Technology and Social Problems

Many social problems have important technological aspects. At the same time, it is usually impossible to identify a single, purely technological cause for the problem, nor is it in most cases possible to identify a single technological solution. In practice, such problems can best be understood by conceptualizing the social and the technical as mutually constitutive. It then follows that specific technologies can help reproduce and exacerbate social inequalities, and that unjust social relations can be conducive to the emergence of “bad” technologies. Social exclusion, offshoring, and humankind's proliferating ecological footprint are exemplary problems that have significant social as well as technological aspects. In addition, it is important to realize that technological change in general comes together with social change, and that these at a deeper level correlate with changing moralities, epistemologies, and ontologies. By consequence, technological societies are highly dynamic and reflexive, and the ensuing complexity might itself become socially problematic.