Postgraduate Course: Understanding Technology (PGSP11353)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offers a broad foundational and critical understanding of technology and its development and role within modern society, exploring where new technologies come from, the power and politics of technology, and how innovation happens in practice. It is intended to be useful both to students looking to conduct their own empirical research studying complex emerging technologies, as well as to those intending to go into technology and innovation policy or related fields. We incorporate the most up-to-date research from our own department and the wider University directly into the course, giving students a glimpse into the forces shaping the emerging technologies of today, from AI to biotechnology and space exploration.
We will introduce the field of technology and innovations studies, exploring a range of theoretical and methodological approaches for studying both new emerging technological developments, and the large-scale infrastructures and already-existing technologies which shape the world around us. Through case studies of particular technologies - spanning those in our domestic lives, in industrial contexts, and from local to national, regional and global settings - we will unpack the technical, social, economic and political dimensions that shape their design and use; recognising that the production and use of technologies have important gender, race, and class dynamics. We will cover not only the politics of technology, but how design and innovation work - how national strategies can promote innovation, how companies attempt to achieve strategic advantages, and how a range of different actors the direction of technological development.
This course will be of interest to students from across the social sciences, but we very much welcome students from the natural sciences, engineering, arts and humanities, who want to critically engage with the changing role of technology and innovation in society. This course is also designed to complement the course Science, Knowledge, and Expertise. It is particularly useful for students who may eventually want to take more advanced courses in science and technology studies, or work in policy and technology analysis, for which this course provides a good, foundational grounding. |
| Course description |
This course offers a foundational understanding of the social study of technology, focusing on the relationship between technology, innovation and society. It encompassing theoretical approaches, concepts and key empirical studies that form the canon and state-of-the-art in social research and critical thinking on technology. Students are introduced to different social science approaches for understanding the design, development, use and circulation of technologies as well as how they are governed - from those we encounter in everyday, domestic life to industrial contexts, and from local to national, regional and global settings. In addition to theoretical and conceptual approaches, the course provides students with relevant methodological skills for studying technologies and other artefacts, and skills directly relevant to technology policymaking. This is a research-led course - in addition to concepts and methodological approaches, we will draw on classic case studies as well as cutting-edge research from our colleagues working at the forefront of STS and emerging technoscience.
Outline Content
Introduction: What is technology? The relationship between technology and society and the politics of technology
Foundational debates: we explore the key frameworks that have emerged for understanding the relationship between technology and society - how technologies take on their particular forms and who gets to shape them.
Technological Systems and Entrenchment: bringing in a range of insights from economic and industrial studies of technology, we explore how technologies become successful and ¿hard¿ parts of social life, and how new disruptors can shake up the landscape
Technology embedding & sociotechnical transitions: building upon the previous week we explore various writers who have mapped out opportunities to purposively resist, embed novel or sustain entrenched technologies
Technology and infrastructure - we then explore a range of ways in which we can move from looking at individual technological artefacts or products to large-scale digital and other infrastructures
Technology exclusion and inclusion : This session explores the development of feminist and postcolonial analyses of technology and explores the lessons this may offer for processes of exclusion for technology development.
Technology design and the user: Design has been seen as a key moment in technology developer - but capturing the 'user needs' for novel artefacts has often seemed problematics. We explore evolving understandings of the design-user relationship and examine the mutual shaping of technology and its users. This paves the way for exploring the Biography of Artefacts and Practices
Digital technologies, AI, and new controversies: in this session we explore the particular dynamics of emerging digital technologies, the issues they pose, and how we might design or govern them differently.
New challenges for technology policy and governance: The dynamism of technology development seems to pose a challenge to attempts to promote and regulate technological innovation. However new approaches are emerging whereby we may seek to anticipate and modulate innovation processes
The future and relevance of STS: in this final class we explore in particular the role played by Edinburgh University in founding the discipline of STS and its wider role as a hub of production of new knowledge about technoscience.
The course will be delivered through weekly lectures and seminars. Students will prepare presentations for at least one seminar and will contribute to discussion of the readings and topics for each week. Students will be encouraged to bring their particular substantive interests and concerns to the course, to foster a lively culture of enquiry exploring linkages between key theoretical debates, detailed empirical evidence and discussion of implications for policy and practice. Discussions will seek to develop a critical appreciation of knowledge in the field. Achievements here will be reflected in their performance in seminar presentations, the book review and in particular the final essay.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 45 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 25,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
A combination of a book review (25%) half way through the semester and a long essay (75%) at the end.
