A metal box paradox: Is technology a neutral machine?

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Technology as a social phenomenon
3. Socio-technical systems theory: an introduction
4. Case 1: Values, motives and the voices that go into technology
5. Case 2: Organised work, technology and people
6. Conclusion

Introduction

Rachel Cox introduces this topic, A Neutral Box Paradox. A full transcript can be found here.

Welcome to Week 7 of the Digital Society. This week focuses on the interconnections, relations and influences between the social and the technical. Following this, we draw on how values and motives within society shape the technologies we have and use. We then dive in further into two specific contexts: AI technologies and work organisation within fast fashion to help you to understand real world examples through a socio-technical lens.

Approaching this week

Now you have been introduced to this week’s topic, have a think about how you can engage this week. The following points are a few ways in which you may like to think about approaching this week’s content:

• Learn about technology as a social phenomenon.
• Understand how values can drive technology design, development, implementation and use.
• Share your ideas and discuss ethical implications of values influencing technological design and development, building on your learning in week 5 and week 6.

Throughout this week’s content, you will have 3 activities to complete as well as reflective checkpoints to help you with your ideas. The checkpoints are designed to help you develop your own contexts around technology. You will not be assessed on these checkpoints. They are to aid your learning to apply the content of the week to something you are familiar with.

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💬 Contribute

Read the following prompt, then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.

To start this week’s focus, we are asking you to define technology.

When you think about the term technology, what does this mean to you?

If you can’t access the comment box, please write a response to this post instead.

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2. Technology as a social phenomenon

✍ Reflective Checkpoint

Think about a technology example of your choice. This can be anything that comes to mind. It could be something you use every day, it could be software or hardware, it could be something used within a professional or personal setting.

Note down your reflections to these questions:

• Who do you think was involved in the creation of that product?
• What was their involvement?
• What influence do you think they had/have around the technology?
• Who will use the technology?
• How will someone use the technology?

In earlier developments of socio-technical theory, some have theorised technology as a socially constructed concept and a product of human values. Levin also raises human choice to be a conscious influence on technology, suggesting that a human’s intention plays a role in technology choices.

✍ ACTION: Read

Read through pages 498–500 of Technology transfer as a sociotechnical learning and developmental process Levin (1993).

We are introducing this reading to provide you with a social understanding of technology.

💬 Contribute

Read the following prompt, then add your contribution in the Padlet below. All comments are anonymous.

Looking at your original thoughts around technology from the previous activity and answer the following question:

After having read the Levin extract above has this changed what technology means to you?

UCIL Digital Society: A Metal Box Paradox

Now you have started to look at technology through a social lens, we are going to introduce a theory for you to apply throughout the remainder of this week’s module.

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3. Socio-technical systems theory: an introduction

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Think about a time when you have placed an online order for next day delivery.

When you press that ‘order’ button, have you thought about what happens after that?

• What is involved in that process for your next day delivery?
• Who is working behind the scenes to make that delivery happen?
• What are they doing to make this happen for you?

Take a minute to note down your reflections on these questions. Have you noticed that both people and technology are part of this scenario?

We are now going to introduce a theory to you for this week’s content. Socio-technical systems theory provides a lens that allows us to see the interconnections between the ‘social’ and the ‘technological’. It has been in development since the mid 1900s. Theories prior to this such as cybernetics also fed into the early developments of socio-technical systems. The University of Leeds have provided a comprehensive overview to the theory. The overall idea to this theory is the study of the interrelations, interdependencies and connections between the social and technical. This theory has evolved from areas of study such as Cybernetics and have also influenced the emergence of theories such as the Multi-Level Perspective. There is also a variety of terminology encompassing the principles of the theory such as human-centricity which emphasizes the value and importance of human input into design and development. In the Week 7 content, you learned more about the concept of the fifth industrial revolution (Industry 5.0). Like socio-technical systems theory, Industry 5.0 focuses on human-computer, human-technology interactions and the interrelations between these.

We are going to be focusing on two areas of socio-technical systems to explore the subject further. Below, you are presented with two areas of focus within socio-technical theory, which include a case study, specified reading and a video contextualising the part of the theory.

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✍ Activity: Case studies

1. Read either case study 1 or case study 2
2. Watch the video
3. Complete the reflective activity

Case study 1: Values, motives and the voices that go into technology

✍ Reflective checkpoint:

Returning to the technology you are familiar with or another type of technology:

Note down your reflections to these questions:

1. What is the purpose of this technology?
2. How was it made?
3. Why was it made to do this?

Have you ever thought of why something is designed and where this ‘why’ comes from? Have you ever thought about what shapes and goes into the design and development of technology? We all grown up with values and motives which may be influenced by our culture, family, environment and other factors intersecting with one another. But how does this then affect things in our everyday lives? How does this impact what we choose to like, to prioritise and how we relate and treat other people?

