The Technological Construction of Social Power

Abstract

This essay presents a theory of the role of technology in the distribution and exercise of social power. The paper studies how technical artefacts and systems are used to construct, maintain or strengthen power relations between agents, whether individuals or groups, and how their introduction and use in society differentially empowers and disempowers agents. The theory is developed in three steps. First, a definition of power is proposed, based on a careful discussion of opposing definitions of power, and it is argued that a theory of power should have two components: a theory of power relations and a theory of empowerment. Second, an analysis of power relations is presented, in which five basic types of power relations between agents are distinguished, and this analysis is applied to technology, resulting in an account of the possible roles of technical artefacts in power relations. Third, I analyse how technology can lead to or contribute to empowerment and disempowerment, and what resistance strategies are possible against disempowerment through technological means. The theory of technology and power presented in this paper is claimed to be an essential ingredient of a critical theory of technology, which is a theory that analyses and critiques the role of technology in the distribution and exercise of power in society. In the final section of this paper, it is argued that the theoretical analysis of power and technology presented in this paper provides an adequate basis for the further development of such a critical theory of technology. I study how it may, specifically, be used to develop strategies for the democratization of technology.

Keywords:

• Politics of technology
• Social power
• Empowerment
• Critical social theory
• Resistance to technology
• Democratization of technology

Notes

[1] In this essay, I will use the notion of “technology” in a restricted sense to denote technical artefacts (manufactured products, devices and systems). I will not include technical knowledge and skills as species of technology, although I believe that much that I will say about artefacts also holds for technological knowledge and skills; such knowledge and skills are, after all, human‐made artefacts as well.

[2] Actually, speed bumps may both coerce and force behaviour; drivers usually slow down in advance for them to avoid a major impact, but speed bumps may also force vehicles to slow down through such an impact.

[3] Just like a tyrant could be voted into office in a democratic election, a democratization of the process of developing and implementing technology need not yield technologies that themselves support democratic practices. However, just like democratic elections tend to yield democratic governments, democratic technology development will probably yield democratic technologies.