Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T08:58:22.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Technologies, Texts and Affordances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2001

Ian Hutchby
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, Middlesex, UK
Get access

Abstract

In contrast to recent sociological emphases on the social shaping of technology, this article proposes and illustrates a way of analysing the technological shaping of sociality. Drawing on the concept of affordances (Gibson 1979), the article argues for a recognition of the constraining, as well as enabling, materiality of artefacts. The argument is set in the theoretical context of one of the most recent and comprehensive statements of anti-essentialism (Grint and Woolgar 1997). The position is illustrated through a reinterpretation of some case studies used by proponents of the radical constructivist position.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
2001 BSA Publications Limited

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)