<p> The Google Books project is germane for examining underappreciated dimensions of social justice and access to information from a Rawlsian perspective. To date, however, the standard account of Rawls as applied to information and technology has focused almost exclusively on rights to access and information as a primary good (Drahos 1996; van den Hoven and Rooksby 2008; Duff 2011). In this dissertation, the author develops an alternative to the standard account&mdash;the sociotechnical account&mdash;that draws on underappreciated resources available within discussions of Rawls' work. Specifically, the author focuses on the importance of Rawls' basic structure argument and the value of self-respect&mdash;two ideas that figure prominently in Rawls' theory and have been discussed extensively by its critics. After developing this alternative account, the author undertakes a disclosive ethical analysis of Google Books from a social justice perspective. As a method, disclosive ethics is concerned with identifying morally opaque features of artifacts and systems. Following Brey (2000; 2010), the analysis proceeds along three levels: theoretical, disclosure, and application. At the <i>theoretical level</i>, extant Rawlsian applications are scrutinized and rearticulated in light of advanced informational and technological practices. At the <i>disclosure level</i>, morally opaque dimensions of Google Books are disclosed as relevant to self-respect and social justice. In particular, the author focuses on three dimensions of the Books project that would go otherwise overlooked on the standard account of Rawls: quality of scans and metadata, visibility of indexes in Books' preview mode, and Google's conception of the value of information. At the <i>application level</i>, disclosed dimensions are examined according to both the standard and sociotechnical accounts. Ultimately, the author shows how, on a sociotechnical account, these three dimensions of Google Books raise otherwise overlooked questions regarding social justice, information, and technology today..</p>

<p> The postmodern worldview wanes as the millennium turns and the Millennial Generation matures; at the same time, we rapidly launch into the digital age. Information technology is developing into a changeable, networked system of devices and interfaces that profoundly shapes our professional, intellectual, and social lives. Online reading and navigation influence epistemology and perception; similarly, engagement with ergodic texts, i. e., print and film texts that require significant effort to traverse, results in enhanced cognition. Prismatic perception is a neologism that describes an emerging mythology of the mind in the information age. This fantasy of omniscient perception is rooted in images of potentiality networked with connecting strands that construct an image of a centerless web, similar to Indra's Net and the World Wide Web. </p><p> Literary theory draws on both art and philosophy and therefore directly reflects an era's defining characteristics. Deconstruction as described by Jacques Derrida serves as a precursor to hypertext theory; these two theories work collaboratively to delineate this emerging era. Reader response theory emphasizes the reader's role and correlates with the expanding participation and power of readers, writers, and creators in digital formats. Recombinant art, i. e., collaged and remixed creations that play and interact with other artists' previous works, proliferates as the culture of free and open sharing rises. </p><p> This dissertation illustrates the concept of prismatic perception with mythological symbols and images of infinity drawn from literature and film, particularly the works of Jorge Luis Borges, the Chinese classic <i> I Ching,</i> Mark Z. Danielewski's novel <i>House of Leaves,</i> and Christopher Nolan's films <i>Memento</i> and <i>Inception. </i> This work examines current issues concerning social aspects of technology, particularly recent controversies over information access. Postmodernism was characterized by the prefixes post- and de-; the prefixes that best suit the emerging era are meta- and re- as people generate, investigate, contemplate, rework, and participate in the vast accumulation of connecting and interacting information and ideas. </p><p> Keywords: Information society; information technology&mdash;social aspects&mdash;forecasting; technology&mdash;social aspects; computers and civilization; Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899-1986; deconstruction; reader-response criticism.</p>