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| Feedback |
The course aims to cater for students from diverse educational backgrounds, including those transferring from science and engineering as well as social scientists (we do not presume prior knowledge). We seek to foster an ability to develop critical analysis of complex developments, demonstrated though a well-craft end of course essay. We provide briefings to assist students in their seminar presentations, the book review and in selecting and developing their essay topic. Detailed feedback on the (mid-semester) book review will be geared towards identifying weaknesses and strengthening analytical and writing skills (formative assessment) in time to inform the final essay. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- to have acquired a substantive knowledge and understanding of a range of theoretical approaches, conceptual tools and methodologies for studying the relationship between technology, innovation and society, and a critical appreciation of the contending viewpoints and claims of those theories
- to be able to apply and critically evaluate this learning in relation to a variety of empirical cases
- to be aware of how an appreciation of the social dimension of technology can help to inform public and policy debate
- to have developed their skills in finding, evaluating and analysing information about technology and its role in the modern world
- to have developed their abilities to convey complex ideas through written and oral means - particularly through essay writing and seminar presentations.
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Reading List
Though there are no core texts for this course, there is a body of work, including the books listed below, that inform our work and that you may wish to become acquainted with over the course.
Bijker, W., T. Hughes & T. Pinch (eds.) (1988) The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Bijker, W. & J. Law (eds.) (1992) Shaping Technology/Building Society, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Clark, N. (1985) The Political Economy of Science and Technology, Oxford: Blackwell
Collins, H. & T. Pinch (1998) The Golem at Large,
Coombs, R., P. Saviotti & V. Walsh (1987) Economics and Technological Change, London: Macmillan
Elliot, B. (ed.) (1988) Technology and Social Process, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Feenberg, A. (1991) Critical Theory of Technology,
Feenberg, A., T.J. Misa & P Brey (2003) Modernity and Technology,
Freeman, C. & L. Soete (3rd ed., 1997) The Economics of Industrial Innovation, London: Pinter
Hackett, E. J., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M. and Wajcman, J. (eds) (2008), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Third Edition, MIT Press (also 1st edn, eds Jasanoff, Markle, Petersen & Pinch 1994)
Kirkup, G. & L.S. Keller (1992) (eds.) Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender, Milton Keynes: Open University
Law, J (ed.) (1991) Sociology of Monsters, London: Routledge
MacKenzie, D. (1996) Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
MacKenzie, D. & J. Wajcman (eds.) (2nd ed., 1999) The Social Shaping of Technology, Buckingham: Open University Press (also 1st edition 1985)
McLaughlin, J. et al. (1999) Valuing Technology,
McLoughlin, I (1999) Creative Technological Change, London: Routledge
Rip, A. et al. (eds.) (1995) Managing Technology in Society
Rosenberg, N. (1976) Perspectives on Technology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rosenberg, N. (1982) Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Scarborough, H. & J.M. Corbett (1992) Technology and Organisation
Sørensen, K. and R. Williams (eds.) (2002) Shaping Technology, Guiding Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
Wajcman, J. (1991) Feminism Confronts Technology, Cambridge: Polity
Webster, A. (1991) Science, Technology and Society: New Directions, London: Macmillan
Westrum, R. (1991) Technologies and Society: the Shaping of People and Things, Belmont CA: Wadsworth
Williams, R., J. Stewart and R. (2005) Social Learning in Technological Innovation: Experimenting with Information and Communication Technologies, Edward Elgar: Aldershot
Journals
Many journal papers are available electronically, at: http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/serials/ejintro.shtml
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society Science, Technology, & Human Values
History & Technology Social Studies of Science
IEEE Technology & Society Magazine Technology and Culture
MIT Technology Review Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
New Technology, Work & Employment Technology in Society
Research Policy Science, Technology, & Human Values
Science & Public Policy Social Studies of Science
* item particularly recommended ¿ minimum essential reading for lecture or seminar question
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ben Collier
Tel:
Email: Ben.Collier@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Casey Behringer
Tel: (0131 6)50 2456
Email: Casey.behringer@ed.ac.uk |
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