Lesson for Week 7: Day 2
7:2
Today, we will glance briefly at three theorists views about how technology diffuses through a society. The language we use for this process shows something of our bias. For instance, diffusion sounds like dye difusing through a glass of clear water (not necessarily bad if you want color). Some refer to technology transfer, a phrase that sounds like someone has it to hand off to someone else. Technology adoption places responsibility on the user who adopts or refuses to adopt. Restraining technology sounds like a person wants to hold back a force that is moving ahead out of control.
1. Everett Rogers and Diffusion Theory. Diffusion theory is particularly pertinent to our ongoing study of transgenic organisms, GMO crops. Rogers is a communication theorist whose early work was very much colored by a pro-technolgy bias. He seemed to want to know why people and groups of peopole adopted technology, seemingly so that the process could be encouraged. I already have a separate page on his theory, so I will ask you to click to those files : a summary of Everett Rogers'Diffusion theory and his summary of the adoption of hybrid corn in Iowa. As you read, think about this theory in relationship to the diffusion of GMO crops. Think of these two readings as being your in-class work for today.
2. Marshall McLuhan's Laws of Media. Another useful theoretical perspective that helps us understand the effects of innovation is Marshall McLuhan's "Laws of Media." McLuhan is another communication theorist who was particularly interested in how technology associated with various media influence communication. Basically, his laws describe the way new technology reshapes elements of existing technology and replaces some aspects of it. He wrote:
"Our laws of media are intended to provide a ready means of identifying the properties of and actions exerted upon ourselves by our technologies and media and artifacts. They do not rest on any concept or theory, but are empirical, and form a practical means of perceiving the action and effects of ordinary human tools and services. They apply to all human artifacts, whether hardware or software, whether bulldozers or buttons, or poetic styles or philosophical systems."
How can the Laws of Media, or "Tetrads," help us understand the effects of new technology, like genetically modified crops, on the existing balance?
There are four Laws of Media in the Tetrads quoted here from McLuhan's Laws of Media: The New Science:
| "What does the artifact ENHANCE or intensify or make possible or accelerate? This can be asked concerning a wastebasket, a painting, a steamroller, or a zipper, as well as about a proposition in Euclid or a law of physics. It can be asked about any word or phrase in any language." | "When pushed to the limits of its potential (another complementary action), the new form will tend to reverse what had been its original characteristics. What is the REVERSAL potential of the new form?" |
| "What recurrence or RETRIEVAL of earlier actions and services is brought into play simultaneously by the new form? What older, previously obsolesced ground is brought back and inheres in the new form?" | "If some aspect of a situation is enlarged or enhanced, simultaneously the old condition or unenhanced situation is displaced thereby. What is pushed aside or OBSOLESCED by the new 'organ'?" |
You can simply ask . . .
3. Jacques Elluls four restraints to technology. Jacques Ellul was a philosopher of technology who characterized technology as a rationality that tries to subjugate all processes to mechanical, repetitive, and efficient processes. He is often cited as a believer in "autonomous technology," a phrase that means technology advances as a social phenomenon, and it is within human capability to control its growth and expansion. He, therefore, is resistent to and suspicious of new technology. In the attached short excerpt from The Technological Society, Ellul ennumerates four forces that might restrain technology: morals, public opinion, social structure, and the state. (Go down to the small heading, "Technique Unchecked.") If you get the book and read further, you'll find that he is pretty pessimistic than any of these works today because there is a strong pro-technology, pro-progress, and pro-effiiciency bias in the modern world.
Each of these three perspectives offers a way of thinking about the GMO controversy of our present time. Rogers may lead us to think about early adopters and laggarts, McLuhan about the restructuring of farming techniques, and Ellul about the whether or not any of the traditional restraints to technology are at work.
A side note: Why is this class so hard right now? This can be a very difficulty section of the course as you focus on that and continue to read about GMOs for the civic-issue paper coming up after this one. In short, you're multitasking in the this class, and add to that your other classes, there are many "multitasks" going on in your life. One of the goals of this class is to help you develop project management skills, and this is the time where you're being put to the test in that area.
There is another reason why things are hard right now. For most of you, this kind of paper that involves multiple research methods is new. You are doing research into the topic of discourse communities and genres by reading scholarship on the issue. This scholarship is full of jargon new to you, and yet you have to consolidate your reading into a lit review that sounds like you are familiar with the literature in this area. That is very hard to do because you are looking into a new discourse community of researchers, and you're trying to follow a conversation that will seem to be "over your head." You are also research your own future discourse field by doing web searches, by interviewing someone, and by doing a rhetorical analysis of a document in the field. These are three other research types, at least two of which may be new to you. Altogether, then, you are doing four kinds of research, and you are learning in two new content areas, while simultaneously trying to pick up the genre skills needed to write this paper. No wonder you feel like it's tough!
I don't want you to lose heart though. This experience will stretch you in ways that you normally don't get stretched. Vygotsky describes the "zone of proximal development." That zone, he says, is an area of learning the person has not yet encountered, but is just above the person's present ability. The only way for the student to ascend that zone (I think of it as a rock wall that needs to be scaled) is for the teacher to provide "scaffolding." So now think of this paper as a rock wall you need to climb, but also think of there being a scaffolding system across its whole face. You can climb the scaffold and hence the wall. I've tried to build the scaffolding by breaking the project down into discrete parts, inviting you to do one thing at a time. As you do these, you are climbing. The real trick is at the top of the wall. There's a little overhang called "composition." That's the stage in writing this paper when you pull it all together.
1. Apply some aspect of Rogers' diffusion theory to a person or incident described in Lambrecht's Dinner at the New Gene Cafe. For example, you might talk about one of the farmers profiled in the book as an "agent of change," or you might talk about the resistance of the Irish in terms of the qualities of innovations that make them successful. You may see other connections. I don't care which part of the theory you use or what person or incident in Lambrecht's book you use: I want you to surprise me. Length? Three to five paragraphs. Please send me your paper as an attachment or in the body of an email.
2. Make an entry in 320web.blogspot.com about how McLuhan's Tetrad or Ellul's four restraints help describe GMOs as a new technology entering the world. Describe the theory briefly in your own words and then explain how it helps you see the issues involved with GMOs.
3. In preparation for 8.1, which will focus on rhetorical and textual analysis, read