Christian Kehr, Peter Schüßler and Marc-Denis Weitze (eds.), Neue Technologien in der Gesellschaft. Akteure, Erwartungen, Kontroversen und Konjunkturen, Transcript Verlag, 2011
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17062
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2038-3460
17062
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en
Mareike Glöss
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Christian Kehr, Peter Schüßler and Marc-Denis Weitze (eds.), New Technologies in Society. Actors, Prospects, Controversies and Conjunctures, Transcript Verlag, 2011
Text.Serial.Journal
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Book Reviews
2013-01-06
2023-05-28
2013-01-06
2023-07-14
180-183
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Mareike Glöss
2012
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17062
180
Uppsala University
2038-3460
2
en
183
Christian Kehr, Peter Schüßler and Marc-Denis Weitze (eds.), New Technologies in Society. Actors, Prospects, Controversies and Conjunctures, Transcript Verlag, 2011
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17062/15950
3
180   BOOK REVIEWS




      today we talk about techno-ethical          Christian Kehr, Peter Schüßler and
      harmony with bioethics).                        Marc-Denis Weitze (eds.)
      Even though early signs of an interest
      in techno-ethics have come from              Neue Technologien in der
      Wiener’s thoughts, at the end of the           Gesellschaft. Akteure,
      sixties (about limits and values in the    Erwartungen, Kontroversen und
      emerging Computer Science), it can                 Konjunkturen
      be said that this issue was finally
      opened in Moor’s article, “What is          (New Technologies in Society – Actors,
      Computer Ethics?” (1987), in which,             Prospects, Controversies and
      prophetically, the author pointed out                  Conjunctures)
      that the main ethical problems would
      come       during      the     machine        2011, Transcript Verlag, 363 pp.
      assimilation as part of humanity, and
      that this stage would be necessarily                  Mareike Glöss
      followed by a long period of                        (Uppsala University)
      technological development. Compu-
      ter malleability was the main reason       The here presented edited collection
      of its ability to change processes in      seeks to give an overview over new
      which it was used. Before discussing       technologies in society, analyzing the
      some interesting cases (e.g. Simputer,     multitude of actors and factors that
      Miss Bimbo) Bennato notes that an          are entangled with it.
      ethical perspective becomes crucial        The theoretical foundation is hereby
      for social sciences, which are facing      building on social construction of
      epochal changes in which the role of       technology (Bijker et. Al., 1987) as
      technology is undeniable.                  the editors emphasize in their
      This work by Davide Bennato looks          introducing chapter. However, the
      like having two different sides: on the    approach this collection is taking
      one hand a historical review of            analyzes technology as one of factors
      technological,     social,    scientific   besides others and thereby rather
      events; on the other hand a critical       shaped by the social than constructed
      approach to the main theories              (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1999).
      concerning social media and Web            The work originated from a research
      2.0, which, without a precise re-read      project that was located at the
      of these labels, are now at risk of        German Museum in Munich. The
      becoming buzz words. This ambi-            main idea was to bring together
      valence is an essential quality of this    scholars from social, philosophical,
      well organized book with a rich            historical fields and discuss the
      bibliography and lists of websites.        different    dimensions     of    new
                                                 technologies along concrete case
                                                 studies. At the same time the
                        ***                      collection also includes contributions
                                                 from actors of the discussed new
                                                 technologies – natural scientists and
                                                         TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)       181




engineers – in order to “understand       tion of different technologies in
their motives, experiences and            society (Marvin, 1988). It is through
interests” (p. 17).                       this discussion that is taken up
The idea of conducting a research         throughout the book – amongst
project about the various social          other by Högselius (chapter 7),
dimensions of new technologies that       Heymann (chapter 10) and Barben
is not only involving scholars from       (chapter 13) – that the collection is
social sciences but also represent-       able to connect the discussed new
atives from those fields that are         technologies with their perception in
actually developing and working with      society.
these new technologies is at the same     The second part deals with different
time appealing as well as challenging.    aspects of energy, whereas a certain
The edited collection approaches          focus lies on how to meet the
new technologies by bringing              increased demand for energy in
together scholars from various            modern       societies.    After    an
disciplines in order to account for the   introduction (Dittmann, chapter 6)
heterogeneity of this field – and is to   that discusses the availability of
some extent successful in doing so.       energy as a central concept,
The book is divided into five parts.      Högselius (chapter 7) as well as
While the first part is dealing with      Günter and Milch (chapter 8) are
the concept of new technologies, the      approaching nuclear energy from
following parts are discussing            different directions. While both
different kind of technologies:           chapters ask the same question – if
Energy, information and communi-          nuclear energy is the energy of the
cation technology (ICT), bio and          future – both come to different
nanotechnology.                           conclusions. Here the interdisci-
The first part of the book offers         plinary approach – one contribution
different     approaches     for    the   giving a historical perspective, the
conceptualizing of new technologies.      other coming from the Max-Planck
Kornwachs (chapter 2) introduces          institute for plasma physics – shows
this part with a discussion about the     its potential by creating an insightful
concept of “new”. Thereby the very        discourse between a more techno-
relevant question is discussed in how     deterministic and a more social-
far new technologies can be really        constructivist perspective.
considered as new and how the             Unfortunately this discourse of the
perception of new technologies is         first two chapters is not continued in
changing over time. Radkau (chapter       part three. While Mainzer (chapter
3) continues this discussion but takes    12) gives a good overview over the
a more historical focus. The term         development        towards      today’s
‘new technologies’ as a highly relative   information and communication
term has been discussed before and        technologies, such as robots or smart
the historical focus has proven to be     grids, the following contributions
valuable for evaluating the percep-       present a rather unreflected descrip-
182   BOOK REVIEWS




