Technology standards and technology social development

Abstract

It is common for studies on technologies to adopt a deterministic perspective, according to which technologies, seen as exogenous factors, decisively influence societies, affecting their actions. This approach can not adequately describe the complex process of production and use of technology, which is circular, recursive. This essay argues for the need of research on organizations and technology to adopt a different perspective, considering technology in its social context, not within nor outside, but as inseparable part of the social context. In this perspective the concepts of circularity and solidarity of technologies receive the necessary attention and make it easier to understand where the technology does not achieve the expected results, despite its technical potential. In this sense, patterns, - units of measure or set ways for performing a given activity - offer an important opportunity to exercise this proposed approach. Given that standards are answers to the coordination problem for activities involving multiple participants, to study the establishment of technological standards, seeking to identify the social factors that led to its development and adoption, and emphasizing the explanation of the structures built on these standards, can help to improve the understanding of important social phenomena, particularly in the field of organizational studies.