技术社会学研究的兴起与现状

The Rise of the Sociology of Technology and its Development

早期的技术史家以及科学社会学家从技术的外部宽泛地讨论技术与社会的关系.强调把技术作为一种社会现象,从社会的角度来解释人类的技术活动,其研究成果为技术社会学的形成奠定了必要的基础。20世纪80年代,在STS研究出现“技术转向”的背景下,一批研究者突破了技术与社会的边界,将“技术-社会”视为一个整体化型式,从技术的内部考察技术的社会特征,从而形成技术社会学的三种主要经验研究纲领。进入90年代以后,原有的研究纲领继续得到发展,同时,由于人类学家、文化研究者等介入技术的社会研究,技术社会学开始演变成一个多元化的跨学科研究领域。

The early historians of technology and the sociologists of science discuss the relationship between technology and society by approaching external aspects of technology and explain man's technological activities by looking at its sociological facets. Their research laid an essential foundation for the formation of sociology of technology. In the1980s, with STSs turn to technology, some researchers break the border between technology and society, exploring the social characteristics from the inner side of technology, and proposing three major empirical programmes. In the 1990s, the sociology of technology has become a multidisciplinary field because of the contribution by anthropologists and cultural researchers to the social researches of technology.