×Toggle helper textThis website uses cookies. By using our website and agreeing to our cookies policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy. Read more
XWe have detected your location as outside the U.S/Canada, if you think this is wrong, you can choose your location.
From the everyday and unnoticed to the newsworthy and cutting edge, technology is undoubtedly a fundamental element of our daily lives. While saving us time and effort, it can also shape our environment, mediate our...
From the everyday and unnoticed to the newsworthy and cutting edge, technology is undoubtedly a fundamental element of our daily lives. While saving us time and effort, it can also shape our environment, mediate our relationships, and simultaneously solve problems and create new ones. In studying technology we gain an insight into how societyis constructed, maintained and transformed. Unravelling and explaining the complex connections between technology and the social contexts in which it is used, Technology and Social Theory guides the reader through 150 years of thinking in this ever evolving field. The chapters critically evaluate a broad range of theorists, from Marx to Foucault, Orwell to Elias, alongside empirical examples which show theory in action. The significance of technology is assessed within both public spheres and intimate spaces, shedding light on its integralrole in society. Showing how theory maps the way for further research, and in turn how new advances in research can inform theory, this book is invaluable reading for students and researchers in Sociology, Social theory, Science and Technology Studies and the Media.
Topical area of study across a range of disciplines Balance of latest empirical and theoretical work Only book in its field pitched squarely at an undergraduate audience
Introduction Theorising Technology Marx, Modernity and the Machine Constructing the Modern: Human-Built World The Politics of Artefacts The Social Construction of Technology The Socio-Technical Construction of Society: Actor-Network Theory Left to Our Own Devices: Subjective Machines Objective Life: Things and Social Theory Conclusion: We Have Always Been Posthuman Bibliography Index.
STEVE MATTHEWMAN is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is an established writer and teacher in Sociology, with specific interests in science and technology, social theory, cultural studies and modernity and its discontents. His most recent publications include (with Bell) 'Cultural Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand: Identity, Space and Place (Oxford University Press, 2004) and 'Being Sociological' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
STEVE MATTHEWMAN is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is an established writer and teacher in Sociology, with specific interests in science and technology, social theory, cultural studies and modernity and its discontents. His most recent publications include (with Bell) 'Cultural Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand: Identity, Space and Place (Oxford University Press, 2004) and 'Being Sociological' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
