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 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 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 semielectronic switching systems altered work 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 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?”
The information in the passage suggests that Clark believes that which of the following would be true if social constructivism had not gained widespread acceptance?
当前版本由 Edward. 更新于2021-05-21 16:50:02 感谢由 Edward. 对此题目的解答所做出的贡献。b正确,e错误。不是determining the role of business in society,要仔细阅读题干
文中信息谈到Clark相信如果关于社会建构理论未取得广泛认可下列哪一个选项成立?
A. 企业更有可能在不考虑企业行为社会后果的情况下进行现代化
B. 在社会改变中他们会更好的理解科技角色
C. 企业不太可能理解被现代化影响的雇员的态度
D. 现在化会缓慢发生
E. 科技会在决定企业在社会中角色起很大的作用
题目解析:
A. 根据原文,Clar认为社会建构模糊了现代化可能会产生社会影响的观点
B. 正确。根据原文,Clark认为科技在社会改变中起到了重要作用
C. 文章并没有讨论雇员的态度
D. 文章并没有谈到现代化发展的速度
E. 文章并没有谈到科技在企业起到的作用
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