Technologized Communications as Artifact/Discourse/Relation: The Case of the Technological City

Woodward, Wayne D.

doi:10.1177/1532708603254350

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…This transition in TD across communication platforms is, in fact, a recurring theme in the literature. Woodward (2003) wrote, “modernist designs for technologized communications have transformed contemporary cities and, arguably, now determine their character.” In today’s society, Borgmann (2000) explained, “these instances of how computers have invaded our lives … represent something of the effect of cyberspace has had on identity and character” (p. 194).…”

Section: Regulation and Radical Change Sociologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While technopoly (Poster, 1995b) implied the perpetuation of stratifications in technologized communities (Woodward, 2003), Feenberg (1999) argued that technologycan also be used to undermine the existing social hierarchy or to force it to meet needs it has ignored. This principle explains the technical initiatives that often accompany the structural reforms pursued by union, environmental and other social movements.…”

Section: Regulation and Radical Change Sociologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organizing and reframing technological determinism

Paragas

Lin

2016

New Media & Society

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Technological determinism (TD) has been critiqued as reductionist, ahistorical, and simplistic. This article, however, presents its complexity by showing four of its typologies according to the axes of objective/subjective dimensions and regulation/radical change sociologies based on Burrell and Morgan’s Four paradigms for the analysis of social theory. Through a survey of the literature and theoretical arguments about new media and their possible consequences on political, economic, and cultural systems, the article shows how TD and social determinism constitute a continuum, rather than a dichotomy, of theories about the relationship of technology and society. It recommends the revisiting of Burrell and Morgan’s concepts and their utility in organizing other communication theories.

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Section: Regulation and Radical Change Sociologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Regulation and Radical Change Sociologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizing and reframing technological determinism

Paragas

Lin

2016

New Media & Society

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“…By this concept, I mean the ways that technological systems, especially those that produce representations of data, strip away social context, leaving a disembodied and highly abstract depiction of the world and of what matters in it. The act of filtering out bodies and social contexts facilitates a kind of control at a distance that is the hallmark of modern surveillance systems (Dubbeld, 2003;Woodward, 2003). In the process of producing abstract representations that can be monitored and controlled, however, social inequalities and experiences tend to drop out of the equation.…”

Section: Theoretical Orientation: Gender and Technology Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreams of Control at a Distance: Gender, Surveillance, and Social Control

Monahan

2008

Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies

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Modern surveillance systems operate upon masculine logics of disembodied control at a distance. As such, they artificially abstract bodies, identities, and interactions from social contexts in ways that both obscure and aggravate gender and other social inequalities. This article explores the gender dimensions of surveillance systems in several public domains: welfare, healthcare, and transportation. By exposing the dominant rationalities of such systems and critiquing the discourses that support them, one can challenge the supposed neutrality of such technologies and question the power relations to which they give rise. The goal of this article, therefore, is to introduce a new line of inquiry into gender and surveillance, one that perceives surveillance as operating on the level of abstraction but with embodied effects for women and men.

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“…The practical-critical position meets this challenge by viewing meaning making as a matter of transactions (Woodward 1996(Woodward , 2000a(Woodward , 2000b(Woodward , 2001 between dominant institutional coalitions and their publics. Transactions are (a) social/cultural, or symbolic, exchanges that depend on (b) material, environmental conditions required to support exchange, as well as (c) interpersonal, or mutual-personal, relations that are also basic to exchange patterns (see Bruner, 1986;Dewey & Bentley, 1949;Woodward, 1996Woodward, , 2001Woodward, , 2003. These three factors, or "triadic" (see Woodward, 1996) levels of transaction-(a) symbolic, (b) material/environmental, and (c) relational-are interdependent and mutually conditioning, so that each level must be understood in terms of its connections with the other two.…”

Section: Practical-critical Planning and Action In Participatory Publmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Relations Planning and Action as "Practical-Critical" Communication

Woodward

2003

Commun Theory

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A practical-critical approach to communication contends that critical analysis should have practical consequences, specifically to extend participation and to introduce innovative forms of communication. Planning and action process models in public relations illustrate the approach. The practical-critical position develops out of a reconstructive revision of existing, instrumental models. The emphases are (a) variabilities and contingencies in communication, (b) temporal sequencing of cooperative activity, (c) conditions of uncertainty that are part of pursuing a shared focus through joint activity, and (d) the interdependent relations among material, symbolic, and relational dimensions of process planning and action. The practical-critical framework provides for continuous, dialectical analysis of a central focus of activity, while deriving benefits from the sequencing of cooperative effort. Communication Theory Volume ThirteenCommunication Theory 412 lated contributions fall short of bridging divisions between critique and the theorizing of practical methodologies. Successful synthesis requires a practical-critical approach to public relations. This perspective supports progressive possibilities inherent to a social, economic, political, and cultural environment in which public relations activities play an increasingly central role in public life and discourse (Davis, 2002). Craig (1989) pointed toward the practical-critical concept when he described the purpose of communication as a practical discipline "to cultivate communicative praxis, or practical art, through critical study" (p. 98). He considered this approach to be an extension of empirical, hermeneutic, and critical traditions (p. 107). This article presents parallel models: instrumental, reconstructive, and practical-critical.The discussion proposes a revised framework for designing and carrying out four-stage planning and action sequences in public relations. The analytical focus is temporal sequencing (Couch, 1990, pp. 20-28) of communicative activities. Temporal sequencing, especially "interpersonal timing" of cooperative activity, "underlies all social activity" (p. 23). A practical-critical perspective is required to explicate this processual aspect of public relations planning and action.These observations support a focus on process planning and action models:1. Process models are underdeveloped in the public relations literature when compared with typological models (J. Grunig & Hunt, 1984, pp. 21-43). Typological models risk becoming static descriptions of structural features unless categorical descriptions are supplemented by emphasis on dynamic "micro interactive processes" (Turner, 1988, pp. 10-11) that contribute to the derivation of structures. Established typological models are now being revised to emphasize dimensions of process (J. Grunig, 2001), and further contributions are necessary.2. Existing process models tend to be mainly outlines of standard steps based on "professional axioms" (Van Leuven, 1989). These do not provide an ad...

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Technologized Communications as Artifact/Discourse/Relation: The Case of the Technological City

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

Organizing and reframing technological determinism

Organizing and reframing technological determinism

Dreams of Control at a Distance: Gender, Surveillance, and Social Control

Public Relations Planning and Action as "Practical-Critical" Communication

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