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
(5)lively issues in the history and sociology of
technology: technological determinism and social
constructivism.
Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a
technology have a decisive influence on job skills
(10) 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
(15) 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
(20) 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.
(25)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
(30) 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.
(35) 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
(40) 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 semielectronic switching systems altered work
(45) tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration,
and organization of workers. Some changes Clark
attributes to the particular way management and
labor unions negotiated the introduction of the
technology, whereas others are seen as arising from
50) 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?"
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