Socio-Economic Research on Technology

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Social and economic research on technology at RCSS focuses upon the social shaping of technology, particularly in relation to Information and Communications Technologies

Research has addressed the development and implementation of company-wide information systems in manufacturing industry and in the finance service sector. More recent work examined the development of Inter-Organisational Networks and Systems such as Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPoS) and Electronic Data Interchange.

 

Deep understanding has been achieved of the close relationship between 'technology' and 'organisation' in Information and Communications Technologies - as a process of mutual shaping, rather than the deterministic triumph of one over the other.

This work has revealed that innovation is not restricted to the initial Research and Development of new technological products, but continues as they are commercially applied and used. Thus, workplace technologies are reshaped within the industrial setting, as supplier offerings are adapted and further elaborated to meet the requirements of their implementation and use.

More recent research projects examine the emergence of Multimedia and the Information Superhighway studying the co-evolution of society and technology, and the interactions between industrial innovators, users at work and home, and public policy.

Here user responses interact with supplier visions, shaping the ways in which these technologies are incorporated within our working and social lives, which will have a profound effect on the features of the information society. Such social learning has been the focus of a major European-wide study headed by the Research Centre under the European-community Fourth Framework Programme of Targeted-Socio-Economic Research. Further research is being funded under the Fifth Framework programme

Additional areas of research include the transition to a more environmentally sustainable economic system and assessment of risk in new bio-technology and chemical industries. RCSS led a European comparative study of 'The Implementation of Cleaner Technology'. In collaboration with other members of ISSTI, addresses the management of expertise, processes of technology transfer and the management of Research and Development.

Research Networks

The Research Centre for Social Sciences coordinates the programme of social and economic research on technology which involves wide collaboration across the Social Science Faculty at the University of Edinburgh. RCSS hosted Edinburgh PICT Centre - one of the six university research centres established under the ESRC Programme on Information and Communications Technologies (1986 - 1995). Dr. Robin Williams coordinated the Edinburgh PICT Centre. He is coordinator of socio-economic research on technology more generally and the newly formed Insitute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh (ISSTI). Dr. Williams is active in maintaining national and international research networks. He chairs the newly-formed UK Association for Studies in Innovation Science and Technology (AsSIST), and represents Britain on the COST A4 European Research Collaboration initiative on the Social Shaping of Technology.

The RCSS is also a key partner in the SUPRA - Scottish Universities Policy and Research Association giving policy advice in these fields

The Research Centre has a well-developed infrastructure to support technology research and its dissemination developed over a decade of research. This comprises two full-time staff, an Information Officer and a Research Secretary, established Working Paper series, and specialised computer-based support systems (including a database of contacts and accounting control systems).

• More.....
• What is the Social Shaping of Technology?
• Bibliographies of research on technology and society.
• Research Projects in Technology at the RCSS
• Teaching in STS
• Workshops, Lectures and Seminars
• Other Activities in technology studies
• Science Studies Unit
• ISSTI
• Innogen
• AsSIST
• EDINFO