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The regulation of legal practice has been based predominantly on geographical boundaries. To varying degrees, foreign lawyers are prohibited from engaging in the practice of law in host jurisdictions without local admission, and in some cases with the added complexity of nationality or residency requirements. This is notwithstanding that increasing international trade and other transnational activities, enabled by advancements in technology that facilitate efficient transportation and communication, are creating a growing demand for legal services across borders. While much has been written about how technology is changing the nature of legal practice, the approach taken by this article is to assess whether technology is playing this change-role in a solely deterministic manner. In examining this question, this article applies soft technological determinism to argue that, while technology is an important factor, it does not have a mono-causal effect in shaping changes to cross-border legal practice. Rather, these changes are being influenced by an interplay of technological progress and non-technological factors such as similarities in legal systems, harmonisation of laws and trade affiliations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and its consequential lockdown led to the closure of tertiary institutions across the globe. The closure had severe implications by stopping academic staff from going to work and performing their jobs. However, to navigate the implication of the closure of tertiary institutions on teaching and learning, ICT and its accessories were leveraged to enable the academic staff to work remotely. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the adoption of ICT in cushioning the effect of the pandemic on the performance of academic staff in tertiary institutions, using Enugu State as a study base. Technological determinism theory was employed in the analysis. The methodology used is a cross-sectional survey that leveraged qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected using both primary and secondary sources. The population of the study is 8,034, with a sample size of 381. However, 312 questionnaires were used after retrieval from the respondents; sorting, cleaning, and scoring. We coded and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics from the IBM SPSS version 28.0, leveraging tables, percentages, and content analysis. The study adopted a Chi-Square (X²) test of hypotheses. Findings revealed that tertiary institutions leveraged ICT to cushion the effects of COVID-19 on academic staff performance, work-life balance, training and development, and safety during the pandemic. The study recommends full digitization of tertiary institutions, staff training and re-training, adequate funding, constant power supply, and development of indigenous capacity in ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in technology have intensified the totalizing potential of surveillance within the workplace. Our paper proposes a theory of hegemonic surveillance to enhance our understanding of these processes. We argue that it is necessary to theorize surveillance as a multilevel phenomenon. Accordingly, we propose a model of hegemonic surveillance that starts from the outer socio/political level, characterized by neoliberalism. This sees workers in wholly economic terms, as units of productive capacity, rather than fully fledged human beings. It is an ideological context that underpins the growth of surveillance within the workplace. We employ Gramsci's ideas of hegemony to theorize the normalization of surveillance that is thus produced. Surveillance is increasingly inescapable (performance is monitored and measured at all times, in all spaces) and pervasive (it encompasses all aspects of human performance, including emotions, health and lifestyle). Extending Burawoy's ideas of consent, we argue that the performance of consent is central to the perpetuation of hegemony. Such performances, while seemingly voluntary, are becoming mandatory in ever more work contexts. At an individual level, we articulate the risk of totally surveilled employees becoming cyberized, totalized and thespianized. While acknowledging resistance, and ourselves seeking to resist technological determinism, the purpose of this paper is to theorize a dystopian future of work that could come to pass if present trends remain unchecked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Universitaire des Sciences Humaines et Sociales is the property of University of Kasdi Merbah Ouargla and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a review of four recent books by authors Tonia Sutherland, Meredith Broussard, Catherine Knight Steele and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, each of which concern the intersection between digital technology, social identity and social norms. The reviewer frames his analysis of these works between the opposing concepts of technological determinism and social determinism.

This article casts a retrospective glance at the technological continuum from which the art history slide lecture springs. The article focuses specifically on the copy apparatuses widely used to make transparencies for art-historical consumption, circa 1930 to the early 2000s. The ways in which these once prevalent technologies developed to frame and disseminate visual materials by means of light was instrumental in shaping the widespread illusion of epistemological transparency in the world's art history classrooms. In reference to the work of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) on technological determinism, the author provides a chronology of slide reproduction technologies in which artworks ultimately appear as self-luminous technological 'images', or simulated entities that speak as if beyond history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including Heidegger's work on technological determinism; Charles Piazzi Smyth's slides of the Great Pyramid of Giza and pedagogical revolution caused by the adoption of the slide lecture.

