eprintid: 10018562
rev_number: 14
eprint_status: archive
userid: 587
dir: disk0/00/01/85/62
datestamp: 2014-05-20 14:58:04
lastmod: 2017-12-07 21:32:40
status_changed: 2014-05-20 14:58:04
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Percy, Pamela Violet.
title: Some outlines for the sociological study of technology.
ispublished: unpub
subjects: IE
divisions: B14
keywords: Technology,Sociology of science,Technological change,Labour,Sociology of culture,Sex role,Production
note: Some content has been redacted due to third party rights or other legal issues and is labelled as such in the document.
abstract: Within sociology, technology is not a common subject
for sociological analysis; technology is often treated
as if it were no more than an asocial physical product.
The argument of this thesis is that technology is as
available for sociological analysis as any other social
phenomenon. In popular representation, technology is
treated as if it were special, and this treatment has
had particular consequences for sociological analysis.
This thesis attempts to put this special, deferential,
attitude to technology aside, and to reveal technology
as an unexceptional topic for sociological
investigation.
Stated baldly, two ideas are demonstrated in this
thesis. The first of these is: The way that
technology is constructed as a category in sociological
literature makes the topic technology resistant to
sociological analysis. The second idea follows from
this: It is possible to develop a sociological account
of technology by reference to a reconceptualised notion
of work.
The thesis considers those sociological approaches
which appear to offer some potential for an elaborated
sociology of technology. These move from
conventionally academic discussions of a sociology of
technology through marxian, culturalist and feminist
accounts of work and of technology, to a consideration
of the views of technology embodied in particular
instances of policy and local action.
A view of technology emerges which draws on the
divergent traditions of marxian political economy and
marxian cultural studies. The thesis concludes with an
attempt to embrace both these perspectives in the
development of a sociology of technology.
date: 1991
date_type: completed
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: restricted
pres_type: paper
pages: 408
institution: Institute of Education, University of London
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Percy, Pamela Violet.;      (1991)    Some outlines for the sociological study of technology.                   Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10018562/1/124089_Redacted.pdf
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10018562/2/124089_Original.pdf