Langdon Winner - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Langdon Winner

Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 1994

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 2021

In the 2020 Prague Virtual Conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Langdon ... more In the 2020 Prague Virtual Conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Langdon Winner was awarded the society’s John D. Bernal Prize jointly with Sharon Traweek. The Bernal Prize is awarded annually to individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the field of STS. Prize recipients include founders of the field of STS, along with outstanding scholars who have devoted their careers to the understanding of the social dimensions of science and technology. This essay comprises Winner’s acceptance speech and is followed by a short postscript written in 2021. The postscript captures a brief reflection on the upheavals of the COVID-19 pandemic and the US election results which shifted the US to a Biden administration. In their award statement, the Bernal Prize committee noted: “Winner’s most cited article “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” of 1980 has inspired a wide spectrum of critique and analysis of technological arrangements as, among other things, political or...

Philosophers and scholars of rhetoric point to the significance of what they call “god terms,” co... more Philosophers and scholars of rhetoric point to the significance of what they call “god terms,” concepts that have a certain “inherent potency.” God terms sweep up whole periods of history as nations and cultures strive to reach a higher state of being.

La creación de las instituciones democráticas modernas durante los últimos dos siglos ha venido a... more La creación de las instituciones democráticas modernas durante los últimos dos siglos ha venido acompañada de reivindicaciones de derechos humanos, incluyendo un conjunto mayor de beneficiarios y de condiciones. Un desarrollo paralelo es el reconocimiento cada vez mayor del papel que la tecnología juega en las controversias sobre los derechos humanos y las fronteras de la ciudadanía. Un movimiento global de personas discapacitadas que comienza en los años 60 revela la fuerte conexión entre las reivindicaciones de derechos humanos y modelos tecnológicos específicos. Este movimiento ofrece lecciones que apuntan a nuevas formas de pensar los derechos humanos y su puesta en práctica en la sociedad moderna

Isegoría, 2003

* Agradecemos a la revista Isegoría la cesión de los derechos para la publicación de este artícul... more * Agradecemos a la revista Isegoría la cesión de los derechos para la publicación de este artículo. Este texto de Langdon Winner forma parte de un libro en el que intervienen varios autores y cuyo título es The civic web: online politics and democratic values, David M. Anderson y Michael Cornfield (eds.

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPUB1002Cambridge, MA, USA, May 1, 1997

En las controversias acerca de la tecnologia y la sociedad, no hay ninguna idea que sea mas provo... more En las controversias acerca de la tecnologia y la sociedad, no hay ninguna idea que sea mas provocativa que la nocion de que los artefactos tecnicos tienen cualidades politicas. Lo que esta en cuestion es la afirmacion de que las maquinas, estructuras y sistemas de nuestra moderna cultura material pueden ser correctamente juzgados no solo por sus contribuciones a la eficacia y la productividad, ni simplemente por sus efectos ambientales colaterales, sino tambien por el modo en que pueden encarnar ciertas formas de poder y autoridad especificas. Dado que algunas de estas ideas tienen una presencia persistente e inquietante en las discusiones sobre el significado de la tecnologia, es necesario prestarles una atencion explicita...(2)

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

The experience of students in Rensselaer's Product Design and Innovation (PDI) program offers a g... more The experience of students in Rensselaer's Product Design and Innovation (PDI) program offers a glimpse into how to integrate the humanities and social sciences (H&SS) into an engineering curriculum. PDI offers a dual degree program built around a studio design class each semester, integrated into a core-engineering curriculum leading to bachelor degrees in both mechanical engineering and H&SS. The program is administered through our Science and Technology Studies Department in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The studio design courses introduce students to a broad range of open-ended design experiences, where they learn how to combine cultural, aesthetic, and technical skills and knowledge with the insight and context of social concerns and issues. As students move through the PDI program, they ultimately have culminating experiences with Rensselaer's Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (MDL), which serve as senior capstone design studios. We have found that compared to typical engineering seniors, PDI students clearly distinguish themselves. They are comfortable and competent with multidisciplinary thinking and at odds with the conventional mindset that tends to focus on disciplinary specialization. They represent the kinds of students that organizations in industry, government and society are asking for; educated as resourceful problem solvers and first rate technical professionals. This paper offers thoughts and reflections on the PDI program, starting with its original vision and goals, a report on its current status and progress, and finally some perspectives on the future directions and promise of the program.

Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 2018

Although Ludwig Wittgenstein did not offer a fully developed philosophy of technology, his writin... more Although Ludwig Wittgenstein did not offer a fully developed philosophy of technology, his writings contain an approach to inquiry that can be employed to explore situations in which people contend with technological devices and systems. His notions of ‘language games’ and ‘forms of life’ as well as the dramatic, imaginary dialogues in his later writings offer ways to transcend the sometimes rigid theoretical frameworks in contemporary technology studies. Especially as applied to rapidly moving infusions of computing and digital electronics in contemporary society, Wittgenstein’s writings offer possibilities for fresh insight and even some practical alternatives.

Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 1983

At the beginning of Western political theory a powerful analogy links the practice of technology ... more At the beginning of Western political theory a powerful analogy links the practice of technology to that of politics. In his Republic, Laws, Statesman, and other discourses, Plato asserts that statecraft is a technē, one of the practical arts. Much like architecture, the building of ships and other commonly recognized arts and crafts, politics is a field of practice that has its own distinctive knowledge, its own special skills. One purpose of Plato’s argument was to discredit those who believed that the affairs of public life could be left to mere amateurs. But beyond that, it is clear that he thought the art of politics could be useful in the same way as any other techne, that is it could produce finished works of lasting value. The works he had in mind were good constitutions, supremely well-crafted products of political architecture. Politeia, the title of the Republic in Greek, means the constitution of a polis, the proper order of human relationships within a city-state. The dialogue describes and justifies what Plato holds to be the institutional arrangements appropriate to the best politeia. He returns to this theme in the Laws, a discussion of the “second best” constitution, comparing his work to that of a well-established craft. “The shipwright, you know, begins his work by laying down the keel of the vessel and indicating her outlines, and I feel myself to be doing the same thing in my attempt to present you with outlines of human lives. . . . I am really laying the keels of the vessels by due consideration of the question by what means or manner of life we shall make our voyage over the sea of time to the best purpose.”1

ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 1997

Technology in Society, 1979

Technology in Society, 1989

... Here the focus is not so much that of explaining the development of science and ... Research ... more ... Here the focus is not so much that of explaining the development of science and ... Research of this kind aspires to both intellectual richness and policy relevance. ... a linear, rational process of "progress" or matters much more ambiguous in their epistemological, moral and political ...

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2013

Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda is a work of analysis and explanation about a crucial range of practic... more Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda is a work of analysis and explanation about a crucial range of practices and institutions in modern political society. Drawing upon the social history of political communication and a wealth of social scientific studies on public opinion published during the middle twentieth century, Ellul expands the framework in which such evidence can been understood and put to use. Especially at the book’s conclusion, it is clear that Ellul hoped the book would serve as a warning to democratic citizens of technological societies about the insidious spread of propaganda throughout the body politic.

Broad and Narrow Interpretations of Philosophy of Technology, 1990

Recent attempts by American colleges and universities to teach ethics for scientists and engineer... more Recent attempts by American colleges and universities to teach ethics for scientists and engineers deserve strong praise. They represent a shift away from the idea that questions about ethics and morality are best left to humanists or to elder statesmen of science, a recognition that such matters ought to be an important part of education in the technical professions. One can hope that through these efforts a new generation of men and women will obtain a firm grounding in the ethical aspects of their vocations early enough to make a difference.