Diese philosophische Untersuchung erfasst den Begriff technologisches Artefakt durch eine kontextuelle und relationale Explikation im Rahmen der Satzform „X ist ein technologisches Artefakt“. Die relevanten Kontexte dieser Satzform bilden dabei die Handlungsformen Entwurf, Verwendung und Herstellung. Die Handlungsformen werden durch die Verwendung von idealen Planstrukturen voneinander und hinsichtlich anderer Handlungsformen unterschieden. Mit der Explikation als Sinnanalyse der Satzform wird das Verhältnis von technologischen Handlungszusammenhängen und materieller Welt begrifflich aufgeklärt. Der Sinngehalt der Zuschreibung wird durch die Charakterisierung von systematischen Verbindungen zwischen den Repräsentationen der Handlungsformen aufgewiesen. Als die Grundform dieser Repräsentationen werden Handlungsanweisungen in Imperativform eingeführt. Neben den anaphorischen Verbindungen der Handlungsanweisungen bildet die technologische Typenbeziehung eine wichtige relationale Charakterisierung des technologischen Zusammenhangs. Die technologische Typenbeziehung beschreibt das Auftreten von Produktionsgegenständen in technologischen Typen und ergibt sich aus der Handlungsform der Herstellung. Typen von Produktionsgegenständen werden durch die Identität von Herstellungsplänen gebildet. Die mit der Sinnanalyse der Satzform gewonnenen begrifflichen Mittel werden schließlich auf die Interpretation von funktionalen und normativen Aussagen im technologischen Kontext angewendet. Abschließend wird gezeigt, wie verwandte Phänomenbereiche wie Kunstwerke, Spiele oder Materialien und Stoffe begründet abgegrenzt werden können.

This dissertation is a contribution to two fields of study: applied social epistemology and the philosophy of technology. That is, it is a philosophical study, based on empirical fieldwork research, of social and technical knowledge. Social knowledge here is defined as knowledge acquired through the interactions between epistemic agents and social institutions. Technical knowledge is here defined as knowledge about technical artefacts (including how to design, produce, and operate them). I argue that the two must be considered collectively both in the sense that they are best considered in the light of collectivist approaches to knowledge and in the sense that they must be considered together as part of the same analysis. An analysis solely of the interactions between human epistemic agents operating within social institutions does not give adequate credit to the technological artefacts that help to produce knowledge; an analysis of technical knowledge which does not include an analysis of how that technical knowledge is generated within a rich and complex social network would be similarly incomplete. I argue that it is often inappropriate to separate analyses of technical knowledge from social knowledge and that although not all social knowledge is technical knowledge, all technical knowledge is, by definition, social. Further, the influence of technology on epistemic cultures is so pervasive that it also forms or 'envelops' what we consider to be an epistemic agent.

An original project for a taxonomy of organisation-technology became over time an exploration of some of the meanings and contexts of technology. The exploration began with the critique of selected instances of landmark theorising and empirical research on the technology concept. The critique raised issues in epistemology and methodology which caused this writer to address the philosophy of the social sciences and the philosophy of technology at certain points: the question of technological determinism; language and metaphor; ideology; construct validity. Chapters One and Two of this thesis reflect the quest for connections in meta-theory, as the remaining chapters reflect the quest for meanings and contexts of technology in organisation and society. The case studies of landmark theory and research on technology led into more of a generic enquiry into the nature and claims of a contingency theory of organisation and management. An analysis of landmark cases and of contingency theory suggested that a formalist or empiricist approach to technology and organisation had produced no clear conceptualisation of technology, nor of any other contextual or performance factors. No panacea for organisation-design has emerged from this quarter. A rather broader arena of the division and re-combination of labour was then approached. Analysis suggested that technology and the division of labour are not mere surrogates of managerial control but arenas continually contested by organisation and society participants. They are not givens with resident characteristics to be read out but occasions of choice ongoingly negotiated. Whereas the thesis began with notions of a static and cognitivist taxonomy it developed into a study of certain images of technology, with the valencies of technology deriving from its various contexts of meanings and matrices of values. The thesis concludes with the view that formalism of much contemporary organisation-theory needs to be amplified by a broadly phenomenological understanding.

