Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

Objects in Flux
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stability within the social field is examined in relation to function and
narratives of use. Narrative is found to be both a stabilising force and
a means by which objects may be reinvented through changing social
conditions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the political
nature of this reinvention. Through Michel de Certeau’s conception
of production and consumption as ‘modalities of action’, the object is
established as a dynamic site where strategies of control and tactics of
use play out.
2.2 The social construction of objects
In The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts, Pinch and Bijker
argue that both scientific facts and technical artefacts can be understood
as social constructs (1984). This understanding draws on social
constructionist theory based in the Sociology of Knowledge, which
claims that meaning is constructed by human beings through an
engagement with the world. Within this framework, all meaningful
reality is socially constructed. Pinch and Bijker expand this theory to
show how social forces shape technological developments and influence
the form, function and meaning of technological artefacts.
The notion of ‘social construction’ stands in contrast to more traditional
understandings of technology based in ‘technical determinacy’
where technology ‘impinges on society from outside’ (Cockburn &
Ormrod, 1993, p. 8). From a determinist perspective, technology is
driven by scientific discovery or moments of ‘individual inventive
genius’ (Cockburn & Ormrod, 1993, p. 8). The effect of technology is
thus seen as inevitable and society has a limited influence. Hence determinism
acts as a conservative force that tends to ‘preserve existing
power relations and disguise the possibility for social change’ (Cockburn
& Ormrod, 1993, p. 8). Failure to recognise the social forces
that shape technological change causes these forces to ‘disappear’ and
technological change is made to appear ‘natural’.
Rather than looking to causal relations outside the social sphere,
constructionist theory maintains that meaning arises from the interactions
between elements within society. The social connectedness of
these elements and the ways in which meaning is produced has been
understood through various theories of structuralism, social phenomenology,
poststructuralist textualism and intersubjectivity (Reckwitz,