This article contributes to studies of implicit cultural policy in platformised societies by offering an empirical study of dating apps and the ways in which they are operating a digital enclosure of the practice of dating. Reflecting on a qualitative research project conducted in different phases from 2017 to 2021, I analyse subjective experiences of dating apps in the aim of deciphering some traits of digital culture of love's structure of feeling. I focus on the role played by the algorithm as a libidinal object invested with merit and blame, and capable of (re)producing a libidinal economy within the app itself. This is characterised by the gamified alternation of validation and humiliation, which gives the subject the possibility to deal with these feelings in the de-personalised virtual space of the app. Engaging with the app, the subject aspires to foster a careless conduct, in which moral codes traditionally associated with personhood are lifted. I argue that the policies implicit within the logic and agency of dating apps shape the techno-utopia of post-romantic love: a risk free, painless and efficient interaction, deprived of the complications of embodied romance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to identify the impact of the determinants of electronic commerce on the creative orientation in the General Company for Iraqi Fairs, and to shed light on the level of the determinants of electronic commerce in the General Company for Iraqi Fairs, and also to reveal the level of creative orientation in the General Company for Iraqi Fairs. The problem of the study was whether there is an impact The determinants of electronic commerce (technological determinants, administrative determinants, organizational determinants) on the creative orientation in the General Company for Iraqi Exhibitions, where the number of employees in the company reached (300) employees. Significance 0.05 The study concluded that there is an impact of the determinants of electronic commerce represented by (technological determinants, administrative determinants, organizational determinants) on the creative orientation in the General Company for Iraqi Fairs. The study recommended the need to attract distinguished human competencies in the field of electronic commerce from experts and designers in developing programs to benefit From their experiences in the application of electronic commerce in the General Company for Iraqi Fairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of technological changes in widespread breakdowns and failures of governance and authority. Topics include arguments on the impact of technological realities on the future of power and its control through governance, the implication of the rise of the Internet and the democratization of consumer choice, and a discussion of technological determinism and the arguments by technodeterminists.

From a philosophical viewpoint, technological design is about connecting what is desirable with what is technically possible. Technology itself plays a major role in design processes, not only because technology development is what designing is all about, but also since the existing technology at any given point in time frames what is possible to achieve in terms of new outcomes. A limiting role of technology in design, education and other societal activities goes under the concept of technological determinism and has arguably been one of the most significant points of debate in the social sciences in the last decades. The aim of this article is to investigate how philosophical, sociological and historical research, as well as design and innovation research about technological determinism, could be fruitfully reconsidered in technology education. The analysis yielded three novel findings about the nature of technological determinism. First of all, technological determinism can take the form of an idea, theory or a way of explaining technology development in history or the present, but it can also take the form of actual material structures that—implicitly or explicitly—permeate and influence society, or, at least, this is what some researchers claim. Secondly, technological determinism is not just something that is the result of a bird's eye view of technology and society or when we study technology as part of the macro level of society. Determinism can appear on all levels, even the micro level. Thirdly, like its counterpart social/societal determinism, technological determinism is not necessarily a "bad" thing, but a natural result of design being a balance between what is societally desirable and technically possible. The most critical issue from the point of view of technological literacy is to promote the idea that it is humans that design and retain control over technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2000s, turn-of-the century inventor Nikola Tesla has gradually become a mainstay in several DIY cultures, notably indie and DIY media, Web 2.0 digital platforms, and the "maker" movement. The presence of this historical figure demonstrates the important symbolic and discursive role the history of technology plays within cultures of technology. The paper argues that these different accounts of Tesla's role in history are representative of several key conflicts and contradictions running through DIY cultures of the past 20 years, as they have oscillated between individualism and collectivism, neoliberalism and anti-capitalism, and technological determinism and social constructivism. Using representations of Tesla to unpack these conflicts and contradictions, this article highlights the political stakes of cultural representations of the history of technology, with particular consideration given to the labour DIYers invest into making new things and their recognition of the power and politics built into technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on COVID-19 pandemic has exerted on educational institutions has brought to fore a growing sentiment for debating law schools' core missions. It mentions law libraries play in Spartan reality of post-pandemic legal education and Law libraries' missions of acquiring, holding, and preserving legal information should not be confused with delivery of that information. It also mentions technological determinism to emphasize the ecological and holistic nature of information media.

