September 25, 2010

Kranzberg‘s laws of technology


Melvin Kranzberg's six laws of technology:
  1. Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.
  2. Invention is the mother of necessity.
  3. Technology comes in packages, big and small.
  4. Although technology might be a prime element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in technology-policy decisions.
  5. All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.
  6. Technology is a very human activity – and so is the history of technology.
Melvin Kranzberg (1986) Technology and History: “Kranzberg’s Laws”, Technology and Culture, Vol 27, No 3, p.544-560.

September 17, 2010

Social Constructionism

  1. Naming, labelling
  2. Labels are categorised
  3. Values attributed to the categories
  4. Categories arranged into a hierarchy
  5. This sequence is reflected in policies - government policies reinforce/reproduce these dominant labels
  6. Layers are applied to the layers, e.g. gender relationships are laid on top of the "best" family structure model
Further factors to consider:
  1. Power - who has the power to determine that his definition/label is the dominant one?
  2. Where (and from whom) do contestations to the dominant definition emerge?
 
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Digital Telephone Book by Elizabeth Chairopoulou is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.