (still underway) is feminism. Feminism arose in the West because females were given a taste of economic freedom during WWII when they successfully filled the heavy manufacturing jobs formerly occupied almost exclusively by males.

What made their success possible in the assembly line? Machine tools intended to amplify a man's strength amplified a woman's strength to the same level. Now that females have thoroughly diffused through the workforce, the re-definition of "feminine" is influencing the direction that the commercial exploitation of science is taking. Technology influenced society, and society has responded by influencing technology. The fact is, people have needs and.