下面是og 12 版閱讀402頁的 原文和學生翻譯。自信原文看懂沒問題的同學也不妨試著自己翻譯一下。
www.yentzu.idv.tw Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and sociology of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism.
Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determinant of social and managerial organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism.
The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological determinism: technological determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization.
Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he defines “technology” in terms of relationships between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semielectronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark attributes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: “When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?”
JC研究關於電波交換維持作業及員工的現代化的影響,對兩個熱門的議題在歷史和社會的科技上的爭論,有著具體的貢獻;這兩個熱門議題分別是科技決定論與社會構成論。
C的觀點在於科技的角色在工作技術與工作組織上,有一種決定性的影響。更進一步說明即是;科技對於社會和管理組織可以是一個主要的決定因素。C相信這個可能性已經被顯露在現代社會的主流趨勢, 例如B的分析, 強調機械化影響社會的選擇。對B來說, 科技系統的型態是附屬於經理階層對於從員工掠奪人力的控制權的渴望。科技的改變是建構在與利益團體溝通的產出,這些利益團體企圖把他們自身的利益體現到機械化的設計及型態。這個情形代表一個新的主流,稱之為社會構成論。
建構學家錯誤的詮釋(代表)科技決定論,普遍被大眾所接受,他們認為:科技決定學家是假設相信,例如,機械化提升了適當的社會秩序形式。另一個構成主義的觀點,換句話說,是將科技視為存在於社會之外的,有直接影響技能跟工作組織的能力。
C同時以理論主義與經驗主義的論述,反駁構成論學家極端的言論。理論主義方面他定義”科技”是介於社會與科技多變的關係。企圖減低對科技的詮釋,將科技限定於冷硬金屬的定義是必然失敗的,因此以機械化來定義科技,是碎片不全的,除非它能被功能性的組織以及以適當的系統運行及維持所支持。在經驗主義階段,C顯現出電波交換的改變如何從維持密集電子機械化的轉換系統到半電子系統轉換系統,以轉換工作方法、技能、訓練機會、管理以及員工的組織。有些改變C歸類為一種特殊的形式,管理階層與公會交涉溝通關於科技的介紹;相較於其他被視為提升能力及科技的本質。因此C的研究幫忙回答了問題: 何時社會選擇決定性及何時科技具體的角色可以更重要?