Description
Book SynopsisThis book questions whether technologies are the rational, tangible, scientific, forward-thinking, neutral objects they are so often perceived to be, exploring instead how powerful, mythic ideas about technologies drive our social understanding and our expectations of them. Against a rising tide of information, we encounter significant technological, scientific, and medical advances which promise to create an educated, humane, and equal world. This book explores that promise, deconstructing technologies to conclude that though they do afford us significant and empowering advances, they remain largely cloaked in mystery, and often promise more than they can deliver. Contributors from diverse intellectual backgrounds and political and epistemological stances spanning sociology and psychosocial investigations, innovation studies, and scientists combine philosophical inquiry and empirical case studies to create a book which is at once provocative, innovative, and exciting in the challeng
Trade Review«Judith Burnett, Peter Senker, and Kathy Walker have fashioned a distinctive volume that will engage you to think more deeply about the societal consequences of new technologies and why new technologies so often fall short in meeting expectations. This is a book of interdisciplinary construction and relevance. Using the central concept of the technological myth, the international contributors to the book examine a range of social claims ascribed to technology from such domains as computing, biotechnology and medicine, crime prevention, the media, education, and agriculture. They explain not only why new technology does not always lead to the desired solution or impact but also why modern societies continue to believe – or at least be told – that the next round of new technology will provide the fix. Importantly, the arguments of new technology’s proponents and opponents are each critically assessed and put in historical and contemporary context. You may not agree with everything in this book, but after you have read it you will be better prepared to prod and probe assertions about new technology and its relationships to social processes of development, equity, and change.» (Philip Shapira, Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
«This book contributes to broadening and deepening debates on technological innovation and its social significance and implications. It will be a valuable resource for students interested in a variety of subjects relating to technology policy and the management of technological change.» (David Gann, Professor and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tanaka Business School and Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London)
«‘The Myths of Technology’ is a must-read for all those who want to think about technology beyond any narrow parochial perspective. It fills an important gap in the literature and is to be highly recommended for both undergraduate and postgraduate audiences, and to policy makers and academia generally.» (T. G. Whiston, Emeritus Professor, Environmental Regulation, Roskilde University, Denmark; Honorary Professor, Science and Technology Policy, SPRU Sussex University, United Kingdom)
«This is a welcome collection on an ever-important topic – exploring the relationship between the hype and reality of new technologies. It is an accessible introduction to the myths of technology that will be of particular interest to students entering this interdisciplinary field.» (Flis Henwood, Professor, School of Computing, Mathematical and Information Sciences, University of Brighton, United Kingdom)
«Judith Burnett, Peter Senker, and Kathy Walker have fashioned a distinctive volume that will engage you to think more deeply about the societal consequences of new technologies and why new technologies so often fall short in meeting expectations. This is a book of interdisciplinary construction and relevance. Using the central concept of the technological myth, the international contributors to the book examine a range of social claims ascribed to technology from such domains as computing, biotechnology and medicine, crime prevention, the media, education, and agriculture. They explain not only why new technology does not always lead to the desired solution or impact but also why modern societies continue to believe – or at least be told – that the next round of new technology will provide the fix. Importantly, the arguments of new technology’s proponents and opponents are each critically assessed and put in historical and contemporary context. You may not agree with everything in this book, but after you have read it you will be better prepared to prod and probe assertions about new technology and its relationships to social processes of development, equity, and change.» (Philip Shapira, Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
«This book contributes to broadening and deepening debates on technological innovation and its social significance and implications. It will be a valuable resource for students interested in a variety of subjects relating to technology policy and the management of technological change.» (David Gann, Professor and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tanaka Business School and Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London)
«‘The Myths of Technology’ is a must-read for all those who want to think about technology beyond any narrow parochial perspective. It fills an important gap in the literature and is to be highly recommended for both undergraduate and postgraduate audiences, and to policy makers and academia generally.» (T. G. Whiston, Emeritus Professor, Environmental Regulation, Roskilde University, Denmark; Honorary Professor, Science and Technology Policy, SPRU Sussex University, United Kingdom)
«This is a welcome collection on an ever-important topic – exploring the relationship between the hype and reality of new technologies. It is an accessible introduction to the myths of technology that will be of particular interest to students entering this interdisciplinary field.» (Flis Henwood, Professor, School of Computing, Mathematical and Information Sciences, University of Brighton, United Kingdom)
Table of ContentsContents: Wiebe E. Bijker: Foreword – Judith Burnett/Peter Senker/Kathy Walker: Introduction – Alvaro de Miranda: Technological Determinism and Ideology: Questioning the ‘Information Society’ and the ‘Digital Divide’ – Richard Sharpe: Inequalities in the Globalised Knowledge-Based Economy – Bernard Kahane: Old Wine in New Bottles: How New Technology Recycles Old Myths – Richard Sharpe: Brains, Generations and One Last Push: Myths Used to Establish and Sustain the Computer Industry – Linda Stepulevage: ERP in Higher Education: The Reinforcement of Myths – Kathy Walker: Reality Check: Interactivity, Reality Television and Empowerment – Delia Langstone: Myths, Crimes and Videotape – Erika Cudworth: Nature, Culture, Technology: Myths and Inequalities in the Posthuman Zoo – Mark Davis/Paul Flowers: Myth and HIV Medical Technologies: Perspectives from the ‘Transitions in HIV’ Project – Paul Nightingale/Paul Martin: The Myth of the Biotech Revolution – Peter Senker/Joanna Chataway: The Myths of Agricultural Biotechnology – Judith Burnett/Peter Senker/Kathy Walker: Epilogue.
