This project examines the construction of the Taiwan high-speed rail (THSR; 台灣高鐵) technology as a vehicle of Taiwanese identity formation. The THSR project is a product of a hybridization of design from Japan and Europe. The Japanese and Europeans transferred their HSR technology to Taiwan, but Taiwanese policy actors and engineers localized and assimilated it to their politics, society and history. They reconstructed the meanings of HSR technology in an indigenized (Ben-Tu-Hua; 本土化) and democratic way. In addition to focusing on the THSR's technological content and engineering practice, this dissertation explores how Taiwan identity formation has shaped technology and vice versa. The identity formation and technological construction in Taiwan tell one techno-political story. Since the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwanese engineers were forced by international politics to cannibalize technological projects, but later they began to localize and hybridize different foreign engineering skills and knowledge. This growing engineering culture of hybridity generated impacts on the development of Taiwan's identity politics. Some critical political leaders exploited their engineers' capability to hybridize to introduce international power into Taiwan. This power then was used to either strengthen the Taiwanese population's Chinese identity or to build their Taiwanese identity. Both politics and technology offered each other restrains and opportunities. This project offers an approach from science and technology studies to understand postcolonial technopolitics. The engineering practice of hybridity in Taiwan has become a locally transformed knowledge to reframe and negotiate with the more advanced technologies from the West and Japan, even though it was a contingent outcome of earlier international politics. In addition to technological non-dependence, this engineering culture of hybridity has given the Taiwanese an independent political vision not only against China but the West and Japan. However, Taiwan paid significant prices to acquire technological non-dependence and international independence. In addition to extra wasted money and time, some over design was often seen in their public projects. Large technological projects also often draw political patronage. Moreover, techno-political survival alone might not be enough to represent postcolonial resistance. / Ph. D.

Dramatic improvements in renewable energy and small-scale distributed generation (DG) technologies have been made in the last twenty years. Nevertheless, they remain underutilized in the American electric utility system. Despite the immense environmental, technical, and financial promise of renewable energy systems and DG technologies, such generators still constitute a very small percentage of electricity generation capacity in the United States. This relative neglect occurs despite remarkable gains in their technical performance and reductions in their cost of producing power—the result (in part) of dramatic government support for several decades. Moreover, the technologies often demonstrate great environmental benefits that appeal to policymakers and consumers. At the same time, they offer ways to enhance strained distribution and transmission networks. This project attempts to answer the apparently paradoxical question: why do new energy technologies that offer such impressive benefits also find the least use? The dissertation emphasizes how the history and culture of the community of electricity producers and users helps explain why the new technologies have seen little use. Going beyond technical explanations of alleged low capacity factors and high capital costs, it focuses on the social nature of decision making among participants in the electric utility system. The approach not only helps us understand the glossing over of renewable energy and distributed generation technologies, but also suggests ways of overcoming the barriers faced by their advocates. / Ph. D.

The words and messages in apps are part of a conversation between people and their technology that we take part in every day. As technology becomes increasingly embedded into our daily lives, we form relationships with our devices and our apps. While we might think of these relationships as different, our behaviors and interactions with technology are still shaped by the social world, and these messages found in apps are based on existing patterns in face-to-face conversation. UX writing is the process of creating these messages in user experiences, which facilitate people's social interactions between apps and other digital products. Interacting with apps and other digital products is inherently social, and by using conversational language as a driving component of UX writing and Human-Computer Interaction, we can also cast User Experience (UX) as a type of communicative exchange between a person and an app, and therefore User Experience (UX) as conversation. Through qualitative interviews and usability testing with native and non-native English speakers, this research explores what type of language style works best for a global audience in these conversations with our apps and how we can strategically apply conversational patterns to improve the experience of users. Abstrakt Slova a zprávy v...

