The watermill and feudal authority

1. What were the mills used for?

2. Who controlled the mills?

3. What was the advantage to controlling them?

4. How did individuals resist the feudal authorities’ attempts to control mills?

Technology and capitalist control

1. How does Braverman think that ownership of machinery affects the use the machinery is put to?

2. According to Braverman, what conditions must be present in order that machinery is used to control human labour?

3. Were these conditions present during feudal times?

Do artifacts have politics?

1. What is Landon Winner main argument?

2. According to Winner, what are the 2 ways that artifacts can contain political properties?

3. What does Winner mean by “politics”?

4. What does Winner mean by the phrase “technical arrangements as forms of order”?

5. What examples does he give?

6. Are there cases where technological changes have been introduced in order to redress power imbalances? If so, give some examples.

7. According to Winner, what are “inherently political technologies”?

8. Why could this be the case?

9. What examples does Winner provide to support his case?

10. How do business leaders feel about issues of centralization versus democratic control?

11. What examples can you come up with of technologies that require a highly centralized hierarchy controlling them?

12. What current technologies could be controlled in a more democratic fashion that is currently the case?

Terrorism and Brittle Technology

1. Why do Lovins and Lovins feel that the United States is vulnerable to terrorist attacks?

2. What makes an energy source invulnerable to terrorism?

3. What suggestions do Lovins and Lovins make?

4. How feasible are these suggestions?

Technological Politics As If People Mattered

1. What were the social impacts of introducing piped water in the village of Ibieca?

2. How does “strong democracy” differ from our traditional conception of democracy?

3. What are the various ways in which design criteria can affect democracy?

4. Give an example of how technological decisions using each of these design criteria can strengthen democracy.

5. How can the use of only some design criteria and not all of them result in bad things happening?

6. Give some examples of participatory research, development and design?

7. What advantages and what problems do you anticipate if more technological decisions were affected by public participation?