Modernity and Technology

by Thomas J. Misa, Philip Brey and Andrew Feenberg (Eds.)

• ISBN13: 9780262134217
• ISBN10: 0262134217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

If asked, most people would agree that there are deep connections between technology and the modern world, and even that technology is the truly distinctive feature of modernity. Until recently, however, there has been surprisingly little overlap between technology studies and modernity theory. The goal of this ambitious book is to lay the foundations for a new interdisciplinary field by closely examining the co-construction of technology and modernity. The book is divided into three parts. Part I lays the methodological groundwork for combining studies of technology and modernity, while integrating ideas drawn from feminism, critical theory, philosophy, sociology, and socioeconomics. Part II continues the methodological discussion, focusing on specific sociotechnical systems or technologies with prominent relations to modernity. Part III introduces practical and political issues by considering alternative modes of technology development and offering critiques of modern medicine, environmental technology, international development, and technology policy. The book as a whole suggests a broad research program that is both academic and applied and that will help us understand how contemporary societies can govern technologies instead of being governed by them.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Workshop Participants	ix
The Compelling Tangle of Modernity and Technology	1	(32)
Thomas J. Misa
I Modernity Theory and Technology Studies
Theorizing Modernity and Technology	33	(40)
Philip Brey
Modernity Theory and Technology Studies: Reflections on Bridging the Gap	73	(32)
Andrew Feenberg
Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, and Technology Studies	105	(34)
Barbara L. Marshall
II Technologies of Modernity
Modernity under Construction: Building the Internet in Trinidad	139	(22)
Don Slater
Surveillance Technology and Surveillance Society	161	(24)
David Lyon
Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time, and Social Organization in the History of Sociotechnical Systems	185	(42)
Paul N. Edwards
Creativity of Technology: An Origin of Modernity?	227	(30)
Junichi Murata
III Changing Modernist Regimes
The Contested Rise of a Modernist Technology Politics	257	(22)
Johan Schot
Technology, Medicine, and Modernity: The Problem of Alternatives	279	(24)
David Hess
The Environmental Transformation of the Modern Order	303	(24)
Arthur P. J. Mol
Technology, Modernity, and Development: Creating Social Capabilities in a POLIS	327	(32)
Haider A. Khan
Modernity and Technology---An Afterword	359	(14)
Arie Rip
References	373	(36)
About the Authors	409	(4)
Index	413