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Technological determinism is a reductionist theory in assuming that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. [1] The term is believed to have originated from Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), an American sociologist and ...
SCOT is a response to technological determinism and is sometimes known as technological constructivism. SCOT draws on work done in the constructivist school of the sociology of scientific knowledge , and its subtopics include actor-network theory (a branch of the sociology of science and technology ) and historical analysis of sociotechnical ...
He suggested that technology is the primary engine of progress, but tempered by social responses to it. Thus, his theory is often considered a case of Technological determinism, but is really more than that. Ogburn posited four stages of technical development: invention, accumulation, diffusion and adjustment.
To challenge the so-called "technological determinism", today's theories of technological change emphasize the scope of the need of technical choice, which they find to be greater than most laypeople can realize; as scientists in philosophy of science, and further science and technology often like to say about this "It could have been different."
He contributed to the concepts of technological momentum, technological determinism, large technical systems, social construction of technology, and introduced systems theory into the history of technology. His book American Genesis was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2003. [6]
An example that supports technological determinism is the development of the printing press that accelerated the Protestant Reformation. [5] In contrast, social determinism (SD), popularized by social theorists Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, purports that social structure is the driving factor towards change in society. [6]
Sociotechnology (short for "social technology") is the study of processes on the intersection of society and technology. [1] Vojinović and Abbott define it as "the study of processes in which the social and the technical are indivisibly combined". [2]
Social determinism is the theory that social interactions alone determine individual behavior (as opposed to biological or objective factors). [citation needed]A social determinist would only consider social dynamics like customs, cultural expectations, education, and interpersonal interactions as the contributing factors to shape human behavior.