Of Artifacts, Analysis and Alliteration: Theory and Politics in Constructivist Technology Studies

Abstract

This book is a welcome and, for me, long-awaited, addition to MIT Press's 'Inside Technology' series. It is essentially an extension of the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach that Bijker has been developing over the last decade along with Trevor Pinch and others. This book amalgamates and expands three of Bijker's published case studies, along with his account of how SCOT can be grounded politically.' At its most basic, then, it tells the story of the early development of bicycles, Bakelite and fluorescent lighting, set in the context of broader theoretical and political objectives with regard to STS generally, and the sociology of technology more specifically. The artifacts studied are each discussed in relation to the early stages of design and diffusion, and together exemplify a range of technological possibilities: product and process innovations; mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering; and artifacts aimed at both consumer and industrial markets. What is missing here is a balance between innovation and later stages in a product's life, but then that is not this book's objective. Bijker sparks the reader's interest in each of the three artifacts by means of an intriguing puzzle which his theory of sociotechnical change aims to solve: why did the apparently anomalous highwheeled bicycle appear chronologically in between two different