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:
- Goals
- Key Problems
- Problem-solving strategies
- Requirements to be met by problem solutions
- Current theories
- Tacit knowledge
- Testing procedures
- Design methods
- User's practice
- Perceived substitution function
- Exemplary artifacts
- Similar to Kuhn's ideas on "paradigms, yet:
- Technological frames are not purely cognitive, but social and physical as well.
- 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.