My research is a critical examination of technology policy discourse between four organizational groups: Alberta Education, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) and the Alberta School Councils’ Association (ASCA). I adopt a discursive theoretical position, to examine how education policy promotes a way of thinking about technology by endorsing some values over others and is therefore qualitative. One overarching question and a related sub-question guide my inquiry: 1. What ways of thinking about technology are evident in Alberta’s education policy discourse? • What relationship exists between the ways of thinking about technology in Alberta’s education policy discourse and nodal discourses, specifically, the knowledge-based economy and globalization? The literature base informing my inquiry encompasses three fields of research, the philosophy of technology, education policy and critical organizational discourse. Since my study is based on technology policy in education through an interest in discourse, meaning and power, I employ critical discourse analysis to excavate the common sense notions and assumptions in documents and interview data from the four organizations. Feenberg suggests the various ways of thinking about technology can be summarized into four categories, instrumentalism, determinism, substantivism and critical theory (1999). Feenberg’s model (1999) serves as a lens through which to roughly classify the philosophical positions of the organizations. The findings illustrate technology policy discourse in Alberta is divided along the values axis between the ATA and ASCA taking up substantivist and critical theory positions and Alberta Education moving between instrumentalist or determinist positions. In addition, the data suggests a value-neutral view of technology has dominated the discursive field with significant implications on implementation. Despite the apparent philosophical divide in the ways of thinking about technology in education, the concept of 21st century learning emerged across all four philosophical positions. My findings point to a need for future policy dialogue to adopt a more philosophically inclusive and balanced approach to ensure the potential of technology to support student learning does not go unrealized or continue to narrowly support technical goals.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the transactional and transformative relationships between automobiles and their owners/drivers. Using the sport/utility vehicle as a case study, I show how both the automobile and its user go through transformations of meaning. These transformations take place on a number of levels. The one that I am most concerned with is how the sport/utility vehicle changes the owner's conception of his or her identity. To elucidate these relationships, I appropriate Michel Foucault's concept of "technologies of the self". I use C. S. Peirce's work on the theory of signs, in conjunction with the work of several other pragmatists (including John Dewey, G. H. Mead, and Joseph Pitt) to fill out this Foucaultian idea. This forms the theoretical core of my essay. I go on to analyze the historical formation of the sport/utility vehicle, beginning in World War II through the present. I then bring together the history and my theoretical perspective. In this analysis we find that the sport/utility vehicle is a way for middle-class suburbanites to transform themselves in world they perceive as increasingly dangerous. / Master of Science

Philosophy of technology (PoT) analyzes the nature of technology, its significance and consequences, and its mediation of human experiences of the world. Classical philosophers of technology describe mechanization as alienating: Technology causes humans to lose their connection with the natural world. Tehno-rationality replaces critical engagement and creativity. Failing to comprehend the essence/nature of Technology, and its consequences, portends disastrous social, political, and economic consequences. Such perspectives, however, neglect individual experiences of technologies. Filling that lacuna, contemporary philosophers of technology challenge the sweeping determinism of their intellectual forerunners and investigate how specific technologies mediate particular human experiences. Their descriptive prowess, however, lacks the normative engagement of classical PoT, and they emphasize micro effects of technologies to the detriment of macro implications. This dissertation describes an 'un-disciplined' philosophy of technology (UPoT) that unites the macro and micro perspectives by providing narratives of human-technology symbiosis and co-development. Un-disciplined philosophers of technology present posthuman and transhuman perspectives that emphasize the symbiotic relationships between humans and technology. Thus, they deny disciplined philosophy's first critical maneuver: define and demarcate. UPoT enables conversations and debate regarding the ontological and moral consequences of imagining humans and technologies as hybrid, co-dependent things. UPoT builds upon environmental and animal rights movements, and postphenomenology, to emphasize pluralist accounts that emphasize the dynamism of human-technology relations. UPoT argues we should imagine technologies as extensions/parts of living things: they do the shaping and are shaped in turn. I argue that such thinking reinforces the habit, already proposed by contemporary PoT, that emerging human-technology relations demand active interpretation and engagement because the relationships constantly change. Thus, we need to imagine a moral theory that best matches the hybrid/connected condition of the present century. Increasing automation in agriculture and surgery, for instance, exemplify technologies mediating human experiences of food and health, thus affecting how we understand and define these categories. / Ph. D.

The modern city is the cradle of human activity, and through it humankind has both the ability to strip the planet of life and the ability to create thriving social and ecological systems. Strategic and interactive urbanisms that nurture multifarious ways of being in the world need to be formulated to save the natural world from ecological disaster. This paper traces the genealogy of the city from the unexplored wilderness to the to the conflux of technology and nature on city streets. Following the work of Neil Smith and William Cronon, this paper finds the roots of the urban system in the social construction of nature. Considering Martin Heidegger’s thoughts on technology along with David Harvey’s analysis of the urban system, it argues that city-building is a technē, an art which allows humankind to be at home with the world. As a part of this project, an interactive web application for gathering images and stories about urban spaces was created to provide a tool for citizen urbanism. The application, The Department of Civic Images, engages people in a dialogical urbanism that encourages citizens to see their environment as an intricate and valuable life network.