Mobilizing social transformation with technology. The shaping of social processes since the development of industrial society and beyond: innovation input and social processes

Abstract

Technological development is a key factor for shaping social life, transforming the ways in which societies organize their production, mobility and communication processes. Since the beginning of industrialization, the pace of the transformations brought about by technological change has increased dramatically, and has further accelerated since the advent of the new digital technologies. These development processes has also impacts in terms of social, economic and environmental costs, a fact that has been addressed in the past few decades by various social movements as well as theoreticians, becoming a key issue in political and social discussion agendas. In this paper, we outline a historical perspective of these changes and their effects, from pre-industrial, industrial, post-Fordism and network societies, and we focus on the mobilizing potential of technological change. We analyze the role that technological interfaces play today in social transformation, as well as the implications for our present day that our interactions become increasingly intermediated by digital technologies. Finally, we discuss digital technologies and their impacts on social inequity. We argue that a public and democratic agenda comprising both development and technological issues should be put in place for guaranteeing social development processes.

Keywords:

• innovation
• technical development
• equality
• mobilization
• network society
• digitalization
• AI

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Kern (1983, 9) argues that the abundance of energy supply and the resulting material culture were key factors in the changes of those decades: “The tremendous development of railroads and steamships and the invention of the automobile and airplane greatly accelerated transportation and proliferated the places where people could travel at new high speeds. The petroleum industry began to supply combustible fuels on a large scale for the automobiles, and power stations distributed electricity to light up the night and drive electric motors”.

2 For a complementary perspective on the history of mobilities, see Guingueno and Flonneau (2009), an interdisciplinary collection of essays that explores various topics related to mobility beyond specific modes of transportation. These authors, along many others, are part of the French association “passé-présent-mobilité”, which works on mobility issues from an interdisciplinary standpoint.

3 Aligned with Pérez's perspective, Freeman and Louçã (2001) argue that the widespread effects of technological changes extend beyond the technology itself, reshaping the principles that organize economic systems, which in turn, have profound consequences for society and its institutional framework.

4 In his words: “The Eskimo is a servomechanism of his kayak, the cowboy of his horse, the businessman of his clock, the cyberneticist – and soon the entire world – of his computer. In other words, to the spoils belongs the victor” (McLuhan 1964, 55).

5 For a discussion of some of the challenges posed by AI, see Coeckelbergh (2021). Another specialist on this topic (Acemoglu 2021) argues: “If AI continues to be deployed along its current trajectory and remains unregulated, then it can harm competition, consumer privacy and consumer choice, it may excessively automate work, fuel inequality, inefficiently push down wages, and fail to improve productivity. It may also make political discourse increasingly distorted, cutting one of the lifelines of democracy. I also mentioned several other potential social costs from the current path of AI research.”

6 Many believe that increased global interconnectedness is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with the rise of information and communication technologies and the internet. However, this process has much deeper historical roots. The emergence of transnational linkages beyond national borders was addressed by Immanuel Wallerstein (1974, 1980). Through detailed historical analysis, he argued that a “modern world-system” emerged between roughly 1450 and 1640. This system transcended national borders and encompassed ever-larger geographical areas. Wallerstein’s work suggests that a transnational division of labor existed well before contemporary discussions about a global world.

7 For a more recent review on the threats but also the opportunities presented by AI, see the December 2023 issue of the IMF’s journal Finance & Development, featuring a dossier on “The AI Awakening” (available at https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/Fandd/Article/2023/December/FD1223.ashx).

8 This is the proposal of authors that call for democratizing the technology design processes, in order to include other values (not only the economic ones) into the picture (see Feenberg 2010, 53).

9 For the authors, it is about the interactions in new innovation systems. Three priorities should be set here: 1. Continuation of traditional downstream processing and its transformation towards sustainability. 2. Analog transformation towards capital goods and services, taking into account biotechnological, chemical, or natural innovations. 3. Innovation in specialty products for demanding markets, such as sustainable industrial goods or food. In other words, products that can serve a healthy lifestyle and diet (from cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to organic food).