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This article takes the political engagement of hackers as a prism for examining the relations between technological determinist thinking and collective action. The concept 'collective action framing' is borrowed from social movement theory to describe how hackers have appropriated notions of a post-industrial, information society in their struggles against intellectual property laws and state censorship. Hackers have reintroduced an element of conflict and antagonism into otherwise politically innocuous visions of post-industrialism. This residual of antagonism can be traced back to the roots of the post-industrial myth in Marxist, historical materialist theory. By exploring these origins, the article proceeds to compare the hopes invested by hackers in the emancipatory force of information technology with the earlier beliefs of labour movements that the forces of history were on their side. Building on this comparison it is argued that technological determinism does not always lead to political resignation, but can also serve as a foundation for collective action.

Biblioteca de edición digital ; El ensayo aborda diversas ideas en torno al determinismo tecnológico, desde una perspectiva social crítica. Se plantea que las posturas optimistas de la Sociedad de la Información responden a una visión tecnodeterminista, que no consideran los aspectos sociales que inciden en la existencia de la brecha digital. El Sistema Nacional e-México es tomado como un ejemplo de un proyecto gubernamental diseñado bajo criterios instrumentales, que reflejan graves limitaciones conceptuales ; The test approaches diverse ideas around the tecnological determinism, from a critical social perspective. One considers that the optimistic positions of the Society of the Information respond to one vision, that they do not consider the aspects social that affect the existence of the digital breach. e-Mxico the Nacional System is taken like an example of a governmental project constructed under instrumental criteria, that reflect serious conceptual limitations

Biblioteca de edición digital ; El ensayo aborda diversas ideas en torno al determinismo tecnológico, desde una perspectiva social crítica. Se plantea que las posturas optimistas de la Sociedad de la Información responden a una visión tecnodeterminista, que no consideran los aspectos sociales que inciden en la existencia de la brecha digital. El Sistema Nacional e-México es tomado como un ejemplo de un proyecto gubernamental diseñado bajo criterios instrumentales, que reflejan graves limitaciones conceptuales ; The test approaches diverse ideas around the tecnological determinism, from a critical social perspective. One considers that the optimistic positions of the Society of the Information respond to one vision, that they do not consider the aspects social that affect the existence of the digital breach. e-Mxico the Nacional System is taken like an example of a governmental project constructed under instrumental criteria, that reflect serious conceptual limitations

AbstractMajor theories of military innovation suggest that military organizations will converge on the proper employment of new weapons if they are responsive to strategic threats and overcome cultural, bureaucratic, and material constraints. Using a comparison of British and US interwar carrier programs, I show how these standard intuitions about military innovation wrongly assume that there is a predetermined performance trajectory embedded in new technology. The Royal Navy employed carrier technology differently from its American counterpart, not because of cultural biases, bureaucratic parochialism, or resource scarcity, but because the British possessed in-theater military bases and faced the threat of land-based enemy aircraft in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Far East. British carrier warfare, which the field of military innovation studies roundly criticizes as non-innovative and ineffective, was in fact a creative solution for Britain's geostrategic challenges that proved effective for the first couple of years of World War II. Since carrier warfare is a canonical case for military innovation studies, revising our understanding of Britain's interwar carrier program has significant implications for the way scholars conceptualize military innovation and its relationship to wartime military performance.

Kelly Devries in "Catapults are not atomic bombs"—and in fact, of almost all of those who have joined the fray to, once and for all, kill off simplistic technological determinism—may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. One aspect linking most of these anti-determinists is their temporal focus which is almost exclusively on pre-industrial revolutions in military technology. Furthermore, their views of the importance (or more accurately, the lack thereof) of technology in war is one that has ceased to apply to the world since the mid-nineteenth century. Technological determinism is not a disease of bad historical writing, but something that must be carefully applied in studying the technological systems of armed forces, regardless of time periods or geographic locations. We need to apply a definition of determinacy related to the systems theory that French writer Jacques Ellul proposed in The Technological Society. Here examples of military systems since the Industrial Revolution are covered and then this systems approach is applied to the pre-modern period. The approach moves us away from the radical assumptions of earlier determinists to show that technology is determinant, but only one of the many determinant factors that influence battles, campaigns, and wars. The study of military technology is central to any study of war, and we must not be afraid to move beyond a merely descriptive approach that appears to be promoted by the anti-determinists.

