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Society and Technological Change PDF

450 Pages·2010·11.51 MB·English
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society and technological change Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 1 28/11/12 5:52 PM this page left intentionally blank Worth Publishers A Macmillan Higher Education Company Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 2 28/11/12 5:52 PM society and technological change seventh edit i o n Rudi Volti Pitzer College Worth Publishers A Macmillan Higher Education Company Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 3 28/11/12 5:52 PM Senior Vice President, Editorial and Production: Catherine Woods Acquisitions Editor: Sarah Berger Developmental Editor: Kirk Bomont Executive Marketing Manager: Katherine Nurre Marketing Assistant: Julie Tompkins Director of Print and Digital Development: Tracey Kuehn Associate Managing Editor: Lisa Kinne Photo Research Manager: Ted Szczepanski Photo Editor: Cecilia Varas Art Director: Babs Reingold Cover and Text Designer: Kevin Kall Production Manager: Barbara Seixas Composition: MPS Ltd. Printing and Binding: RR Donnelley Cover Art: ©James Brittain/View/Corbis Library of Congress Control Number: 2012951470 ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-7897-3 ISBN-10: 1-4292-7897-8 ©2014, 2009, 2001, 1995 by Worth Publishers All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America First printing Worth Publishers 41 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10010 www.worthpublishers.com Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 4 28/11/12 5:52 PM Contents About the Author xiii Preface xv part one Orientations 1 Chapter The Nature of Technology 3 1 Defining Technology 3 Technological Advance and the Image of Progress 7 Technology as a Metaphor 10 Technology and Rationality 12 Technological Determinism 15 Living in a Technological Society 17 Questions for Discussion 18 Notes 18 Chapter W inners and Losers: The Differential Effects 2 of Technological Change 21 Technology as a Subversive Force 21 The Luddities 26 Neo-Luddism 28 Whose Technology? 29 What Technology Can Do—And What It Cannot Do 29 v Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 5 28/11/12 5:52 PM vi Contents The Technological Fix 30 Why Technology Can’t Always Fix It 31 The Appeal of Technocracy 33 The Technocrat’s Delusion 36 Questions for Discussion 37 Notes 37 part two The Process of Technological Change 39 Chapter The Sources of Technological Change 41 3 Technological Change as a Social Process 41 The Great Breakthrough 42 The “D” in R&D 44 All Together Now 45 Push and Pull 48 Belated Demand 51 Market Economies and Technological Advance 52 Noneconomic Sources of Technological Advance 54 Questions for Discussion 57 Notes 58 Chapter Scientific Knowledge and Technological Advance 61 4 The Historical Separation of Science and Technology 61 Studies of Contemporary Science–Technology Relationships 62 How Technology Differs from Science 64 How Technology Stimulates Scientific Discovery 66 Indirect Effects of Technology on Scientific Advance 69 The Commonalities of Science and Technology 71 The Translation of Science into Technology 74 Questions for Discussion 76 Notes 76 Chapter The Diffusion of Technology 79 5 The International Diffusion of Technology 79 Clever Copyists 84 Adaptation and Adoption 85 Learning to Make Steel in Old Japan 86 Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 6 28/11/12 5:52 PM Contents vii Appropriate Technology 87 Business Firms and Technological Diffusion 90 A Risky Business 91 The NIH Syndrome 92 Efforts to Restrict the Diffusion of Technology 93 Patents and the Diffusion of Technology 94 Questions for Discussion 96 Notes 96 part three How Technology Affects the Health of the Earth and Its Inhabitants 101 Chapter Technology, Energy, and the Environment 103 6 Fossil Fuels, Air Pollution, and Climate Change 103 A Planet under Stress 107 Is Technology the Problem or the Solution? 108 Some Technological Fixes of the Past 109 Alternatives to Fossil Fuels 110 Doing More with Less 114 More Miles to the Gallon 116 Economic Systems, Government Policies, and the Environment 118 Questions for Discussion 121 Notes 122 Chapter Medical Technologies 125 7 New Medical Technologies: Choices and Trade-offs 127 The Case of Kidney Dialysis 127 Replacing Broken Hearts 131 Diagnostic Technologies 135 Medical Technologies and Medical Ethics 137 New Ways of Making and Sustaining Babies 138 When Does Life End? When Should It? 140 Halfway Technologies 140 Questions for Discussion 141 Notes 141 Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 7 28/11/12 5:52 PM viii Contents Chapter Genetic Technologies 145 8 The Genetic Fix 145 Discovering Genes and Patenting Them 146 Bioengineering on the Farm 148 Genetic Mapping and Screening 151 Cloning, Present and Future 152 Stem Cells and Future Therapies 155 The Ethics of Genetic Intervention 156 Questions for Discussion 159 Notes 159 part four Technology and the Transformation of Work 163 Chapter Work in Nonindustrial Societies 165 9 Working with the Earliest Tools 165 Work and Leisure in Technologically Primitive Societies 166 Work and the Development of Agriculture 168 Farming Techniques and Patterns of Work 169 The Ironies of Progress 171 Artisan and Craft Work 171 Guild Organization and Technological Change 174 Slavery and the Inhibition of Technological Development 175 The Measurement of Time and Changed Working Patterns 176 The Clock 178 Questions for Discussion 180 Notes 180 Chapter Technology and Jobs: More of One and Less of the Other? 183 10 The Technological Threat in Historical Perspective 183 A Case for Optimism 184 How Technology Creates Jobs 186 The Indirect Effects of New Technologies on Employment 188 Volti7e_01_FM_i-xviii_highres.indd 8 28/11/12 5:52 PM

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6 A more extreme (although perhaps apocryphal) example comes from the Polish city of Danzig, where in 1661 the municipal authorities destroyed a mechanical ribbon loom and drowned its inventor, for fear that the new device would put hand weavers out of work.7 Consignment to a watery oblivion
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