Abstract
Is it really possible to redirect technology, and if so, what does if take to do it? These were among the questions that were on my mind when I first joined with the project; and, while I still feel there is no definite answer, I would like to share some reflections from the outside on what it might take and how I would interpret the project in that respect.
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References and Notes
In June 1982, I arrived in UMIST for half a year’s stay with a fellowship from the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Technical Research. My own aim was to study the influence of engineering design knowledge and practice on the qualities of the resulting production technology — in particular qualities that potentially affect skill requirements and control in the working situation. Methodologically it would be favourable to conduct such a study in a context where precisely that influence was explicitly discussed. Professor Rosenbrock generously agreed to have me in the position of a participant observer in his project, which was one of the two projects in Europe that to my knowledge could provide such a setting at that time.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, On the art of cutting metals, 1906 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
A great publicly funded research effort to determine optimal cutting data in four large Norwegian firms some years ago was only partially successful; one problem was that these data turned out to be specific to local context.
Michael Polanyi, Personal knowledge, 1958 (Routledge and Kegan Paul). Richard R. Nelson and Sidney G. Winter, An evolutionary theory of economic change, 1982 (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).
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See for example Harry M. Collins, Changing order, 1985 (Sage), on the difficulty of replicating experiments without having really taken part in the original ones. Polanyi (see ref. 4) also stresses heavily the personal character of scientists’ knowledge.
Pelle Ehn, personal communication.
Håkon Finne, A case study on the development of a flexible assembly system, in K. Rathmill and P. MacConaill (editors), Computer integrated manufacturing, 1987 (IFS/Springer-Verlag).
See i.a. Peter Mambrey and Barbara Schmidt-Belz, Systems designers and users in a participative design process, in U. Briefs, C. Ciborra and L. Schneider (editors), Systems design for, with, and by the users, 1983 (North-Holland), for similar findings.
Herbert Kubicek, User participation in systems design, in Briefs et al. (see ref. 12), summarises some of the context variables that seem more important than the actual systems development tools.
Philip G. Herbst, Community conference design, Human futures, summer 1980.
Håkon Finne, Henning Neerland and Tore Nilssen, Bedre montasjejobber? 1984 (Institute of Social Research in Industry, Trondheim).
Thomas S. Kuhn, The structure of scientific revolutions, second edition, 1970 (University of Chicago Press).
Arne Jakobsen, personal communication.
Helmut Rempp, The economic and social effects of the introduction of CNC machine tools and flexible manufacturing systems, in L. Bekemans (editor), European employment and technological change, 1982 (European Commission).
Bente Rasmussen, Fagarbeid og ny teknologi, 1984 (Institute of Social Research in Industry, Trondheim).
Håkon Finne, Organizational alternatives in the integration of CAD/CAM, in Michael Rader, Bernd Wingert and Ulrich Riehm (editors), Social science research on CAD/CAM, 1988 (Physica-Verlag).
Bruno Latour, Science in action, 1987 (Open University Press).
Frits Prakke (editor), John Bessant, Håkon Finne and Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen, Human factors in systems design: methodology and cases in factory automation, 1987 (TNO, Apeldoorn).
Upon the initiative of the international production engineering organisation CIRP, a working group is putting forward a research proposal to the ESPRIT programme about design methodologies and criteria for human factors in computer integration, and they aim specifically at senior designers as a target group for their research results.
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When gathered at their 1987 conference, most delegates seemed to be more concerned with maintaining their programmes in face of university cutbacks than with integrating disciplines; redirection of technology as a goal was not mentioned once.
Otto Ullrich, Technik und Herrschaft, 1979 (Suhrkamp).
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Finne, H. (1989). (How) Can Technology be Redirected? A Scandinavian Perspective. In: Rosenbrock, H. (eds) Designing Human-centred Technology. The Springer Series on Artificial Intelligence and Society. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1717-9_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1717-9_7
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