A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Issues of Political Philosophy

We live in a technological culture: our modern, highly developed society cannot be fully understood without taking into account the role of science and technology. SCOT offers a conceptual framework for politicizing this technological culture. “Politicizing” here means: showing hidden political dimensions, putting issues on the political agenda, opening issues up for political debate. The social construction of technology approach not only gives an affirmative answer to Winner’s (1980) question “Do artifacts have politics?” but also offers a handle to analyze these politics. Technology is socially (and politically) constructed; society (including politics) is technically built; technological culture consists of sociotechnical ensembles. The issue of political decision-making about technological projects acquires a special guise under the light of the social construction of technology. If it is accepted that a variety of relevant social groups are involved in the social construction of technologies and that the construction processes continue through all phases of an artifact’s life cycle, it makes sense to extend the set of groups involved in political deliberation about technological choices. Thus, several countries experiment with consensus conferences, public debates and citizens’ juries. One of the key issues here is the role of expertise in public debates. The social construction of technology approach suggests that all relevant social groups ...