The article discusses the analysis of young Marx of the phantasmagorical life which focus on capitalist digitization attends to the position of work and workers in the new technical conditions. Topics include analysis of online capitalism from the question of the consequences of its implementation for position of workers in antagonistic society; and German philosopher Karl Marx's theory illuminates capitalist technification as a process of technological determinism with critical thinking.

Digital platforms have become a major tool for media figures. The Internet offers the media essential tools, most notably authentic and accessible sources of information and the absence of censorship. Digital media provides media personalities with a platform that is free and fast where they can express themselves freely without 'gatekeepers.' Drawing on Deuze's five-dimensional model of journalism, this article shows that for the content transfer platform, the network is characterised by a young audience, leading to more consumer confidence due to its authentic nature. It also found that platform selection relates directly to content and that media people use the network to promote agendas. In addition, their influence on social networks is greater because they are bi-directional and allow for audience reaction. As for the media figure's personality, it was found that the success of media figures does not involve the quality of the content but the admiration of the audience. In addition, it emerged from the interviews that technological determinism affects media figure activities such that 'the medium is the message' – type of media dictates choice of the content transfer platform, content, and media figure personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turing Machine (tm) presents itself as the very landmark and initial design of digital automata present in all modern general-purpose digital computers and whose design on computable numbers implies deeply ontological as well as epistemological foundations for today's computers. These lines of work attempt to briefly analyze the fundamental epistemological problem that rose in the late 19th and early 20th century whereby "machine cognition" emerges. The epistemological roots addressed in the tm and notably in its "Halting Problem" uncovers the tension between determinism and uncertainty, regarded here as the primal and inherent features of machine cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through social technologies, long-standing civil society organizations are confronted with increasingly autonomous social media users. This article offers an overview of these challenging times at ethnographic case study Amnesty International, which was, during data collection, restructuring and diffusing its digital work throughout the organization toward a network logic. It tells a story of organizational social change in the social media age. It presents a view of how social media logics are constructed and embedded, arguing that they lead to the transformation of organizing logics in activist organizations as (a) they conflict with traditional organizational principles (network-hierarchy tension), and (b) the new organizing logic of connective action in social media activism creates pressure on organizations to change. Drawing on an ethnography conducted at Amnesty International, the article consequently suggests that social media logics lead to the unmaking of collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the problems with assessing the emerging threats from advances in biotechnology and the life sciences is that there are two competing narratives for understanding biotechnology development: one based on the notion of a biotech revolution and the other based on biotech evolution. The biotech revolution is a dystopian tale in which scientific advances lead to rapid changes in biotechnology, its applications, and its potential threats. The biotech evolution, however, describes slower and more complex trajectories for biotechnology development and threats. These two narratives are based on different assumptions and analytic methods, which lead to fundamentally different conclusions. The US intelligence and policy communities use the biotech revolution story line to make sense of today’s bioweapons threats, but this approach fails to reflect the complex social, economic, scientific, and technical factors that shape biotechnology and life science developments. The author argues that more critical perspectives on biotechnology are needed in order to improve intelligence assessments of present and future bioweapons threats and policy regarding them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the specific conception of art developed by Danko Grlić, a prominent member of the Yugoslav Praxis School. Grlić conceptualised art beyond both aesthetic norms and technological determinism. Within the context of praxis philosophy, a distinct theory of the