1.26. Theories of technology

A specific focus is the relation between technology and humans and their organizations. This field was earlier, in the 1970s, called sociotechnical studies (Mumford), but over the years several other theories have been devised to study that, some of which are also related to institutions (such as Structuration theory, see Orlikowski, 1992), some of which focus more on actors (such as Actor Network Theory, see Latour, 1991), and some of which focus more on social groups (such as SCOT, Social Construction of Technology, see Bijker & Law, 1994).

References:

Bijker, W. E., & Law, J. (1994). Shaping Technology/Building Society. Studies in Sociotechnological Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Orlikowski,W.J. (1992). The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organizations Science, 3 (3), 398-427.

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