Seven Concepts in the Structure of Contemporary Technology
This paper discusses the seven concepts of contemporary technology that Langdon Winner identifies in his essay "Artifacts/Ideas and Political Structure." Winner's observations into how technology embeds itself into the culture and brings with it not only benefits but also drawbacks provide revealing insights on the cultural "baggage" that accompanies our use of technology in our everyday lives. Two technologies are used as examples to illustrate these seven concepts-surveillance technologies and media-related technologies-and the paper concludes with reflections on how an understanding of the relationships between the concepts and society's use of technology can be used with a view to leveraging their advantages and minimizing their disadvantages. At the same time, benefits, concerns, problems, and potential will be discussed where relevant.
In his essay "Artifacts/Ideas and Political Culture," Langdon Winner (87) identifies seven concepts that are present in the structure of contemporary technology-the centralization of power, few talking and many listening, barriers between social classes, a hierarchically structured world, unequal distribution of good things, differing competencies between women and men, and the openness of one's life to "continual inspection." As Winner (85) points out, "Many of the things we like to think of as mere tools or instruments now function as virtual members of our society," and this has certainly been the case with new technologies. He associates the artifact of a technological tool with related ideas and shows how they work in tandem to become part of the political culture. For Winner, a cell phone is not just a handy means of communication; it is an artifact embedded in our culture that correlates with mainstream ideas and forms an indelible part of the culture, and it brings with it cultural baggage.
Thi...