Der Zusammenhang von technischer Entwicklung und gesellschaftlicher Modernisierung wird mit Mitteln der systemtheoretischen Soziologie untersucht. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Konzepte "Technik" und "soziale Evolution" reformuliert. "Technik" ist ein spezieller Typ der Grenzbildung von Systemen, die Ereignisse ihrer Umwelt als kausal verknüpft beobachten; Technik wird demnach definiert als fixierte Erwartung, die sich auf kausal verknüpfte Umweltereignisse bezieht. "Soziale Evolution" ist der Typ des Strukturwandels von sozialen Systemen, der sich aus der Selektion und Restabilisierung von Strukturvariationen ergibt. Aus soziologischer Sicht ist jede technische Entwicklung als ein spezifischer Aspekt der sozialen Evolution zu verstehen. Dies wird mit der Konfrontation des Begriff des "Fortschritts" mit dem der "Modernisierung" gezeigt. Eine Gesellschaft versucht durch das Verwenden und das Beschränken von Technik über ihre eigene Evolution zu verfügen. Es erweist sich, daß diese Versuche zwar komplexer, aber nicht unbedingt erfolgreicher werden. Die einer jeden Evolution eigene Entwicklungsoffenheit kann nicht außer Kraft gesetzt werden, auch dann nicht, wenn eine Gesellschaft Evolutionstheorien entwickelt und reflexiv auf sich selbst anwendet. Anders als vormoderne Gesellschaften zeichnet sich die moderne Gesellschaft durch ihre hochgradig frei kontextualisierbare und damit riskante Technik aus. Kontextualisierungen und Entscheidungsnotwendigkeiten im Umgang mit moderner Technik bedingen Reflexivität. Technische Entwicklungen lassen Determinationen und Optionen in gleichem Maße wachsen. Komplex ist die soziale Seite von Technik, nicht die Kompliziertheit ihrer technischen Komponenten. Reflexive Technologiepolitik und Technikfolgenabschätzung sind gezwungen, die soziale Dynamik technischer Entwicklungen zu berücksichtigen. / There are several means to analyse the intrinsic connection of technological development and social evolution in sociology today. The thesis examines technology and its development as part of social evolution from a system-theoretical point of view. Using this approach, terms like "technology" and "social evolution" are reformulated. "Technology" is a particular type of border of social systems, using the mode of causality in observing its environment; thus Technology is defined as the fixation of causal expectations. "Social evolution" is a social systems' structural change by the selection and reinforcement of variations, creating a singular history. In terms of sociology, any technological development is part of a wider developing social context. This is visualized by confronting the terms "progress" and "modernization"; both being concepts of sociology as well as of debates on technology and social development. By using technology, by giving way to innovation, and by limiting the use of technology, a given society tries to monitor and influence its own evolution. The thesis shows that these attempts become more complex, but not necessarily more effective. The fundamental properties of any evolution cannot be annulated --- the social evolution always remains unpredictable, even when evolutionary theories allow reflexive observations. In contrast to its predecessors the modern society constitutes a type of technology which is highly independent of any given social context. But this freedom is risky. Contextualizations and decision-makings imply a higher degree of reflexivity. In the case of technological development, both determinations and options increase at the same time. What is complex in technological development is its social, not its mere technical side. Any reflexive debate on technology has to reflect technology as a social issue.

