From Silent to Talkative Participants: A Discussion of Technique as Social Construction

Recent research on the social construction of technology stresses the importance of investigating the negotiation between all interests in production and reproduction. This article presents the weaknesses and strengths of the so-called theory of social shaping of technology. The authors are sceptical as to the ability of this tradition to explain the fact that workers are silent participants in negotiations. In an account of a project called 'Industry and Happiness' the authors argue that attention must be paid to workers' life situation and not only to their work experience. They further claim the need for unhindered cooperation between experts and workers, articulating perspectives and utopian ideas of democratic industrial production.