Democracy and TechnologyThis eye-opening book describes how modern technologies--such as computers, automobiles, machine tools, hybrid crops, nuclear reactors, and others--contribute to vexing social problems ranging from the continued subordination of women and workers to widespread political disengagement. Engineers, manufacturers, and policy makers rarely take these consequences into account. Contending that reinvigorated democratic politics can and should supersede conventional economic reasoning as a basis for decisions about technology, Richard Sclove clearly outlines how the general public can become actively involved in all phases of technology decision making, from assessment and policy making to research and development. For half a century, the Cold War provided the rationale for U.S. science and technology policies. The demise of the Cold War, Sclove argues, provides an ideal opportunity to reformulate technology decision making and design, making them more responsive to social needs. Synthesizing recent research into the social dimensions of technology with democratic theory, the author develops an innovative, practical framework for distinguishing technologies that are compatible with true democratic ideals from those that are not. The text abounds in well-researched examples from all over the world and throughout history of societies that have used technology to enhance their way of life without sacrificing their ideals or traditions, as well as those where technology has completely disrupted prior patterns of community life. Drawing valuable lessons from these studies, Sclove offers concrete suggestions for implementing political and institutional strategies that will create a more sustainable, socially responsive, and humane technology. |
Contents
SPANISH WATERS AMISH FARMING Two Parables of Modernity? | 3 |
ID HAMMER OUT FREEDOM Technology as Politics and Culture | 10 |
EVERY SENSE THE EXPERTS Strong Democracy and Technology | 25 |
Design Criteria for Democratic Technologies | 59 |
ACTIVELY RELATED TO THE WHOLE WORLD Technology and Democratic Community | 61 |
NO MAN IS SACRIFICED TO THE WANTS OF ANOTHER Democratic Work | 83 |
MACHINERIES OF POWER | 100 |
WE WOULD CALL IT TREASON Technology and SelfGovernance | 119 |
CHEESEBURGERS DEODORANT AND THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY Democracy versus EconomicsasUsual | 161 |
EVERYONE CONTRIBUTES Participation in Research Development and Design | 180 |
TECHNOLOGICAL POLITICS AS IF DEMOCRACY MATTERED | 197 |
A NEW AND BETTER VISION | 239 |
NOTES | 245 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 285 |
319 | |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | |
LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF SUSTAINABILITY | 139 |
Toward a Democratic Politics of Technology | 153 |
THINGS LIKE THAT IS PRICELESS Contestability and Dignity | 155 |
ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE | |
Common terms and phrases
alternative Amish appropriate technology authoritarian autonomy basic categorical imperative chap Chapter citizens cohousing communitarian/cooperative competing concern context contribute corporate CPSR creative Criterion critical cultural demo democratic community democratic design criteria democratic politics democratic structuration democratic technologies diverse ecological economic economistic effects egalitarian empowerment environmental establish example experience extensive externalities federal flexibility focal freedom function groups hierarchy human Ibieca ideological individual influence innovation instance institutions interaction involvement job rotation Kalmar labor laypeople means ment Mishan moral Moreover neoclassical economic nologies nomic nonfocal Old Order Amish opportunities organizations participation participatory participatory design politics of technology potential practice production programs RD&D relatively role science shops Sclove self-actualizing self-governance self-reliance significant social structures society society's sociotechnological STEVE FULLER strong democracy tech technical techno technological democratization technological order technological systems tend tions trade secrecy translocal workers workplaces