Culture + Technology: A PrimerFrom genetically modified food to weapons of mass destruction, we live in an age of intense debate about technology's place in our culture. While the technologies have changed, these debates go back hundreds of years, and their assumptions have become deeply entrenched in our culture. Culture and Technology is an essential guide to the fascinating history of these debates, and offers new perspectives that give readers the tools they need to make informed decisions about the role of technology in our lives. In clear and compelling language, Slack and Wise untangle and expose the cultural assumptions that underlie our thinking about technology, stories so deeply held we often don't recognize their influence. The book considers the perceived inevitability of technological advance and our myths about progress. It also looks at sources of resistance to these stories from the Luddites of the 19th century to the Unabomber in our own time. Slack and Wise help readers sift through the confusions about culture and technology that arise in their own everyday lives. This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the place of technology in our lives. It is a primer for beginners, and an invaluable resource for those who have pondered these issues before. |
Contents
Contents From Culture and Technology to Technological Culture I Culture and Technology The Received View 1 Progress | 1 |
Convenience | 2 |
Determinism | 3 |
Control | 4 |
Critical Responses to the Received View 5 Luddism | 5 |
Appropriate Technology | 75 |
The Unabomber | 83 |
A Cultural Studies Approach to Technological Culture | 91 |
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Common terms and phrases
Actor-Network Actor-Network Theory Appropriate Technology argues argument articulation and assemblage artificial intelligence assumptions autonomous become bodies bread machine Bruno Latour causal cell phone challenge Chapter communication complex concept connections consider context convenience counterculture created cultural studies culture and technology cyborg definition delegation determinist discussed effects Ellul everyday example gender global goals human idea identity Illich industrial inevitable Internet Kaczynski kill Langdon Winner Latour limits lives Luddism Luddites machines matters means Merritt Roe Smith Michigan Technological University movement nature neo-Luddism neo-Luddites nologies organized particular political position practices production progress question race rearticulate received view relationship response role Sclove sense shape simple causal simply smart mobs social society someone space spatial story surveillance symptomatic causal task tech technological assemblage technological culture technological determinism television things tion Unabomber understand Winner workers writing