MASTERARBEIT - Institut für Wissenschaftsforschung - Universität ...

4.1 sts-approaches and conceptions to be used 29
thinking.« [2, 281] Technological determinism argues for technologies
to have essential features and qualities. These qualities, according to
technological determinism, decide upon their success and the impact
they have on social structure. As they are inherent in the artifact,
their impact and thus also their development is forseeable and walks
down a prescribed path. My approach, however, does not follow this
perception but of course assumes the technological and the social coevolve
and form each other. As Sismondo [45, 101] puts it: »To accept
that technologies do not have essences is to pull the rug out from
under technological determinism.«
Further core conceptions of SCOT are the terms stabilization and closure.
Those refer to the interaction/negotiation of meaning. According
to SCOT, the interactions between relevant social groups lead to a
»emergence of consensus and stabilization« [40, 424]. Thereby, they
refer to the development on one predominant and shared perception
of a technology. Usually, SCOT says, »one artifact, that is, one meaning
as attributed by one social group - becoming dominant across
all relevant social groups.« [2, 271] Once this stabilization progresses,
the discourse about the technology will eventually experience closure
through consensus. Then finally there is one meaning of a technology
that is widely shared. This does, however, not mean that only one perception
exists. Rather, it means one perception is predominant and
commonly agreed upon. Individuals or groups may still disagree.
Yet this consensus does not necessarily mean anything has actually
happened.
»Closure in technology involves the stabilization of an
artefact and the ’disappearance’ of problems. To close a
technological ’controversy’ the problems need not to be
solved in the common sense of that word. The key point
is whether the relevant social groups see the problem as
being solved. In technology, advertising can play an important
role in shaping the meaning which a social groups
gives to an artefact.« [40, 427]
How closure is achieved differs: problems can ’disappear’ through
technological progress, they can be ’solved’ by changing surrounding
conditions or they can, as one might see later in this piece, find closure
through a redefinition of what the actual problem was and what
it was that one was disagreeing about.
The summary given of count Zeppelin‘s endeavor to create rigid
airships gives a very nice example of such struggles and unforeseen
difficulties. Again and again, Zeppelin interacted with relevant social
groups, in his case (at least early on) mostly the Prussian military
administration, about the interpretation of his technology – in
that case mainly about whether the technology was seen as having
enough potential to be worth fundingits further development. As has
been shown, Zeppelin also looked for support by various groups and