subject and a Marxist humanist approach, he reconceptualised art as a distinct type of praxis, a revolutionary and creative practice of changing existing living conditions. The article explains how his unique understanding of art leads Grlić to analyse, criticise and refute various Marxist approaches to art: art as an ideology, art as a reflection of the objective world, art as sociological analysis. Moreover, while sharing many ideas and conceptions with Walter Benjamin's materialist conception of art, Grlić reached the point where he became critical due to Benjamin's belief in technology concerning processes of emancipation, which Grlić viewed with scepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many factors might influence the current place and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social quarters, including education. One such factor might become one's conceptions of technology. From this point of view, the purpose of this study is to examine preservice ICT teachers' technology metaphors by linking to concepts of technological determinism. The study was carried out in a qualitative pattern. The data were gathered through metaphor elicitation prompt from 55 preservice ICT teachers, and content analysis was applied over the data. The findings of the study revealed that technology is widely being regarded in a utopian and improved state of affairs way of approach. Revealing preservice ICT teachers technology metaphors might enable scholars to broaden more realistic perspectives regarding how technology might be integrated within educational praxis. Furthermore, such an awareness might enable a realization of what to expect from technology, both for students and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent initiatives by for-profit corporations and funding measures instituted by governments intend to support the preparation of students for careers in computer science and technology. Although such initiatives and measures can indeed increase opportunities for students' engagement with computer science and technology in K-12 schools, we question whose needs are being served, for what purposes, and at what cost. In particular, we ask whether music educators might be complicit in advancing technology that subordinates human needs--specifically students' interests in making music in their own creative ways--to modes of production that benefit certain dominant commercial interests in society. After discussing how current computer technology narrows students' choices, we counter this determinism by highlighting a music subculture that creates and appropriates music technologies for music-related purposes. Our example of the "chipscene" illustrates how music educators might reconceptualize "music making" through modification of existing music technology and thereby restore students' freedom to "reclaim making" in the age of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes the case for Elizabeth Eisenstein's continuing relevance by returning to the question of technological determinism, a fraught issue in the historical study of communication generally and in discussions of Eisenstein's work specifically. After reviewing the arguments against technological determinism, I propose that, even were we to concede that Eisenstein was a determinist, the questions raised by her study of the printing press continue to provoke interesting paths of research for historians of the early modern age. Perhaps her most important contribution has been to highlight the fact that technological artefacts can be considered social actors (or 'agents of change'). I illustrate this point by an example from the time period: the mediated treatment of an annual sporting event, the Dover Games, which took place in the Cotswold Hills from about 1612 to 1642. Thus, while it is important to take into account the criticisms of Eisenstein's work (and this is true whether we consider her to be a technological determinist or not), her style of historical investigation remains relevant for study into how print, and indeed other media technologies, has affected the evolution of our social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers both a genealogy of the concept of technological determinism and a metacritique of the ways academic accusations of fallaciousness risk stopping difficult but essential kinds of inquiry. To call someone a technological determinist is to claim all the moral force on your side without answering the question of what we are to do with these devices that infest our lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the dynamic relationship between hand-writing and type-writing. He contests German scholar Friedrich Kittler's technological determinism with a thesis of his own called intermedial history. He also discusses the new media and a concept of the newness of old media and analyzes other technologies such as xylography, moveable type, pen writing and model letter syntax.

