Technocracy as a Cultural Imperative: Pro and Contra

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose—To consider the phenomenon of technocracy associated with trends in the development of modern society. To substantiate that the high demand by society for holders of special knowledge opens up the opportunity for technocrats to occupy leadership positions, both in industrial and scientific spheres. A layer of techno-bureaucracy is being formed, the dominance of which is associated with several systemic contradictions and threats. In particular, the use of an accurate scientific approach is increasingly orienting the techno-bureaucracy towards the use of the methodology of cybernetic control, which makes it possible to program citizens for the meanings of activity constructed by administrators and to create a formed image of the surrounding reality. To propose a variant of overcoming the risks of managing the technical bureaucracy based on the ancient concept of “techno”. Design/methodology/approach—The study is based on the principles of dialectical logic, in particular, the principle of the unity of the historical and the logical, which made it possible to consider the transformation of technocracy, highlighting the features of early and late technocracy. Through analytical procedures, the systemic contradictions and threats associated with the dominance of the techno-bureaucracy are revealed. The principles of post-nonclassical rationality, which consider the correlation of the knowledge gained about the object not only with the peculiarity of the means and operations of the activity but also with the value-target structures, made it possible to find a way to overcome the risks of technocratic management based on the antique concept of “techno”. Findings—There is no doubt that in a technogenic society, where technologies construct new objects of the material world with qualitatively different properties that did not previously exist in nature, forcing a person to perceive the surrounding reality through the prism of technological systems, technocracy plays a fundamental role. But for technocracy not to bring society to the point where the future becomes a problem, adherents of the idea of technocracy could use the concept of the antique “techne”, that is knowledge that contains the recipe for “how to do it. If “techne” relies only on practice, it becomes a bare procedure and lacks understanding, it is low-grade techne, craftwork in the worst sense of the word. But there is another feature of techne that allows us to consider it an art, namely the sharpness of techne towards high values. Ethical and social imperatives should become part of the values of modern technocrats. Originality/value—The scientific novelty of the research is connected with the substantiation of the problem of the research topic. The modern science and technology revolution have opened up incredible opportunities for a wide variety of technological innovations that are changing the relationship between the techno-sphere and the biosphere. With the increasing conflict and risk interaction of technology, nature and social systems, society is increasingly in need of a “ruling of experts” with systemic thinking—technocrats. Technocracy gains the status of a cultural imperative, as a set of institutions and forms of culture necessary for the survival of any society, ensuring the satisfaction of vital needs, including the care of the young generation, the transfer of knowledge, the management of conflicts, etc. Risks and threats associated with the dominance of the technical bureaucracy arise. Research/Practical/Social/Environment implications—Fixing an existing contradiction in the phenomenon of technocracy makes it possible to reveal that, on the one hand, scientific competence in making managerial decisions at the stage of project preparation allows technocrats to act as experts on individual problems that need to be weighed against potential environmental, climatic, and sociobiological consequences. On the other hand, technology deforms the deep meanings of human interaction in society, standardizes the life of a person and the whole of society. Ethical and social imperatives should become an integral part of the values of modern technocracy. Research limitations—Modern social reality is increasingly aggravated by the growing processes of the digitalization of society, which affect the work of the power-management vertical, digital control is becoming a priority. There is no guarantee that technocrats will always adequately interpret, understand and reflect the interests of society and individual social groups. Increasingly, technocrats are accused of not calculating the social consequences of their decisions and generally ignoring issues of social policy, including, first of all, issues of equitable distribution of benefits.KeywordsTechnocratic determinismTechnocratsTechno-bureaucracySocio-technical orderDemocracye-learningDigital control