new technology
new technology Any set of productive techniques which offers a significant improvement (whether measured in terms of increased output or savings in costs) over the established technology for a given process in a specific historical context. Defined thus, what is seen as new' is obviously subject to continual redefinition, as successive changes in technology are undertaken.
At the time of writing, the current new technologies that are of most interest to sociologists are the information and communications technologies based on micro-electronics, the application of which is said by some to be revolutionizing the organization of work. Among the trends which have been identified as alleged consequences of these technologies are those towards de-skilling, proletarianization, automation, telecommuting, flexible employment, just-in-time systems, and the creation of dual or split labour-markets and a new international division of labour—all of which are dealt with separately in this dictionary. The assumed effects of new technology sometimes form the basis for apocalyptic accounts of wholesale social change—as, for example, in the theories of post-industrial and self-service societies.
Systematic sociological research invariably reveals that all of these tendencies and theories are overstated by their authors, and that the social and political impact of new technologies is complex and contingent, being subject to variations in managerial strategies, worker resistance, and a host of other cultural and political circumstances (see, for example, the series of case-studies reported in B. Wilkinson 's The Shopfloor Politics of the New Technology, 1983
).
At the time of writing, the current new technologies that are of most interest to sociologists are the information and communications technologies based on micro-electronics, the application of which is said by some to be revolutionizing the organization of work. Among the trends which have been identified as alleged consequences of these technologies are those towards de-skilling, proletarianization, automation, telecommuting, flexible employment, just-in-time systems, and the creation of dual or split labour-markets and a new international division of labour—all of which are dealt with separately in this dictionary. The assumed effects of new technology sometimes form the basis for apocalyptic accounts of wholesale social change—as, for example, in the theories of post-industrial and self-service societies.
Systematic sociological research invariably reveals that all of these tendencies and theories are overstated by their authors, and that the social and political impact of new technologies is complex and contingent, being subject to variations in managerial strategies, worker resistance, and a host of other cultural and political circumstances (see, for example, the series of case-studies reported in B. Wilkinson 's The Shopfloor Politics of the New Technology, 1983
).
More From encyclopedia.com
Technophobia , The word technophobia derives from the Greek words techne, an art or craft, and phobia, fear. As Hal Hellman notes, this word is most often used to r… Technology , Kristine Bruland
The relationship between technology and social history raises two kinds of considerations. The initial section of this essay takes a… Technological Innovations , Change, Technological
Technological change refers to the process by which new products and processes are generated. When new technologies involve a n… Technological Society , technological society
technological society Some writers argue that there is a distinctive type of society, typically emergent from various forms of… Technology Transfer , One of the main ways in which the Internet and e-commerce provide value is through the transfer of information between different entities, be they co… Stakeholders , The stakeholder concept derives from a simple premise: Organizations and technologies exist in constellations of relationships. Organizations operate…
About this article
new technology
All Sources -
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
new technology