Copyright of Journal of Nanjing Normal University / Nanjing Shi Da Xue Bao (She Hui Ke Xue Ban) is the property of Nanjing Shifan Daxue and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital educational data management has become an integral part of school practices. Accessing school database by teachers, students, and parents from mobile devices promotes data-driven educational interactions based on real-time information. This paper analyses mobile access of educational database in a large sample of 429 schools during an entire academic year. Using learning analytics approach, the study compares students, their mothers' and fathers' mobile logins onto the database between schools with frequent, occasional, and no mobile (i.e., computer only) teacher access. In addition, this paper explores gender differences in parental involvement through mobile monitoring of their children' function in school. The results supported both study hypotheses. (1) Mobile accessing of the database by teachers promoted mobile accessing of the database by their students, mothers, and fathers. It seems that ubiquitous mobile data management is a modeling process in which students and parents learn from teachers. (2) Compared to fathers, significantly more mothers used the mobile school database. Moreover, among parents-uses, mothers accessed educational data of their children significantly more frequently than fathers. The results suggest that mothers are still more actively involved than fathers in mobile monitoring of how their children function in school. The results are discussed in terms of School Community of Innovation model and technological determinism approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associated with the emergence of internet-based human resource management technology is rhetoric predicting that such technological advances (electronic human resource management technology or e-HRM) will make HRM in organizations more strategic. Yet such a prediction is contested in the literature on the role of technology in organizations. Using a large survey data-set consisting of 5665 companies that are located in 32 different countries, we use non-recursive simultaneous equation models with instrumental variables to empirically evaluate competing theoretical perspectives in this literature. We find and show that strategic HR involvement and greater e-HRM capability are both directly and reciprocally related supporting both theoretical perspectives but also showing each is not mutually exclusive. We discuss the implication of these results for human resource management theory, practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technological determinism (TD) has been critiqued as reductionist, ahistorical, and simplistic. This article, however, presents its complexity by showing four of its typologies according to the axes of objective/subjective dimensions and regulation/radical change sociologies based on Burrell and Morgan’s Four paradigms for the analysis of social theory. Through a survey of the literature and theoretical arguments about new media and their possible consequences on political, economic, and cultural systems, the article shows how TD and social determinism constitute a continuum, rather than a dichotomy, of theories about the relationship of technology and society. It recommends the revisiting of Burrell and Morgan’s concepts and their utility in organizing other communication theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initial growth in Internet use in the 1990s resulted in many digital pioneers viewing new information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a means to radically empower people through new global connections and extensive social capital. This has extended into an interest in exploring how ICTs can contribute to international development, and particularly in the field of ICT for development (ICT4D). Evidence from the minority and majority worlds has tempered some of this initial enthusiasm and visions of technological determinism. This article is structured around a piece of coproduced writing to reflect on a project in a deprived neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland, to empower a community through new technology and digital art. The approach involved social history in the form of an archive of images of the neighbourhood, a blog and Facebook page, and a range of physical outputs including social history walking guides and a digital totem pole. The article sets the coproduced paper in the broader literature on ICTs in community development to draw out lessons on the challenges and also the strengths of using novel methods to engage communities. While ICTs cannot develop extensive social capital within deprived neighbourhoods, it was clear that they can offer low-cost ways for institutional social capital to be developed improving partnership working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the British army’s decision to adopt the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) in 1903. Historians invariably assume that this weapon was developed in response to demands to modernize and improve the army following the failures and poor marksmanship of British soldiers fighting in the Boer War. Understood this way the SMLE’s selection appears inevitable and as a result is rarely examined in close detail. This stands in contrast to the wealth of attention dedicated to exploring how the cavalry fought to hold onto the arme blanche despite the apparent revolution in machine-gun and artillery firepower. Upon closer examination, however, neither way of thinking about the changes occurring in the British army after the Boer War does justice to the complexities surrounding the development and selection of the SMLE. Rather, by considering the manner in which different communities within the army thought about battle, and in particular how engagements on the North West Frontier shaped perspectives on marksmanship, this article demonstrates how the cavalry and the Indian Army played an important part in the adoption of the SMLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument will be made here that the various social networking platforms and mobile communicational technologies that have proliferated within the 21st century have promoted a powerful sentiment of technological determinism, particularly with regard to what it means to be a social individual within (post)modern society. The article will show how these new communicational technologies have accelerated and amplified a highly commodified and instrumentalised form of rationality within a relational