📺 VIDEO: Watch

Watch the following video on how machine learning technologies, commonly recognised as Artificial Intelligence (AI), work.

Ai Training Data and Bias. Code.org. YouTube

AI technologies and automation

This case focuses on the automation of work systems, with the added context of AI.

Many systems we use are automated through digital technologies. As you learned in Week 6, machine learning technologies use the information that is inputted or ‘fed’ into the system to build a kind of database with the information. When people use AI systems, this ‘database’ is then drawn on to make decisions, provide answers etc based on the information available within the AI system at that time. Whatever information is added, that is what the technology draws from and reproduces back to the user. Some research notes the influence of cultural and societal values and AI within the context of higher education for example. While this is a different context to this week’s focus, if you need an additional perspective, this will hopefully provide you with a basic understanding as to the workings of AI.

With AI technologies being reliant on the information that is inputted into it over time, having awareness of what information is important to recognise. Where has this information come from? How many people are saying the same? Where is the nuance in the information? What dominant cultural, social or political values constitute the knowledge? Which voices are not being represented in the information that language-based technologies provide us? Building on this, machine learning technologies have potential use within the automation of processes.

✍ ACTION: READ and REFLECT

Read through: Pre-histories of Workplace AI 57–63 of (Crawford, 2021).

Additional reading: Generative artificial intelligence in manufacturing: opportunities for actualizing Industry 5.0 sustainability goals. Ghobakloo et al. (2024) Point 4.2, Pages: 101–104

Reflective activity: Based on Case Study 1 and what you have watched and read, complete the activity below.

💬 Contribute

Read the following prompt, then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.

When thinking about values and motives, how do you think this relates to people and technology?

If you can’t access the comment box, please write a response to this post instead.

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CASE 2: Organised work, technology and people

✍ Reflective checkpoint:

Returning to the technology you are familiar with or another type of technology:

Note down your reflections to these questions:

1. What is the purpose of this technology?
2. How was it made?
3. Why was it made to do this?

Similar to the values and motives of the design, implementation and use of technology, the systems we work in are often set up with a purpose in mind. For example, sending emails and WhatsApp’s is often a lot quicker than using paper based communications systems, yet paper based communications also offer a hard copy of information should a digital format be corrupted or deleted. Storing files electronically within a standardised system means information can be accessed easier and quicker, yet to set this up in the first place can be time consuming.

Technology and people are involved in setting up systems that are designed for working.

The clothing and fashion production context

This case focuses on how work is organised to produce clothing in the fast fashion industry.

• Have a think about what you are wearing.
• How do you think it was made?
• Was it created for you from start to finish?
• Was it tailored to fit your body?
• Was it bought it ‘off the rack’?

Many of our clothes today are bought ‘off the rack’, known as ready-made clothing, and in some cases, fast fashion. Fast fashion is known for its speed from design to market. To get the clothing fast to market, the production is organised specifically to obtain the speed.

📺 ACTION: WATCH

Watch the following YouTube short video about how ready made clothing is commonly made. This is a video based at a UK manufacturer called Fashion Enter.

A video showing people making ready made clothing. Fashion Capital: YouTube

While clothing is an essential part of many people’s everyday lives, have you ever questioned the impact of the clothing you wear has on the people who made it? Some raise the organisation of people and technology for clothing production as a problem relating to working conditions in terms of labour intensity. In early socio-technical theory research, cultural values are highlighted to influence the organisation of technology and people within work systems. If this is the case, then how would this apply to the production of clothing?

✍ ACTION: READ and REFLECT

Read through: Supply chain innovations: lean retailing and quick response in (Taplin, 2014) on pages 74–75

Additional reading: - “Conventional industrial organization” on pages 66–68 The coming crisis for production management (Davies, 1971).

Reflective activity: Based on Case Study 2 and what you have watched and read, complete the activity below:

💬 Contribute

Read the following prompt, then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.

When thinking about the organisation of work, how do you think this relates to people and technology?

If you can’t access the comment box, please write a response to this post instead.

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4. Conclusion

This week encourages you to think about what technology could mean from a social perspective. It is a week for you to explore the mutual influences of the social and the technological in different spaces and contexts. It provides you with real-world examples to see how theory can be applied to everyday scenarios and helps us to understand different phenomena around technological innovation. With technology advancing rapidly, we encourage you to notice how things continue to change and develop in the future and consider bringing in the social to your lens. Using your learning from this week and your overall Digital Society experience, how will you in future consider the people behind the technological processes?

💬 Contribute

Read the following prompt, then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.

After what you have learned this week, do you think technology is a neutral machine? State your position and explain why.

If you can’t access the comment box, please write a response to this post instead.

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This week’s content is based on PhD research project, The future of sustainable manufacturing within the UK textiles and fashion industry, conducted by Rachel Cox, supervised by Dr Amy Benstead, Dr Rosy Boardman and Dr Steven Hayes and is funded by EPSRC.