Technology and Culture is an introduction to the field of Technological Studies, also referred to as Science, Technology, and Society. The subject of class lectures and discussions will include the following: technology’s connotations and multiple interpretations in today’s world; technology’s interrelation with other broad concepts defining our society today, such as culture, nature or politics; the ambivalences in the relationship between “progress” and technological development in the western world.
Our objective is to attain an understanding of technology as a powerful human activity broadly enmeshed with all other human affairs. As we shall see, the word “technology” conveys conceptual, social, material, as well as intellectual meanings.
As we scrutinize some particular developments in the history of technology, our primary emphasis will be upon the role technology has played in the culture as a whole. Consider, for instance, our changing perceptions of time and space, our acceptance of “unthinkable” weapons or our changing relationship with the natural environment. We will finally consider the relationship between technological development and the multifaceted views of progress, democracy and freedom.
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