Judy Wajcman

The Social Shaping of Technology

Technological change is often seen as something that follows its own logic - something we may welcome, or about which we may protest, but which we are unable to alter fundamentally. This reader challenges that assumption and its distinguished contributors demonstrate that technology is affected at a fundamental level by the social context in which it develops. General arguments are introduced about the relation of technology to society and different types of technology are examined: the technology of production; domestic and reproductive technology; and military technology. The book draws on authors from Karl Marx to Cynthia Cockburn to show that production technology is shaped by social relations in the workplace. It moves on to the technologies of the household and biological reproduction, which are topics that male-dominated social science has tended to ignore or trivialise - though these are actually of crucial significance where powerful shaping factors are at work, normally unnoticed. The final section asks what shapes the most frightening technology of all - the technology of weaponry, especially nuclear weapons. The editors argue that social scientists have devoted disproportionate attention to the effects of technology on society, and tended to ignore the more fundamental question of what shapes technology in the first place. They have drawn both on established work in the history and sociology of technology and on newer feminist perspectives to show just how important and fruitful it is to try to answer that deeper question. The first edition of this reader, published in 1985, had a considerable influence on thinking about the relationship between technology and society. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded to take into account new research and the emergence of new theoretical perspectives.

Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State is the Art?

This Comment reflects upon the relationship between gender and technology, and how it has been theorized in recent decades. I argue that while feminist approaches have had considerable influence on mainstream social studies of science and technology, tensions remain. I go on to explore the proliferation of feminist research which conceptualizes technology as culture. I suggest that the contemporary focus on cultural representation and consumption, exciting and productive as it is in many respects, has contributed to the neglect of design studies. These are necessary to fully elucidate how gender relations figure in the construction of technology.

Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time

Assumptions about the pace of life speeding up abound in contemporary social theory. While many factors are contributing to this phenomenon, information and communication technologies are seen as the main drivers. This article considers the way social theorists analyse the concepts of time and speed and then examines how these claims might be assessed in the light of empirical research. Such research shows that time compression has multiple dimensions, and that the effect of digital devices like the mobile phone is not simply one of acceleration. In particular, I suggest that the social studies of technology offers a richer analysis of the reciprocal relationship between technological innovation and changing time practices. My argument is that while the hitherto neglected temporal dimension in sociological theory is now being addressed, there is an urgent need for increased dialogue to connect social theory with detailed empirical studies. Without this, we will continue to have difficulty distinguishing social science from science fiction.

From women and technology to gendered technoscience

This paper situates current discussions of womens position in ICTs in the wider context of feminist debates on gender and technology. While a common trend among early feminist theorists was a profound pessimism about the inherent masculinity of technology, this was replaced during the 1990s by an unwarranted optimism about the liberating potential of technoscience for women. This article gives an account of both technophobia and technophilia, arguing that recent approaches drawing on the social studies of technology provide a more subtle analysis. Avoiding both technological determinism and gender essentialism, technofeminist approaches emphasize that the gender–technology relationship is fluid and flexible, and that feminist politics and not technology per se is the key to gender equality.

Feminism Facing Industrial Relations in Britain

This is an opportune time to renegotiate the boundaries between industrial relations theory and feminist analysis in Britain. Such a bargain would involve going beyond an agreement to add ‘women’s issues’ to the research agenda, to a recognition of the gendered character of employment relations and of work itself. The formal institutions involved, namely, management, trade unions and the state, cannot be treated as gender‐neutral. Further, the very way industrial relations scholars define what is ‘inside’ the industrial relations system and what is ‘outside’ reflects masculine priorities and privilege.

Constant Connectivity: Rethinking Interruptions at Work:

While the subject of interruptions has received considerable attention among organizational researchers, the pervasive presence of information and communication technologies has not been adequately conceptualized. Here we consider the way knowledge workers interact with these technologies. We present fine-grained data that reveal the crucial role of mediated communication in the fragmentation of the working day. These mediated interactions, which are both frequent and short, have been commonly viewed as interruptions — as if the issue is the frequency of these single, isolated events. In contrast, we argue that knowledge workers inhabit an environment where communication technologies are ubiquitous, presenting simultaneous, multiple and ever-present calls on their attention. Such a framing employs a sociomaterial approach which reveals how contemporary knowledge work is itself a complex entanglement of social practices and the materiality of technical artefacts. Our findings show that employees engage in new work strategies as they negotiate the constant connectivity of communication media.

Addressing technological change: the challenge to social theory

Technology is central to contemporary theories of social, cultural and economic change, yet its treatment is still predominantly one of technological determinism. This article examines the development of the social studies of science and technology (STS) and its critique of this dominant position. It provides an account of the principal concepts that inform the area, which emphasize that technology is a socio-technical product, patterned by the conditions of its creation and use. Technology and society, rather than being separate spheres, are mutually constituted. In this way, STS adds an important dimension missing in recent social theory, one that is sensitive to the materiality of social relations and the power of objects. Finally, the article explores the contribution of scholars of gender and technology to both STS and feminist theory. For all the diversity to be found within the field, what has emerged is a powerful legacy of theory and research that promises to make a significant contribution to public debates in the 21st century.

Narratives of Identity in Modern Management The Corrosion of Gender Difference

This article examines two dominant theories about the contemporary relationship between identity and work — corrosion of character and reflexive modernization. Both of these models treat the experiences of men and women in the new capitalism as essentially the same. We examine this assumption in the light of our recent study of managers in large companies. Our survey data shows little difference between the career orientations and experiences of men and women. We then test this against the career narratives of 136 managers. Again, we find that men and women use the same ‘new capitalism’ narratives to describe their careers and work lives. However, whereas for men these narratives fit with their stories of domestic life, this is not the case for the women. Faced with a substantial disjunction between them, women generally reject one or other narrative identity. We argue that our findings highlight substantial theoretical flaws in both the corrosion of character and reflexive modernization models.

The mobile phone, perpetual contact and time pressure

Mobile phone services are now universally diffused, creating the possibility of perpetual contact, regardless of time and location. Many think the impossibility of being ‘out of touch’ leads to increased time pressure. In addition to claims that the mobile phone has led to harried leisure, others have argued that perpetual contact extends work into the home or intensifies work in other ways. In this article, these issues are explored using survey data employing some novel methodologies — combining a questionnaire with logs of phone traffic recovered from respondents’ handsets and a purpose-designed time-diary of technology use. Overall, results show that mobile phone use is not associated with more harried leisure. Fears of work intruding into home life appear to be exaggerated. However, there is some evidence that frequent use of mobiles during working hours is associated with work intensification, at least among men.

Patriarchy, Technology, and Conceptions of Skill:

Much of the debate over the deskilling of work has assumed that skill is simply technically derived. Here it is argued that this is a partial view and that the categories for evaluating skill definitions are gender-biased. An adequate understanding of gender inequality at work must take account of both the ideological aspects and the material components of skill. The centrality of mens control of technology to their power in the workplace is discussed. The article concludes that social relations are expressed in and shape technologies themselves and that patriarchal relations are integral to this process.