Three Decades of Social Construction of Technology: Dynamic Yet Fuzzy? The Methodological Conundrum

IF 1.4 2区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Social Epistemology Pub Date : 2022-10-24 DOI:10.1080/02691728.2022.2120783
Sumitran Basu
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) formed a key component of the ‘new sociology of technology’, which emerged in mid-1980s and heralded the entry of social constructivist theory into the domain of technology from science. A large number of empirical case studies were generated using SCOT methodology in the following three decades, encompassing a wide range of technological artefacts or systems. This essay reviews the trajectory of SCOT as a distinct intellectual tradition in technology studies. First, an attempt is made to appraise and classify the main strands of criticisms against SCOT that have come up over the years. Second, this essay discusses several new conceptual heuristics, which were successively incorporated by the original authors of SCOT, along with the concomitant broadening of analytical units and research questions. We conclude that, while SCOT demonstrated its resilience as a dynamic scholarly tradition and constantly adapted itself to address criticisms through the incorporation of new conceptual tools, the consequent methodological transition had profound implications for SCOT as a theory, somewhat undermining its original agenda and methodological distinctiveness in social studies of technology.
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三十年的技术社会建构:动态还是模糊?方法论难题
摘要技术社会建构是20世纪80年代中期出现的“新技术社会学”的重要组成部分,预示着社会建构主义理论从科学进入技术领域。在接下来的三十年里,使用SCOT方法生成了大量实证案例研究,涵盖了广泛的技术人工制品或系统。本文回顾了SCOT作为技术研究中一种独特的知识传统的发展轨迹。首先,试图对多年来出现的针对SCOT的主要批评进行评估和分类。其次,本文讨论了SCOT的原始作者相继引入的几种新的概念启发式方法,以及随之而来的分析单元和研究问题的拓宽。我们得出的结论是,尽管SCOT作为一种充满活力的学术传统表现出了其韧性,并通过引入新的概念工具不断调整自己以应对批评,但随之而来的方法论转变对SCOT这一理论产生了深远的影响,在一定程度上破坏了其在技术社会研究中的原始议程和方法论独特性。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.60
自引率
17.60%
发文量
60
期刊介绍: Social Epistemology provides a forum for philosophical and social scientific enquiry that incorporates the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines who share a concern with the production, assessment and validation of knowledge. The journal covers both empirical research into the origination and transmission of knowledge and normative considerations which arise as such research is implemented, serving as a guide for directing contemporary knowledge enterprises. Social Epistemology publishes "exchanges" which are the collective product of several contributors and take the form of critical syntheses, open peer commentaries interviews, applications, provocations, reviews and responses
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