The ideas and examples referenced below are notes compiled by Robert Keel and Shannon Mayer in their reading of Volti's, Society and Technological Change, 6th edition, Worth Publishers, 2010. They are intended for classroom use.

• Technology is a human creation
• One distinctive feature of the human race is that it creates technologies to extend its natural capabilities

• Everything has a price
• Technological Determinism à the belief that that technology acts as an independent force in our life and thought
• If this is true, we have become the servant of technology rather than its master
• Technology does have a significant impact on almost every area of our lives

BUT, a purely technological deterministic view is perhaps unwarranted

Technological Advance and Cultural Lag

• W. F. Ogburn (Sociologist, 1930’s): Attributed increase of black migration from the South to technology à the automatic stoker.
• Allowed for production of more powerful locomotives (longer trains and the jobs associated with the railroad).
• Developed concept of Cultural Lag: Habits, thoughts, values, and social arrangements often fail to change at the same speed as technological innovation
• This theory is not without its flaws
  1. Social, economic, and political play a part in technological advance
  2. Also, not all technologies are fully accommodated into culture
  3. Some technologies grow quickly, while others languish
  4. Also, the implicit notion that technology is progressive while social Cultural elements stand in the way of progress is unrealistic

Convergence Theory

• Closely associated with technological determinism
• Opportunities and demands presented by modern technology promote the convergence of all societies toward a single set of social patterns and individual behavior
  1. Technological development requires a fixed series of steps and stages that all countries must follow
  2. Technology imposes similar organizational constraints on a society
  3. In response to technological imperatives, values and behavior patterns reflect the rational approach to life that was described in the first chapter of Volti book
• Implicit is the expectation that technological advance in non-Western countries will result in cultural homogenization (Modernization Theory)
• Backward" countries will take on the "superior" technology
• Some countries, such as China, has had great resistance to this notion à China has overall hostility toward foreign technology
• Third World countries often view foreign technology with apprehension as well. They fear it will disrupt traditional values and practices.

Does technology destroy all existing social and cultural patterns?

• This fear is unwarranted to a large extent
• Japan à has maintained traditional values and beliefs in spite of rapid Technological change
• Brazil à Oil workers hold values more similar to farmers in their country than oil workers in India or Ghana

"Clearly there are no rigid compulsory relationships between a modern industrial economy and the entirety of its complex, multifaceted environment. Rather there is a wide range of links, direct and indirect, tight and loose, exclusive and partial, and each industrializing society develops its own combination of elements to fit its traditions, possibilities, and circumstances." David Landes (256)

Technological Change and Social Relationships

• "Society" and "Culture" are not objective, neatly organized entities
• There are dominant groups, subcultural groups, in-groups, and out-groups that influence and influenced by technology

"In considering the influence that technology in general or any single technology has over human affairs, it is therefore necessary to consider not only the technology and its presumed ‘imperatives,’ but also the key human agents of the technology, the organizations in which they operate, and how these influence the course of technological change." (257)

• The role of experts and expertise

• The impact of organizations

• The role of government