Socio-Technical Networks: How a Technology Studies Approach May Help to Solve Problems Related to Technical Change

This paper is motivated by a desire to deal with the problematic aspects of technical development. To achieve this, we need a new approach to the analysis of socio-technical change. In this paper we develop such an approach, called the 'Socio-Technical Networks' (STN) approach. The basic concepts of this approach, and its application, are illustrated in a case study of the development of the European Fighter Aircraft. In the final section, some suggestions are made as to how the STN approach can help to induce technological change in a direction that is considered desirable from a broader societal perspective, and how the approach should be further elaborated.