Ulrich Dolata, Wandel durch Technik. Eine Theorie soziotechnischer Transformation, Campus, 2011
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16869
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Paolo Volonté
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Ulrich Dolata, Change by means of technology: A theory of sociotechnological transformation, Campus, 2011
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Book Reviews
2011-12-29
2023-04-28
2011-12-29
2023-07-06
136-140
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Paolo Volonté
2011/12/29
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16869
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2038-3460
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Ulrich Dolata, Change by means of technology: A theory of sociotechnological transformation, Campus, 2011
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/16869/15843
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136   BOOK REVIEWS




      Macpherson, C. B. (1962) The Political         changes it differently for every
          Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hob-   person, because the world in which
          bes to Locke, Oxford, Oxford University
          Press                                      we live is never the same world for
      Pickering, A. (1992) Science as Practice and   every individual. The example of
          Culture, Chicago, The University of        digital technology is enlightening in
          Chicago Press                              this regard. In the past thirty years,
      Rogers, R. (2010) Internet Research: The
          Question of Method, in “Journal of
                                                     the array of correlated and
          Information Technology and Policy”, 7      complementary technological innova-
          (2/3)                                      tions known as the Internet has
                                                     produced conspicuous changes for
                                                     human beings. But these changes
                                                     have not been equally radical in all
                                                     spheres of life. Consider two spheres
                         ***                         which are substantially different: the
                                                     manufacture of automobiles and the
                                                     production of music (but also its
                                                     consumption).
                                                         The entry of Internet into
                    Ulrich Dolata                    automobile manufacture has brought
         Wandel durch Technik. Eine                  changes in, for example, the
          Theorie soziotechnischer                   circulation of information between
              Transformation                         the manufacturer and its suppliers, or
                                                     between the manufacturer and its
      (Change by means of technology: A theory
                                                     sales network. In an era of the large-
        of sociotechnological transformation)        scale relocation of production and
              2011, Campus, 170 pp.                  the massive spread of outsourcing,
                                                     the Internet has become a crucial
                                                     resource for the operation of the
                    Paolo Volonté                    automotive industry. But, despite its
                (Politecnico di Milano)              enormous impact, the Internet has
                                                     not provoked radical transformations
                                                     in the sector. Instead, it has become
          The face of modern society is              an important tool with which to
      determined not only by the                     support the car industry’s existing
      technologies that we use but also by           organizational, institutional, and
      the changes that they undergo. Our             structural bases.
      lives have been marked by cars for a               Something very different has
      century but the digital revolution is          occurred in the field of music produ-
      now changing them more than any                ction. Until the end of the 1990s the
      social movement has ever been able             sector was dominated, from the
      to do. However, it is not doing so for         technological point of view, by the
      everybody in the same way. Tech-               compact disc. Because this device
      nology changes the world but                   was not easily duplicated, it
                                                          TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)       137




guaranteed substantial monopoly for         now standard in the literature (Flichy
a group of five global players. But the     1995) – that is an error to consider
propagation of the Internet and the         social change deterministically as an
diffusion of new systems of data            effect of the technological innova-
compression like MP3 have had               tion, or technological innovation as
disruptive socio-economic conse-            an effect of social change. Rather, it
quences for the music industry, its         should be understood in the more
actors and institutions. The con-           specific sense that the social impact
sumption of music has shifted from          of a technological innovation is never
hi-fi systems to the computer, from         uniform because it may vary
CDs to file-sharing, from a ‘solid’         substantially according to the socio-
activity (tied to places, objects, costs)   economic sector considered. Hence,
to a ‘fluid’ one (without any material      it makes no sense to ask what the
constraint). On the production side,        impact of the Internet has been on
this has revolutionized the landscape       contemporary societies, because
of economic actors and legal rules          there has not been one repercussion.
(contracts, copyright). On the                 This is the context from which
distribution side, this technological       Ulrich Dolata’s book on technology-
revolution has led to the disappe-          induced change springs. It breaks
arance of a large number of actors          this change down into its technical
(the majority of record stores) and         and social components, and it
the appearance of entirely new              reconstructs, on the basis of a series
players in the online music business.       of empirical examples drawn from
    In short, the same technological        various socio-economic sectors, the
innovation (Internet) has had wholly        multiple forms that it may assume.
different effects on two distinct           The aim of the book is not so much
socio-economic sectors. In both cases       to develop a unitary theory of socio-
it has induced renewal of the social        technical change as to highlight the
and economic landscape, but in the          main variables on the basis of which
car industry it has contributed to the      it takes shape. These variables
survival and the strengthening of the       concern, not the type of innovation
old system of actors, organizations         and its extent, but the inextricable
and institutions, whereas in the music      interaction between a certain tech-
industry it has provoked a revolution.      nical-material transformation and a
    Comparison between these two            particular social context undergoing
cases prompts the following general         change.
consideration: technological innova-           What, therefore, are these
tion can be understood neither by           variables? Dolata identifies three of
relating it to society as a whole nor       them: the force with which a
by considering technology in                technology penetrates a socio-econo-
isolation from its contexts of appli-       mic sector; a socio-economic sector’s
cation. This point must be                  capacity to adapt to technological
understood, not in the sense – by           changes; and the mutable gradual-
138   BOOK REVIEWS




