Social Science Research Council Research AMP Mediawell
Citation

Do Artifacts Have Politics?

Author:
Winner, Langdon
Publication:
Daedalus
Year:
1980

In controversies about technology and society, there is no idea more pro vocative than the notion that technical things have political qualities. At issue is the claim that the machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture can be accurately judged not only for their contributions of efficiency and pro ductivity, not merely for their positive and negative environmental side effects, but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and authority.