      tion of some of these technologies.       tive and with a very strong emphasis
      Herzog describes ubiquitous compu-        on the German science landscape.
      ting and the components it is built of    The interdisciplinary approach that is
      but does not manage to reflect on the     presented here shows its strength
      change of social perception of            through its diversity. The chosen
      computing.                                articles present a very wide range of
      And even though Aumann (chapter           different disciplines, but are very
      15) shows the complex relationship        much focused on setting new
      between public and science in             technologies into their historical
      regards to the perception of cyber-       context. This creates a discursive
      netics and bionics, the whole part        character that is over wide parts very
      does not manage to reach a higher         insightful.
      analytical level.                         On the other hand this interdiscipli-
      Part four – in contrast to the            nary approach shows its weakness
      foregoing part – does provide a much      when it comes to embedding all
      more thorough image. Thereby the          contributions into a theoretical
      authors manage to work out public         framework – in particular in relating
      controversies      around       ethical   it to the chosen socio-constructivist
      considerations (Gill, chapter 16),        approach. Some of the chapters do
      economical significance (Müller-          not      overcome      their     rather
      Röber and Weitze, chapter 17) and         technological deterministic point-of-
      governmental        funding      policy   view. This is demonstrated for
      (Wieland, chapter 18).                    instance by the repeated uncritical
      Similarly strong as part four is the      reference      to     Moore’s       law
      fifth part that is dealing with nano-     (exemplified by MacKenzie and
      technology. Hereby the focus lays         Wacjman 1999) and particularly in
      not so much on a mere description of      those contributions that are coming
      new technologies but instead              from the applied science. Setting
      accomplishes to explore a variety of      those contributions into a stronger
      interesting     aspects,    such     as   theoretical context could have
      Schummer’s (chapter 20) discussion        enhanced this collection. However,
      of nano-technology as a program-          the reader can compensate this
      matic idea or Blümel’s (chapter 21)       deficit easily by keeping the critical
      analysis of Germany’s research            mindset that is presented in some of
      funding policies.                         the articles in particular in the first
      At the first glance the book presents     part. Then this collection will be very
      a very broad perspective on new           valuable to those readers that are
      technologies from the point-of-view       interested in the contemporary
      of a multitude of different               German scientific landscape in the
      disciplines. On a closer look it shows    field of new technologies.
      that the book has a strong focus on
      science and research policies in          References
      particular from a historical perspec-     Bijker, W. E., Hughes and T. P. and Pinch,
                                                    T. J. (1987) The Social construction of
                                                            TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)        183




  technological systems: new directions in   Marina Maestrutti bases her analysis
  the sociology and history of technology,   on the description of nanotechnology
  Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.                  as a field where the future is regularly
MacKenzie, D. A. and Wajcman, J. (1999)
  The social shaping of technology (2nd
                                             referred to. An overlying discourse
  ed.), Buckingham Eng., Philadelphia,       made of “industrial revolutions” is
  Open University Press.                     part and parcel of the development
Marvin, C. (1988) When old technologies      of the field, associated with elements
  were new: thinking about electric          coming directly from science–fiction.
  communication in the late nineteenth       The book analyzes in details what
  century, New York, Oxford University       many nanotechnology scholars have
  Press.
                                             been concerned with in the past few
                                             years, namely the futuristic accounts
                                             that accompany the development of
                   ***
                                             nanotechnology. Marina Maestrutti
                                             describes some of these accounts,
                                             including those grounded on self-
           Marina Maestrutti
                                             replicating nano-machines, and the
Imaginaires des nanotechnologies.            perspectives     of    radical    social
 Mythes et fictions de l’infiniment          transformations based on human
                petit                        enhancement. She discusses them
                                             along      three    lines,    examined
 (Nanotechnology Imaginaries. Myths and      successively in the three parts of the
     Fictions of the Infinitely Small)       book: the major narratives that were
                                             produced with the development of
        2012, Vuibert, 272 pp.               nanotechnology, the visions of the
                                             future of nanotechnology, and the
                                             imaginaries of body transformations.
              Brice Laurent                  Throughout the book, the underlying
          (CSI, Mines ParisTech)             philosophical themes of the control
                                             over nature, the making of utopia
An English translation of the title of       and      counter-utopia,    and      the
Marina Maetrutti’s book might be             transformation of the human body
“Nanotechnology Imaginaries”. The            are studied in details. The discourses
term “imaginary” (imaginaire in the          related to nanotechnology then
original French) is central to               appear as re-activations of long-term
understand the analysis of the “myths        issues in philosophical thinking.
and fictions of the infinite small” (the     While analyzing these long-term
subtitle of the book) that Maestrutti        issues, Marina Maestrutti elegantly
proposes. It allows her to identify          describes the roots of argumentation
pervasive tensions in technological          regarding nanotechnology’s applica-
discourses, and it suggests a path for       tions, by pointing to a series of
the political analysis of scientific         dichotomies that pertain to the
development. I will discuss these two        constructing      of     meaning      of
points successively.
