bijker

Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Rene Aranzamendez, Ellen Bahr, Paul Debraski

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Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs

Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change


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Introduction

• Understanding the place of technology in our lives and in our society.

• Examples from three technological advances:• The safety bicycle• Bakelite plastic• Fluorescent bulbs

• Technology and society are human constructs


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Bijker (beé-ker)

• Dutch engineering student in the 1970s• Drawn to Science Technology Society

movement (STS)• Risks of nuclear energy• Environmental degradation

• Followed Social Construction of Technology apprach (SCOT)


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Classification, bad

• Tried to dissolve STS boundaries– Seamless web

• Abhorred linear thinking


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A vague diagram


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Summary

• Technological inventions are created within society; cannot be viewed distinctly

• Gives three concrete stories and ties them in to their societal frameworks

• Keywords:• Relevant Social Group• Interpretive Flexibility: Closure/Stabilization• Technological Frame• Power


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Part 1: Of Bicycles…


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• Early 19th century, Baron von Drais’ draisenne


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• Early 19th century, Baron von Drais’ draisienne


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• Relevant user group – are the social groups centered around the technology, in this case, the Ordinary bicycle.– Users: Young men of means and nerve– Non-users: Everybody else– Manufacturers: industrialized machine

industries de-stabilized by Franco-German war



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• Interpretive flexibility – the definition of the artifact according to the relevant user group– For young men of means and nerve – it is a

working technology, slightly dangerous, but that was, partly, the point.

– For everybody else – it is a non-working technology. It was unsafe.

– For manufacturers – how do you develop it for wider use?



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“The Fourth Kingdom”

The Social Construction of Bakelite


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Baekeland

Lone inventor?


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Two New Concepts• Technological Frame

• Degree of Inclusion

But first, some background to the story of Bakelite…


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What is Bakelite?• Trademark for a molding material patented by

Baekeland in 1907• Formed in condensation reaction that occurs when

phenol and formaldehyde are combined

• Insoluble, infusible, and unaffected by other chemicals

• First truly synthetic plastic

• Moldable but hardens


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Precursors to Bakelite and Relevant Social Groups

• Old “Plastics”– Resin, horn, tortoiseshells, ivory, etc. (luxury market)

• New Plastics Made from Natural Materials– Rubber – useful but ugly

– Celluloid – useful but flammable

• Search for Synthetic Plastics– Concern about scarcity of natural resources

– Precursors created demand for consumer products (emergence of new social group)

– Phenol-formaldehyde experiments


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Discovery of Bakelite• Turn-of-the-Century• Phenol-formaldehyde research in disarray• Baekeland tries to find patterns in chaos• Applies for patent for product he calls Bakelite:

– Product A: Liquid– Product B: Elastic– Product C: Hard yet gummy– Product D: Hard and insoluble

• Laboratory notes show he was interested in commercial applications


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“Technological Frame”• Each relevant social group has own

Technological Frame• Builds when relevant social groups interact

around an artifact• Provides the goals, ideas and tools needed

for action (solving problems)• Outcome is constrained by the social group,

but outcome is not predetermined.• Also applies to non-technical groups such as

consumers, managers, politicians, etc.


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“Degree of Inclusion” • As actors can be members of more than one

relevant social group, they can also be influenced by more than one technological frame

• “Degree of inclusion” in a technological frame depends on extent to which an actor’s interactions are structured by that frame

• Bijker: Innovation often comes from inclusion in more than one technological frame


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Baekeland’s Inclusion in Technological Frames

• Photochemist– Experience as photochemist (inventor of

photographic paper) led him to attempt to map all possible variables of the phenol-formaldehyde reaction

• Electrochemist– Interested in producing raw materials for industry

(not consumer products)• Businessman

– Interested in whether processes can be scaled up


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The Social Construction of Bakelite

Early Contacts with Industry

Industrial Designers

Patent Litigation

Collaboration with IndustryWorld War I

Consumers

Museums


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The social construction of fluorescent lighting

The majesty of daylight


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Overview

• Lightbulbs invented in 1880 by Edison• This chapter focuses on 1938-1940s• Interplay between INDUSTRY,

GOVERNMENT & CONSUMERS• Engineers had devised fluorescent

lighting long before the socially constructed final product appeared


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Key players

• 1890s• MAZDA LIGHTING

– Comprised GE and Westinghouse • UTILITIES• FIXTURE MANUFACTURERS• PUBLIC• GOVERNMENT


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Consolidation

• 1901• GE, Westinghouse, Others• Others consolidate into National Electric

Lamp Company.• GE provided capital by purchasing 75%

of stock• GE owns 97% of U.S. electric lighting

market


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GENERAL ELECTRIC:Antitrust/Mergers/Cross-licensing


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Utility companies

• Private companies, collective organizaton

• Organized as licensees of Mazda– Dependencies– “Understandings”

• Utilities promoted Mazda lamps• Mazda promoted higher consumption


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Fixture companies

• No electric co. made accessories• RLM Standards Institute

– Established industry standards– Favored Mazda

• (who happened to collaborate in the standardization)


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1930s

• Despite Great Depression—belief in technology

• Technology was the buzzword– Object, process, knowledge, symbol

• Electricity—Symbol!– Sense of wonder


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World’s Fair 1939

• http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/front.htm

• Utopian• Introduced new technologies, including

fluorescent lighting—an opportunity!

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/front.htm

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/front.htm


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From tint to daylight

• Originally for tint lighting—specialty• High-efficiency daylight fluorescent• “3 to 200 times as much light for the

same wattage”• “Amazing efficiency”• “Most economical”• “Indoor daylight at last.”


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Uh-oh: Relevant Social Groups

• Utilities feared lost revenues– Tried to emphasize the “tinted” aspect

• Even Mazda was concerned– How long would this bulb last?

• Independents– Hygrade-Sylvania

• Public• Fixture Makers


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Nela Park Conference

• April 24-25, 1939 in Cleveland• “Fluorescent Council of War”• Create High-Intensity Daylight Lamp• Nix High-Efficiency Lamp


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GE vs. the Govt.

• GE’s power continues through WWII• 2 lawsuits involving GE were dismissed

because they “interfered with the war effort”

• Military was using fluorescent bulbs


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POWER

• Transitive capacity to harness the agency of others to comply with one’s ends.

• Is exercised, not possessed• Previously—

– Economists would talk of technology without mentioning social power

– Sociologist would not discuss technological power.


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Semiotic power

• Reaching closure, where interpretive flexibility is reduced, is the first step of semiotic power.

• Which means:– More people in a relevant social group– New relevant social groups– Elaborating the meaning of artifacts


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Constraints & Enablers

• Stabilization results in fixity of meaning• Fixity of meaning represents power.

– Shapes technological frames which specify actions of relevant social group members

• Constrain actions (no high-efficiency bulbs)• Enable actions: routines, patents

• Removes controversy from history– GE ads for high-intensity

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