本研究之目的主要在於了解電腦使用型態和使用時間對學習成就的影響。但根據科技社會學的觀點，研究者認為電腦對學習成就的影響可能會依性別而有所不同，因此兼論性別對電腦使用型態和時間的影響，以及在不同的性別脈絡下，電腦使用型態和使用時間對學習成就的影響是否仍然相同？ 為達上述之研究目的，研究者使用中央研究院2001年「臺灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」（TEPS）的全國國中生家長和學生樣本進行分析，該資料庫實際調查樣本數為20,004，但實際分析樣本約在10,000到12,500之間。研究者依不同目的，進行T考驗、卡方考驗、單因子變異數分析、二因子變異數分析和多元迴歸的統計分析，主要發現如下： 一、國中生電腦使用型態和使用時間對學習成就有影響： （一）從未使過電腦的國中生，學習成就最差；使用過電腦的國中生，電腦使用型態對學習成就的影響會因性別和使用時間而有所不同。 （二）電腦使用時間超過3小時的國中生，學習成就最差；使用時間不到3小時的國中生，電腦使用時間對學習成就的影響會因性別和使用型態而有所不同。 二、國中生性別對電腦使用型態和使用時間有影響： （一）在電腦使用型態方面，國中女生「人際取向」和「學習取向」的比例較高，國中男生則以「娛樂取向」比例較高。 （二）在電腦使用時間方面，國中男生不論是在總時間或個別使用型態（人際取向、學習取向和娛樂取向）的使用時間皆高於國中女生。 （三）不論性別男女，「學習取向」的使用時間都最少，「娛樂取向」的使用時間次之，「人際取向」的使用時間都最多。 三、不同性別國中生電腦使用型態對學習成就的影響有差別： （一）國中男生「學習取向」使用型態的學習成就與「娛樂取向」大多沒有顯著差異，只有在使用時間「2到3小時」時，「學習取向」才顯著地高於「娛樂取向」。而「學習取向」和「娛樂取向」的學習成就在使用時間「不到3小時」前，皆高於「人際取向」。 （二）國中女生「學習取向」使用型態的學習成就較高，和國中男生不同的是，她們是在「娛樂取向」和「人際取向」之間學習成就沒有顯著差異，而使用時間大於1小時以後，國中女生「學習取向」和「娛樂取向」兩者的學習成就也沒顯著差異。 四、不同性別國中生電腦使用型態對學習成就的影響有差別： （一）國中男生電腦使用時間越長學習成就越低的情況發生在「學習取向」和「娛樂取向」型態，在「人際取向」裡不同時間沒有顯著差異，不論使用時間多長，學習成就都一樣差。 （二）國中女生電腦使用時間越長學習成就越低發生在「學習取向」和「人際取向」型態，在「娛樂取向」裡不同時間沒有顯著差異，不論使用時間多長，學習成就都不太高。 研究者從主要的研究發現檢視科技社會學理論，提出三點反省：一、科技本身仍對社會具有影響力，但也受到社會因素的影響；二、科技不只形塑特定團體的利益，也同時將損害形塑進去；三、不同的社會團體在使用科技時會互相排除，並不是優勢族群就會自動勝出。 從本研究的發現與結果，研究者建議家長應為子女購置電腦設備，而教師及家長應引導孩子做有益學習的使用，控制使用時間以及注意使用電腦時的兩性公平。研究者也認為在後續研究上，可從質化方法探索形成差異的真正成因；也可從量化方法分析數學或語文等其他學習成就，或以不同變項為分析脈絡、不同年齡層學生為研究對象，以及探討更專業的電腦使用中的性別差異。 / The main purpose of this research is to realize the effect of the types and the time of computer usage on study achievement. According to the sociology of technology, I argue that the effect of computers on study achievement will be different by gender. Therefore, I will discuss the effect of gender on the types and the time of computer usage, and investigate if the effect of the types and the time of computer usage on study achievement will be the same under different gender context? In order to accomplish these purposes, I analyzed the nationwide samples of junior high school students and their parents. These samples (N=20,004, but approximately 10,000~12,500 in analysis) came from “2001 Taiwan Education Panel Survey” collected by Academia Sinica. Statistical methods of this research are Student’s t-test, Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA and multiple regression. The main findings are listed below: 1. The types and the time of computer usage of junior high school students have influenced their study achievement: (1) Students who have never used a computer have the worst study achievement, whereas when students have had experience of computer usage, the effect of types of computer usage on their study achievement is different both by gender and the time of computer usage. (2) When students’ time of computer usage is over 3 hours, they have the worst study achievement. But for those using a computer less than 3 hours, the effect of time on their study achievement is not the same by gender and the types of computer usage. 2. Gender of junior high school students has influenced the types and the time of computer usage: (1) In the types of compute usage, girls have a higher percentage of the “relationship type” and the “learning type” than boys while boys have a higher proportion of the “entertainment type” than girls. (2) In the time of computer usage, boys spend more time than girls, no matter on total or individual types. (3) Regardless of gender, students spend least time on the “learning type” and most time on the “relationship type”. Time spent on the “entertainment type” is in the middle. 3. The types of computer usage exert a different effect on study achievement in different gender context: (1) To boys, most differences in study achievement are not significant between the “learning type” and the “entertainment type” except that the time of computer usage is 2~3 hours. The study achievement of the “learning type” and the “entertainment type” is higher than the “relationship type” when they use a computer for less than 3 hours. (2) To girls, the study achievement of the “learning type” is higher. But different from boys, the differences in their study achievement are not significant between the “entertainment type” and the “relationship type.” Moreover, the differences in study achievement are not significant between the “learning type” and the “entertainment type” when they use a computer for more than 1 hour. 4. The time of computer usage exerts a different effect on study achievement in different gender context: (1) To boys, the situation that the more time one uses a computer, the less study achievement he has only occurs in the “learning type” and the “entertainment type.” Study achievements have no significant difference between diverse time of computer usage in the “relationship type.” No matter how long the time is, the study achievements are all the same bad. (2) To girls, the situation that the more time one spends on the computer, the less study achievement she has only occurs in the “learning type” and the “relationship type”. Study achievements have no significant difference between diverse time of computer usage in the “entertainment type”, no matter how long the time is, the study achievements are not high. After reflecting over the theory of sociology of technology from findings, I bring up three opinions: 1. Technology has an influence on the society by itself, but it is affected by social factors as well. 2. Technology shapes not only the benefits of specific groups but also the damage. 3. When using technology, different social groups will exclude each other. The superior group does not always overwhelm inferior group automatically. From the findings and outcomes, I propose that parents should purchase computer equipment at home, and teachers and parents should lead children to use the computer in a benefic way, control the time of computer usage, and keep an eye on gender equity when children use a computer. I also suggest in the follow-up other researchers could use a qualitative way to explore the real reason of difference and use a quantitative way to analyze other achievements (ex. math and literature). They can take other variables as context, take other ages as objects, and discuss gender difference in professional computer usage.

