Fisher & Wright - On Utopias and Dystopias (Week 1)
Introduction:
● Napstar: (online music sharing) - difference of opinions: changed the world vs. new
technology that threatens control.
● Tsagarousianou claims technology will offer a new arena for communication, public
sphere that replaces the old one which is crippled by commodification and fragmentation.
● Others argue that it makes it easier for people to remove themselves from public life and
the sense of civic engagement.
Cultural Lag:
● William Ogburn, understand technology’s adoption and visions of its future.
● Utopian/dystopian dichotomy.
● Cultural lag - the time lag between a technology’s invention, its distribution to society
and the social adjustment that follows. It exists because technology moves forward and
the social institution lags behind in varying degrees. When one of two parts of culture
changes before the other part does, causing less adjustment between the two parts than
existed previously.
● Result of cultural lag - both utopian and dystopian accounts of technologies such as the
Internet are more likely to reflect authors' own preferences and values rather than an
account of the technology's impact on the material and social conditions of society
● Stages of a cultural lag - technological, industrial, governmental and social philosophical.
Industrial sector responds to new technology, government structures adjust by regulating
it and fourth stage cannot adjust without this.
● Difficult to identify 2
● Easy to conceive of and identify lags in new technologies
● Telephone and television are tools for democracy and brought loss of privacy,
homogenization of society, indecent communication and revolution
● Internet drives society to change its behaviour and responds to society (democratising
force)
Criticism:
● Technologically deterministic - an autonomous independent variable affecting the
dependent variable of culture (but does recognize the possibility that the effects of culture
of technology are reciprocal).
● Teleological bias - suggests the identification of a problem is carried out by a single,
unified culture.
Utopian and Dystopian Visions of the Internet
Utopian position:
● Utopia - variation on an ideal present, ideal past and ideal future, quasi realistic account
of vastly improved society and offers hope and direction in an uncertain world (science
fiction - Star Trek) visualisations of the future can be a powerful source of inspiration
● technological solutions to social problems, described in terms of technology’s effects on
communitarian and populist forms of democratic participation
Introduction:
● Napstar: (online music sharing) - difference of opinions: changed the world vs. new
technology that threatens control.
● Tsagarousianou claims technology will offer a new arena for communication, public
sphere that replaces the old one which is crippled by commodification and fragmentation.
● Others argue that it makes it easier for people to remove themselves from public life and
the sense of civic engagement.
Cultural Lag:
● William Ogburn, understand technology’s adoption and visions of its future.
● Utopian/dystopian dichotomy.
● Cultural lag - the time lag between a technology’s invention, its distribution to society
and the social adjustment that follows. It exists because technology moves forward and
the social institution lags behind in varying degrees. When one of two parts of culture
changes before the other part does, causing less adjustment between the two parts than
existed previously.
● Result of cultural lag - both utopian and dystopian accounts of technologies such as the
Internet are more likely to reflect authors' own preferences and values rather than an
account of the technology's impact on the material and social conditions of society
● Stages of a cultural lag - technological, industrial, governmental and social philosophical.
Industrial sector responds to new technology, government structures adjust by regulating
it and fourth stage cannot adjust without this.
● Difficult to identify 2
● Easy to conceive of and identify lags in new technologies
● Telephone and television are tools for democracy and brought loss of privacy,
homogenization of society, indecent communication and revolution
● Internet drives society to change its behaviour and responds to society (democratising
force)
Criticism:
● Technologically deterministic - an autonomous independent variable affecting the
dependent variable of culture (but does recognize the possibility that the effects of culture
of technology are reciprocal).
● Teleological bias - suggests the identification of a problem is carried out by a single,
unified culture.
Utopian and Dystopian Visions of the Internet
Utopian position:
● Utopia - variation on an ideal present, ideal past and ideal future, quasi realistic account
of vastly improved society and offers hope and direction in an uncertain world (science
fiction - Star Trek) visualisations of the future can be a powerful source of inspiration
● technological solutions to social problems, described in terms of technology’s effects on
communitarian and populist forms of democratic participation
