Technological Frames: Wiebe Bijker

Concept that attempts to relate individual activity to the structure of "relevant groups"

• "A technological frame structures the interactions among the actors of a relevant social group."
• They are located between actors- not a characteristic of an individual or group per se.
• They are built up as interaction around an artifact begins- without the activity a frame is not "constructed" and once constructed it shapes activity.
• Tentative list of elements of a technological frame:
  1. Goals
  2. Key Problems
  3. Problem-solving strategies
  4. Requirements to be met by problem solutions
  5. Current theories
  6. Tacit knowledge
  7. Testing procedures
  8. Design methods
  9. User's practice
  10. Perceived substitution function
  11. Exemplary artifacts
• Similar to Kuhn's ideas on "paradigms," yet:
  1. Technological frames are not purely cognitive, but social and physical as well.
  2. Technological frames apply to all relevant groups, not just engineers ("frame with respect to technology").
• Theoretical construct to be used in "ordering data" and analyzing interaction within and between relevant groups.

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/280/frames.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel: rok@umsl.edu
Last Updated: Sunday, January 19, 2014 14:07