      ness of the overall transformation           capacity for adaptation to be merely
      according to the sector.                     adjustment to a given new techno-
          The strength of technological            logy, because technologies are never
      penetration (covered in chapter 4)           “given”; rather, they are the momen-
      indicates the capacity of an innova-         tary result of a process of continuous
      tion to enter and proliferate in a           transformation which from its
      certain socio-economic sector and            embryonic stage onwards induces
      follows from the fact that, when             adaptive reactions in the socio-
      technologies enter or develop in that        economic sectors in which it occurs.
      sector, they are not without                 Technology ‘in itself’ is merely an
      consequences. That is to say, they do        idea that comes in handy for the
      not simply integrate with the existing       simplifications of sociologists and
      context of actors, organizations, and        journalists.
      institutions but change it more or less          Finally, the gradualness of trans-
      radically. Now, this ‘more or less’ –        formations (chapter 6), measures
      such variability – derives from the          their progress in time. Every
      fact that the intensity of penetration       technological change is gradual; it
      does not depend on the technology            does not happen through abrupt
      in itself but on the specific situation      revolutions. Typically, a socio-
      of its encounter with the socio-             economic sector moves through
      economic sector. A technological             phases of discontinuity lasting a
      innovation will have greater strength        couple of decades, during which a
      of penetration, the more it is               new       socio-technical    paradigm
      important for the reproduction of the        replaces the previous one. Even the
      sector in question, and the more             most radical innovations come about
      resistant it is to inclusion within that     gradually, and there is no opposition
      sector’s regulatory framework.               between gradualness and radicalness
          The social capacity to adapt to          in technology-driven change. Fo-
      technological changes (covered in            cusing on this aspect enables Dolota
      chapter 5) consists in how a sector          to investigate the broad space lying
      and its actors come to terms with the        midway between the two extreme of
      new      technological      possibilities.   persisting continuity and the sudden
      Technological innovations create             and radical revolutions. It is in this
      opportunities to open new markets,           broad space that true change usually
      to introduce new forms of                    happens.
      interaction, and to update a sector’s            To avoid any misunderstandings,
      normative. But if all this is done, and      it should be pointed out that, when
      the way in which is done, are the            Dolata speaks of socio-economic
      outcomes of social processes which           sectors he is not referring to
      are triggered by the impact of               industrial sectors: He therefore does
      technological innovation but not             not embrace an economicist para-
      determined by it. Moreover, Dolata           digm. Those sectors are indeed
      rightly does not consider a sector’s         marked by a certain type of industrial
                                                          TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)         139




production, but they are cha-              and documented use of empirical
racterized to an equal extent by other     cases concerning socio-economic
types of social actors: consumers,         sectors affected by technology-
stakeholders of various kinds,             induced change (particularly the
political parties and public agencies,     automobile       industry,      pharma-
the     media,     research    centres,    ceuticals, information technology,
associations of every sort. Clearly, the   and music) gives factual solidity to
socio-economic sector of music             the treatment which yields under-
coincides to only a minimum extent         standing of the concrete content of
with the industrial sector of music        the abstract concepts presented.
production, and this applies to every          Dolata teaches at the University of
other sector. These are instead            Stuttgart, but he originates from the
organizational fields, in the sense        Max-Planck Institut für Gesell-
given to the expression by Paul            schaftsforschung of Cologne, which
DiMaggio (DiMaggio and Powell              in the past twenty years has
1983), characterized by specific           produced, thanks to the work of
regulatory patterns, actors’ constel-      Renate Mayntz and Raymund Werle,
lations, and forms of interaction. But     a large body of German research on
they are also socio-technological          technological innovation (see Dolata
sectors, because none of them could        and Werle 2007). This is the cultural
operate without its specific technical     context of Dolata’s new book,
frame, which is not merely a               perhaps the first in which he
derivative product but a crucial           systematically addresses the topic of
structuring factor. Overall, they are      technological innovation. In some
sectors governed by social structures      respects, this cultural background is
and institutions which shape and           both a strength and a weakness of the
delimit the choices of those               book: a strength because it does not
belonging to them.                         facilely imitate the best-known
    Dolata’s    argumentative      style   theoretical approaches in circulation;
reveals a Kantian passion for lists,       a weakness because at times the
schemes and classifications which          discourse seems extraneous to the
may irritate readers more attentive to     lively international debate. I refer not
nuances and, especially, more              only to discussion within STS but
interested in dynamics, mechanisms,        also,    and     especially    to    the
and causal relationships. Never-           sociological theory of recent decades.
theless, this approach enables Dolata      Some of Dolata’s theses closely recall,
to construct a good conceptual             by similarity or difference, the
framework within which to analyze          theories of Bourdieu, Hannerz or
and     understand      socio-technical    Latour, but without expressly
change, to make comparisons among          interacting with them, so that it is left
similar or different phenomena, and        to the reader to reconstruct the
to highlight the possible outcomes of      overall picture. This, in fact, is a
ongoing transformations. The broad         defect shared by many forms of
140   BOOK REVIEWS




      ‘applied’ sociological inquiry. It has
      given rise to a proliferation of local
      and particularist studies whose
      contribution to the growth of
      knowledge is essentially restricted to
      transitory and contingent problems
      and situations, thus replicating, I
      submit, on a small scale what general
      sociology has already sustained on
      the large one.


      References

      DiMaggio, P., Powell W.W. (1983) The Iron
          Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism
          and Collective Rationality in Organiza-
          tional Fields, in “American Sociological
          Review” 48 (2), pp. 147-160.
      Dolata, U. Werle R., (eds) (2007) Gesellschaft
          und die Macht der Technik: Sozioö-
          konomischer und institutioneller Wandel
          durch Technisierung, Campus, Frankfurt
          a.M.
      Flichy, P., (1995) L'innovation technique.
          Recents developpements en sciences socia-
          les, vers une nouvelle theorie de l'innova-
          tion, La Decouverte, Paris.
