GWD-8-Q25-Q28

      Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and socialogy of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism. Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determinant of social and managerial organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism.

      The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological determinism: technological determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization. Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he defines “technology” in terms of relationships between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semi-electronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark attriutes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: “When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?”

A.The new technology reduced the role of managers in labor negotiations.

B.The modernization was implemented without the consent of the employees directly affected by it.

C.The modernization had an impact that went significantly beyond maintenance routines.

D.Some of the maintenance workers felt victimized by the new technology.

E.The modernization gave credence to the view of advocates of social constructivism.

请问这题是细节题吗？答案是不是在地一段标黄处？请问答案是什么意思呢？

说实话这篇文章没太看明白，硬着头皮输入信息找答案的……请教各位NN

同问  我even连c项中的routine都没在文中看到。。

首先搞懂文章意思

P1,Clark的研究，你可以搞不懂他研究的是什么东西，但是他的观点一定要清楚，p1第二句话，简单来说就是：technology对工作有决定性的影响。与之相悖的理论，就是technology是社会选择的产物，此理论的代表人物是B。C代表了technological determinism，B代表了social constructivism，重点记忆。

P2,无非是C对B的反驳，2个层面，理论和实践，实践即文章开头C研究的telephone exchange

问题问文章支持的观点，那也就是C的观点，他既然认为technology有决定性影响，而不是人为需要才产生的，那么很明显B是正确答案，以telephone exchange为例的技术的现代化其应用并未经过员工的准许，而是arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself（文章倒数第二句话）。

眼皮开始打架了，文章只粗看了一遍，有欠推敲，等明天清醒了再来确认下，希望不要产生误导才好。。。

我认为正确答案应该是 C。请看：

Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization.

C.The modernization had an impact that went significantly beyond maintenance routines.

the characteristics of a technology 可与 the modernization 对应；

influence 与 impact 对应；

decisive 与 significant(ly) 对应；

maintenance routines 可作为 job 的一个举例。