Voice assistants are a remarkable example of the potential for AI to become further entwined with social life. However, they are produced by some of the world’s largest tech corporations and are rooted in capitalistic processes that depend on user data. This thesis presents a qualitative exploratory study of voice assistants. Through a combination of interviews and theoretical analysis, it focuses on participants’ perceptions and experiences with these AI agents and how they are embedded in the bigger picture of surveillance capitalism. The findings reveal the physical characteristics and personality traits that participants in this study ascribe to voice assistants, highlighting the implications of treating voice assistants as personified agents and the factors contributing to these perceptions. Further, this thesis examines how surveillance capitalism is present in participant interactions with these technologies and identifies how its reach into people’s lives is provoked by their design and background contexts. Lastly, it provides an overview of corporate power in the tech industry and how the structural, cultural, and political circumstances enable and legitimize big tech’s authority in digital environments and how this situates the individual and their capacity to contend with technological issues. / Graduate / 2023-07-12

Die Schriftenreihe TUC Digital Studies beschäftigt sich einerseits mit grundlegenden Forschungsfragen, etwa nach der wechselseitigen Beeinflussung von Internet und Gesellschaft oder der Grenzziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine. Andererseits widmet sie sich aktuellen Erscheinungsformen, Ursachen und Folgen konkreter Phänomene wie etwa Digitale Arbeit, Sozialrobotik, Smart Home-Technologien, oder der Automatisierung von Kommunikation durch generative KI. Es werden sowohl empirische als auch theoretische Beiträge publiziert. / On the one hand, the TUC Digital Studies series deals with fundamental research questions, such as the mutual influence of the Internet and society or the demarcation between man and machine. On the other hand, it is dedicated to current manifestations, causes and consequences of concrete phenomena such as digital work, social robotics, smart home technologies, or the automation of communication through generative AI. Both empirical and theoretical contributions are published.

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.

Der Zusammenhang von technischer Entwicklung und gesellschaftlicher Modernisierung wird mit Mitteln der systemtheoretischen Soziologie untersucht. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Konzepte "Technik" und "soziale Evolution" reformuliert. "Technik" ist ein spezieller Typ der Grenzbildung von Systemen, die Ereignisse ihrer Umwelt als kausal verknüpft beobachten; Technik wird demnach definiert als fixierte Erwartung, die sich auf kausal verknüpfte Umweltereignisse bezieht. "Soziale Evolution" ist der Typ des Strukturwandels von sozialen Systemen, der sich aus der Selektion und Restabilisierung von Strukturvariationen ergibt. Aus soziologischer Sicht ist jede technische Entwicklung als ein spezifischer Aspekt der sozialen Evolution zu verstehen. Dies wird mit der Konfrontation des Begriff des "Fortschritts" mit dem der "Modernisierung" gezeigt. Eine Gesellschaft versucht durch das Verwenden und das Beschränken von Technik über ihre eigene Evolution zu verfügen. Es erweist sich, daß diese Versuche zwar komplexer, aber nicht unbedingt erfolgreicher werden. Die einer jeden Evolution eigene Entwicklungsoffenheit kann nicht außer Kraft gesetzt werden, auch dann nicht, wenn eine Gesellschaft Evolutionstheorien entwickelt und reflexiv auf sich selbst anwendet. Anders als vormoderne Gesellschaften zeichnet sich die moderne Gesellschaft durch ihre hochgradig frei kontextualisierbare und damit riskante Technik aus. Kontextualisierungen und Entscheidungsnotwendigkeiten im Umgang mit moderner Technik bedingen Reflexivität. Technische Entwicklungen lassen Determinationen und Optionen in gleichem Maße wachsen. Komplex ist die soziale Seite von Technik, nicht die Kompliziertheit ihrer technischen Komponenten. Reflexive Technologiepolitik und Technikfolgenabschätzung sind gezwungen, die soziale Dynamik technischer Entwicklungen zu berücksichtigen. / There are several means to analyse the intrinsic connection of technological development and social evolution in sociology today. The thesis examines technology and its development as part of social evolution from a system-theoretical point of view. Using this approach, terms like "technology" and "social evolution" are reformulated. "Technology" is a particular type of border of social systems, using the mode of causality in observing its environment; thus Technology is defined as the fixation of causal expectations. "Social evolution" is a social systems' structural change by the selection and reinforcement of variations, creating a singular history. In terms of sociology, any technological development is part of a wider developing social context. This is visualized by confronting the terms "progress" and "modernization"; both being concepts of sociology as well as of debates on technology and social development. By using technology, by giving way to innovation, and by limiting the use of technology, a given society tries to monitor and influence its own evolution. The thesis shows that these attempts become more complex, but not necessarily more effective. The fundamental properties of any evolution cannot be annulated --- the social evolution always remains unpredictable, even when evolutionary theories allow reflexive observations. In contrast to its predecessors the modern society constitutes a type of technology which is highly independent of any given social context. But this freedom is risky. Contextualizations and decision-makings imply a higher degree of reflexivity. In the case of technological development, both determinations and options increase at the same time. What is complex in technological development is its social, not its mere technical side. Any reflexive debate on technology has to reflect technology as a social issue.