Book Reviews

摘要

In this book, Ralf Brand tackles the contemporary problem of changing people's behavior within the context of the debate between technological determinism and social constructivists. Thus, he joins a debate that goes back at least to Karl Marx, the paradigmatic technological determinist, at least in one interpretation. The technological fix approach is perhaps older. Thus Alvin Weinberg argued for a "technological fix" to handle intractable social problems. He believed that social engineering often could be done best by technological means. Recently, another view of the impact of technology on society has been articulated, and some have used it to challenge the technological fix. The newer view has been labeled "social constructivism," and some authors have applied it to issues of technology and society. In this view, society makes some choices in selecting which technologies it will use and also guides and shapes the ones it picks. Society thereby "constructs" technology in the sense of shaping how technology will advance and what impact it will have on society. Since society has choices and makes them, this approach emphasizes behavior and is more "low-tech."