With the politics of the environment so fundamental to the development process in rural India, this paper analyses the relations between water discourses and drinking water technology. First, the national discourses of water are analysed using key policy and populist documents. Second, the paper presents ethnographic fieldwork studying the politics of drinking water in rural Bihar, where the relative merits of borehole handpumps and open wells are contested. The links between the national discourses and local contestation over appropriate technology are examined. The paper argues both policy and traditionalist perspectives are too technologically deterministic to adequately account for the myriad challenges of delivering rural water supply. The emphasis on technology, rather than service levels, creates the conditions in which capability traps emerge in terms of service provision. This is not only in terms of monitoring regimes but in the very practices of rural actors who use certain water supply technologies under an illusion of safety. With a focus on furthering the policy debate, the paper considers ways forward and suggests that a move from a binary understanding of access to a holistic measure of service levels will reduce the potential for political contestation and capability traps in rural water supply.

AbstractSince the publication of ChatGPT and Dall-E, there has been heavy discussions on the possible dangers of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for society. These discussions question the extent to which the development of AI can be regulated by politics, law, and civic actors. An important arena for discourse on AI is the news media. The news media discursively construct AI as a technology that is more or less possible to regulate. There are various reasons for an assumed regulatability. Some voices highlight the predominant capitalism of modern society as an ideology that enforces an uncontrolled development of AI. Others call on the rationality of civic society, which will push AI toward a development that serves humankind. Summarized, the discourse on AI floats between positions of technological and social determinism. The article conducts a discourse analysis on 113 articles from the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The analysis shows how these center-left and center-right media frame the AI development in terms of social and technological determinism. As these newspapers reach out to a large audience, the article shows the kinds of perspectives on AI that confront civic society in Germany every day. News media can motivate or impede social action, as they frame the potential necessity of society and its members to intervene against certain developments. The article shows how the newspapers promote an understanding of AI, by which citizens will feel motivated to insist on a regulation of AI by politics and law.

La educación poco ha cambiado en el último siglo. Este hecho se constata en la continua proliferación de literatura que pide, aspira o sueña con nuevas y mejoradas formas de educación. Pero aún seguimos con la vieja idea del aula, donde un profesor enseña y unos estudiantes asimilan y siguen indicaciones. Esto con independencia de la cantidad de tecnología introducida en el proceso educativo. Los cursos MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) han surgido en el último tiempo como una aspiración más a superar los viejos problemas de la educación y así conseguir una educación más integral, universal, democrática y gratuita. Este artículo de formato divulgativo y de investigación, revisa varios cursos MOOC impartidos el año 2013. Del estudio se concluye que la práctica educativa en los cursos MOOC evidencian que existe un fuerte determinismo tecnológico y determinismo social que sigue dejando la educación en los viejos formatos educacionales y aún sin concretar nuevos patrones de educación. ; Education has changed little in the last century . This is explained in the continued proliferation of literature that asks , hopes or dreams of new and improved forms of education. But we are still with the old idea of the classroom, where a teacher teaches and some students assimilate and follow directions . This regardless of the amount of technology introduced in the educational process . The courses MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) have emerged in recent times as an aspiration to overcome old problems of education and thus get a more comprehensive education , universal, democratic and free. This informative article and research format, check MOOC taught several courses in 2013. The study concludes that educational practice MOOC courses show that there is a strong technological determinism and social determinism that still leaves the old education and educational formats even without specifying new patterns of education.

Education has changed little in the last century . This is explained in the continued proliferation of literature that asks , hopes or dreams of new and improved forms of education. But we are still with the old idea of the classroom, where a teacher teaches and some students assimilate and follow directions . This regardless of the amount of technology introduced in the educational process . The courses MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) have emerged in recent times as an aspiration to overcome old problems of education and thus get a more comprehensive education , universal, democratic and free. This informative article and research format,check MOOC taught several courses in 2013. The study concludes that educational practice MOOC courses show that there is a strong technological determinism and social determinism that still leaves the old education and educational formats even without specifying new patterns of education. ; La educación poco ha cambiado en el último siglo. Este hecho se constata en la continua proliferación de literatura que pide, aspira o sueña con nuevas y mejoradas formas de educación. Pero aún seguimos con la vieja idea del aula, donde un profesor enseña y unos estudiantes asimilan y siguen indicaciones. Esto con independencia de la cantidad de tecnología introducida en el proceso educativo. Los cursos MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) han surgido en el último tiempo como una aspiración más a superar los viejos problemas de la educación y así conseguir una educación más integral, universal, democrática y gratuita. Este artículo de formato divulgativo y de investigación, revisa varios cursos MOOC impartidos el año 2013. Del estudio se concluye que la práctica educativa en los cursos MOOC evidencian que existe un fuerte determinismo tecnológico y determinismo social que sigue dejando la educación en los viejos formatos educacionales y aún sin concretar nuevos patrones de educación.