[CITASA] Will the real sociology of technologies stand up?

[Andrea Tapia]

Hello CITASA folks.

As many of you know, I work in an I-school (Information school) and am the
only sociologist on the faculty.

Recently I have been asked to define the "sociology of technology/ies" This
has been a surprisingly difficult task.
What I have been doing is staking out boundaries, stating what it is not,
therefore, what I'll have left is what it is, right?

So far I have removed the following, Sociology of Technology/ies may overlap
with--but is NOT science and technology studies, not the sociology of
science, not the sociology of knowledge, not the sociology of
communications, not social informatics, not a bunch of theories like
Structuration/Actor Network/SCOT/SST/Institutionalism/network science etc.

So, I ask you, what is left? What do we do that is unique? What are our core
competencies?

I've found a couple readings that have helped a bit, but I am hoping some of
you can aid me in my quest.


1.     Shields, Mark A. 1997. ³Reinventing Technology in Social Theory.²
pages 187-216. Is a book chapter in...Current Perspectives in Social Theory:
1997 By Jennifer M. Lehmann, Ben Agger Published by Emerald Group Pub Ltd,
1997

 
2.    Saskia Sassen ³Towards a Sociology of Information Technology,² Current
Sociology, May 2002, Vol. 50(3): 365­388 SAGE Publications