Abstract
In this paper, I raise some problems with the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT): the separation of its first and second stages, dealing with a technology's development, from its third stage, the wider social context; and its underelaboration of the `relevant social groups'. (RSGs) by which it claims to explain the third stage. By following up Pinch & Bijker's example of the safety bicycle with a case study on mountain bikes and the technological controversy of mountain bike frame geometry, I show that the third stage is crucial to understanding both the first and second stages. I suggest that the wider context of mountain bikes is postmodernity, and explore how these artefacts have precipitated a shift in the cycle industry's production processes from Fordism to post-Fordism. This wider context is then used to understand the social construction, not just of the artefacts, but of their RSGs and the relations among them.
Subject
History and Philosophy of Science,General Social Sciences,History
Cited by
59 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献