context. By relying on an interdisciplinary methodological framework – focusing primarily on the critical insights of Bauman, Turkle, Adorno and Horkheimer – this investigation essentially highlights how (contrary to popular perception) these new communicational devices have had an inimical and undermining effect on individuals’ apperception of the Other, and what it means to be a sociable being. As a result, the focus is on how these new mediums of communication foster the sentiments of objectification, fungibility and the disposability of the Other in the realm of interpersonal relationships – a paradoxical outcome, in light of the fact that such technological developments are often purported to encourage and foster a sense of interpersonal cohesion and contiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three exemplars are presented of social technologies deployed in educational contexts: wikis; a photo-sharing environment; and a social bookmarking tool. Students were found to engage with the technologies selectively, sometimes rejecting them, in the light of their prior conceptions of education. Some students (a minority in all the studies) were unsympathetic to the educational philosophy underpinning the technology’s adoption. The paper demonstrates, through an examination of in-context use, the importance of sociocultural factors in relation to education, and the non-deterministic nature of educational technology. The academic study of technology has increasingly called into question the deterministic views which are so pervasive in popular discourse and among policy-makers. Instead, sociocultural factors play a crucial role in shaping and defining technology and educational technology is no exception, as the examples in the paper show. The paper concludes by drawing out some implications of the examples for the use of social technologies in education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technology is one the defining features of humanity. It is ubiquitous in modern society and plays an important role in nearly everything that humans do. New technologies frequently spur our imagination, can evoke powerful emotions and often serve as the topic of heated debate. Many people are in awe of the power and potential of new technologies while others fear its increasing importance in human life. New technologies can create new employment opportunities, spawn new businesses and even revitalize entire economies. Conversely, they can cause unemployment, destroy long-standing organizations and lead to global economic upheaval. While technology undoubtedly impacts people and societies in profound ways, people and societies also impact the development and use of technologies. The intelligence, dedication and support of numerous people, businesses and social groups are needed to develop even relatively simple technologies. Once developed, new technologies rely on a myriad of economic, social, human and political forces for their continued use and expansion. The field of learning technologies serves as an important and interesting case in which to explore the complex relationship between technology and society. In this paper, we will provide an overview of some of the most important philosophical and theoretical views of the relationship between technology and social systems, describe key issues related to the topic that are important for Learning Technologists to consider, and provide a series of recommendations for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Technological determinism” is predominantly employed as a critic’s term, used to dismiss certain classes of theoretical and empirical claims. Understood more productively as referring to claims that place a greater emphasis on the autonomous and social-shaping tendencies of technology, technological determinism is a valuable and prominent perspective. This article will advance our understanding of technological determinism through four contributions. First, I clarify some debates about technological determinism through an examination of the meaning of technology. Second, I parse the family of claims related to technological determinism. Third, I note that constructivist and determinist insights may each be valid given particular scope conditions, the most prominent of which is the scale of analysis. Finally, I propose a theoretical microfoundation for technological determinism—military–economic adaptationism—in which economic and military competition constrain sociotechnical evolution to deterministic paths. This theory is a special case of a general theory—sociotechnical selectionism—which can be regarded as also including (mild) constructivist theories as special cases. Greater understanding of, respect for, and engagement with technological determinism will enhance the study of technology and our ability to shape our sociotechnical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of feminist critiques of science has been to challenge and dismantle symbolic masculinity in the mainstream, positivist discourse of science that is projected as value-free, objective, context-free and rational, reflecting ‘the truth’ about reality. A large number of these critiques have focused on uncovering androcentric values in scientific theories, raising larger questions on the fact–value dichotomy and pointing out how all fact is essentially value-laden. Our analysis has drawn from this tradition and argues how the science curriculum documents and the NCERT class XII textbook reflect the masculine, positivist discourse of science that upholds the fact–value dichotomy and in doing so communicates mainstream values through the facts that are propounded. In the context of the chapter on reproductive health, we argue that the textbook endorses the patriarchal, reductionist science designed to interfere with the menstrual cycle and technologies that pose risks to the woman’s body. Interviews with three teachers who teach the textbook also reveal that they view the topic as value-laden. The article suggests that textbook writers and teachers reflect on and make explicit the value-frameworks that underpin the ‘facts’ that they communicate to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer data systems have become a lynchpin to supporting school data use. However, successfully implementing such systems is no easy task. In this case, readers explore the ways in which “technology problems” and “people problems” can be intertwined. The case follows Dr. Molly Winters as she encounters social and organizational challenges relating to district vision, tensions around data use, and tensions involving technology implementation. Her exploration of these issues spans both the school and district levels. Her goal is to analyze and provide recommendations regarding how to support data system use and school improvement throughout her district. