Langdon Winner
Encyclopedia
Langdon Winner is Professor of Political Science
in the Department of Science and Technology Studies
at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
, Troy
, New York
since 1990.
In 1973, Winner graduated with a Ph.D.
from the University of California, Berkeley
. He was assistant professor in Leiden, at MIT, at the University of California, Los Angeles
and at the University of California, Santa Cruz
. From 1985 onwards he worked at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; he was a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College
.
Winner lives in New York. He is married to Gail P. Stuart and has three children. His interests include philosophy of technology
, American popular culture
, and theories of sustainability
.
Winner is known for his articles and books on science, technology, and society. He also spent several years as a reporter and contributing editor for Rolling Stone
magazine.
The second way in which artifacts can have politics refers to artifacts that correlate with particular kinds of political relationships, which Winner refers to as inherently political artifacts (Winner, p. 22, 1999). He distinguishes between two types of inherently political artifacts: those that require a particular sociological system and those that are strongly compatible with a particular sociological system (Winner, p. 29, 1999). A further distinction is made between conditions internal to the workings of a given technical system and those that are external to it (Winner, p. 33, 1999). This second way in which artifacts can have politics can be visualized as a 2-by-2 matrix, consisting of four ‘types’ of artifacts: those requiring a particular internal sociological system, those compatible with a particular internal sociological system, those requiring a particular external sociological system, and those compatible with a particular external sociological system.
As are all typologies, this matrix is a simplification-by-boundary-work – in this case, the two boundaries are drawn between requiring and compatible, and between internal and external. It is this boundary-work
that makes the typology useful for avoiding extreme technological determinism
, social constructivism
, and noetic flatness in conceptualizing an artifact’s political qualities, and for thinking about how these qualities change through time.
Applied to Wikipedia itself, Winner’s first way in which artifacts can have politics asks about the process of a Wikipedia’s development and whether it was/is somehow biased. The second way asks whether Wikipedia requires or is compatible with particular internal or external sociological systems.
Winner's thesis has been criticized by other scholars, including Bernward Joerges
.
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
in the Department of Science and Technology Studies
Science and technology studies
Science, technology and society is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these, in turn, affect society, politics and culture...
at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
, Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
since 1990.
In 1973, Winner graduated with a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. He was assistant professor in Leiden, at MIT, at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
and at the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
. From 1985 onwards he worked at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; he was a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College is a private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds....
.
Winner lives in New York. He is married to Gail P. Stuart and has three children. His interests include philosophy of technology
Philosophy of technology
The philosophy of technology is a philosophical field dedicated to studying the nature of technology and its social effects.- History :Considered under the rubric of the Greek term techne , the philosophy of technology goes to the very roots of Western philosophy.* In his Republic, Plato sees...
, American popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, and theories of sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
.
Winner is known for his articles and books on science, technology, and society. He also spent several years as a reporter and contributing editor for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine.
Technology and politics
In 1980 Winner proposed that technologies embody social relations i.e. power. To the question he poses "Do Artifacts Have Politics?", Winner identifies two ways in which artifacts can have politics. The first, involving technical arrangements and social order, concerns how the invention, design, or arrangement of artifacts or the larger system becomes a mechanism for settling the affairs of a community. This way “transcends the simple categories of ‘intended’ and ‘unintended’ altogether, representing “instances in which the very process of technical development is so thoroughly biased in a particular direction that it regularly produces results heralded as wonderful breakthroughs by some social interests and crushing setbacks by others” (Winner, p. 25-6, 1999). It implies that the process of technological development is critical in determining the politics of an artifact; hence the importance of incorporating all stakeholders in it. (Determining who the stakeholders are and how to incorporate them are other questions entirely.)The second way in which artifacts can have politics refers to artifacts that correlate with particular kinds of political relationships, which Winner refers to as inherently political artifacts (Winner, p. 22, 1999). He distinguishes between two types of inherently political artifacts: those that require a particular sociological system and those that are strongly compatible with a particular sociological system (Winner, p. 29, 1999). A further distinction is made between conditions internal to the workings of a given technical system and those that are external to it (Winner, p. 33, 1999). This second way in which artifacts can have politics can be visualized as a 2-by-2 matrix, consisting of four ‘types’ of artifacts: those requiring a particular internal sociological system, those compatible with a particular internal sociological system, those requiring a particular external sociological system, and those compatible with a particular external sociological system.
As are all typologies, this matrix is a simplification-by-boundary-work – in this case, the two boundaries are drawn between requiring and compatible, and between internal and external. It is this boundary-work
Boundary-work
In science studies, boundary-work comprises instances in which boundaries, demarcations, or other divisions between fields of knowledge are created, advocated, attacked, or reinforced...
that makes the typology useful for avoiding extreme technological determinism
Technological determinism
Technological determinism is a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. The term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen , an American sociologist...
, social constructivism
Social constructivism
Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophical constructionism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings...
, and noetic flatness in conceptualizing an artifact’s political qualities, and for thinking about how these qualities change through time.
Applied to Wikipedia itself, Winner’s first way in which artifacts can have politics asks about the process of a Wikipedia’s development and whether it was/is somehow biased. The second way asks whether Wikipedia requires or is compatible with particular internal or external sociological systems.
Winner's thesis has been criticized by other scholars, including Bernward Joerges
Bernward Joerges
Bernward Joerges is a professor of sociology at Technical University of Berlin and director of the Metropolitan Research Group, Berlin....
.
Selected articles
- "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" in Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1, Winter 1980. Reprinted in The Social Shaping of Technology, edited by Donald A. MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman (London: Open University Press, 1985; second edition 1999). Also adapted in Winner's book "The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology", University of Chicago Press, 1986.
- "Social Constructivism: Opening the Black Box and Finding It Empty," Science as Culture, Vol. 3, part 3, no. 16, pp. 427–452.
- "How Technology Reweaves the Fabric of Society," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 39, Issue 48, August 4, 1993, pp. B1-B3.
Selected books
- Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought, M.I.T. Press, 1977. (ISBN 978-0262730495)
- The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, University of Chicago Press, 1986. (ISBN 978-0226902111)
- Technology and Democracy, (editor), Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel/Kluwer, 1992.
- Technology and Democracy: Technology in the Public Sphere, co-edited with Andrew Feenberg and Torben Hviid Nielsen, Oslo: Center for Technology and Culture, 1997.