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technological discourse constitutes a crucial resource in the process of future making and construction of new technologies. Narratives of such a discourse are characterized by projection of hopes and horrors through binary frameworks that enforce technological determinism. Sources and actors of technological discourse are multiple (the mass media, professional communities, institutions, enterprises). The article aims to identify different conceptions of technology as well as different durations of future traceable in technological discourse. On the one hand, technology appears as an autonomous, atemporal force; on the other hand, it appears split between a short and a long time frame. Whereas the short-term future is shaped by the culture of capitalism with its fast-paced consumption focused on obsolescence and presentification, the long-term future is more influenced by the binary frames recurrent in both popular media and science fiction. This long future horizon in technological discourse is concerned with the expectation of a radical revolution. It fosters scenarios where anger and desire, horror and hope coexist and compete with each other. The article proposes obsolescence, presentification and revolution as three concurrent modes of production of the sociotechnical discourse on the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technological advancement has dramatically changed the praxis. Nowadays human agents share the phenomenological ground with a variety of social systems, gadgets, cyborgs and human extensions, which modify the conditions of freedom and ethical responsibility. Subjectivity is no longer restricted to the human individual. This article argues that newer modalities of agency are left without proper observation. To this end, the piece offers a general description of the dominant paradigm for understanding technology, featuring intentionalism. Then, the article compares the paradigm selectively with a second perspective, critical-realist analysis of technology. The comparison allows arguing that anthropocentric theories of technology cannot fully apprehend the mode of functioning that current technology has, neither can it fully understand the risks that it entails. The article proposes then an alternative framework using Luhmann's theory of social systems and submits a structural explanation of the Gulf of Mexico's oil spillage to indicate that Bimber's account of technological determinism explains well the technological status of our times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the millennium, the major development agencies have been promoting “knowledge for development,” “ICT for development,” or the “knowledge economy” as new paradigms to prompt development in less-developed countries. These paradigms display an unconditional trust in the power of Western technology and scientific knowledge to trigger development—they taste of epistemic and technological determinism. This article probes, by means of a genealogy, how and when development cooperation began adhering to epistemic and technological determinism, and which forms this adhesion has taken over time. The genealogy shows, first, that knowledge and technology have always been integrally part of the very “development” idea since this idea was shaped during enlightenment. Second, while the genealogy reveals that epistemic and technological determinism were embedded in the development idea from the very beginning, it also illustrates that the determinism has always been challenged by critical voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of a de facto standard in a product class depends on technological, competitive, and market factors. The question is whether or not a firmc an strategically manipulate various factors to help determine the winner. To address this question, three factors, technological superiority, openness, and compatibility, are examined with regard to their influence on the emergence of de facto standards. Hypotheses are tested with an analysis of 78 historical cases in 39 market categories. Results indicate that in setting de facto standards, technological superiority is uniformly important, suggesting the logic of technological determinism. Moreover, results also suggest that the influence of technological openness may be contingent on the nature of competition. Thus, strategic managers may need to incorporate a contingency perspective into the selection of an appropriate strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Silogismo is the property of Revista Silogismo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines how the book "Understanding Media" by Marshall McLuhan has been received by critics in a variety of ways depending on the academic field through which it is analyzed, focusing on reaction to the theme "the medium is the message." Particular attention is given to how debates over technological determinism are used to interpret the adage while the author suggests it is influenced by 20th century humanism.

The purpose of this article is to recover Williams as a major theoretical inspiration for the social sciences, specifically, as the inaugurator of what might be regarded as a research paradigm, cultural materialism. In the first section, Williams's encounter with the discipline of sociology is traced and distinguished as a critical alternative to the presently ascendant - at least in the USA - neo-Durkeimian school of 'cultural sociology'. In the second section, his cultural-materialist programme is proposed as a powerful analytical framework for the study of culture and society today. In the final section, a key concept of Williams's cultural materialism, mobile privatization, is selected illustratively and proposed as a powerful analytical tool for studying the production and technological mediation of typical modes of communicative sociality in the early twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses practical experiences by rhetoric students in scientific, technological, or medical (STM) disciplines through the U.S. National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR) grant project in Iowa. Topics discussed include description of Iowa NSF EPSCoR grant project, hiring of rhetoric student by the grant administration to work on communication and three drawbacks as being a scholar student of rhetoric.