The technicization of knowledge: Georges Gurvitch’s warnings applied to the case of nudge

ABSTRACT

For over a century, social theorists have analyzed how technical thinking and knowledge have colonized forms of thinking and knowledge for which they are unfit, and become valued for their own sake, rather than being treated as a means to an end. Georges Gurvitch made important contributions to this line of thought. This paper explicates Gurvitch’s sociology of knowledge, focusing on his argument that managerial-capitalist societies have a structural preference for technical knowledge and analysis of how six distinct types of knowledge have become increasingly ‘technicized’: perceptual knowledge, social knowledge, common sense knowledge, political knowledge, scientific knowledge, and philosophical knowledge. We demonstrate Gurvitch’s continuing relevance by applying his framework to examine the theory and practice of ‘Nudge’, a more genteel and subtle approach to the technocratic control of human behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Gurvitch
• sociology of knowledge
• instrumental reason
• means-ends rationality
• technocracy
• capitalism
• nudge
• social theory

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 There is an important debate, which cannot be given attention here, about whether efficiency is still hooked to economic considerations or has become an autonomous criterion (Winner 1977). Neo-Marxists will emphasize how the drive to make ‘efficient’ decisions typically means ‘more profitable’ or ‘less costly’ decisions whereas thinkers like Ellul argue that efficiency has detached itself from economic reason and become a monolithic consideration in all social affairs with or without guidance from the profit motive.

2 The gap between Gurvitch’s use of the term ‘empirical’ and the typical understanding of this term served as a foundation for critique of his work: ‘There are few sociologists whose work is less empirical than [Gurvitch’s],’ according to Hunt (1979, 174), ‘yet he remains insistent upon its empirical character.’

3 Although less important for this project’s goals, it is worth noting that Gurvitch also typologizes ten different forms of knowledge, a heuristic developed through five dichotomies that different types of knowledge can emphasize: (1) mystical/rational, (2) empirical/conceptual, (3) positive/speculative, (4) symbolic/concrete, and (5) collective/individual.

4 Similar to Italian Marxist-phenomenologist, Paci (1972, 46), Gurvitch is likely referring to The Communist Manifesto’s allusion to Goethe’s poem, ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’: like Goethe’s sorcerer, ‘who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells,’ capitalism ‘has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange,’ which are not under the control of their creators (Marx and Engels 1964, 11).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan Gunderson

Ryan Gunderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology and Affiliate of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability at Miami University. His research interests include environmental sociology, the sociology of technology, social theory, political economy, and animal studies.

William Charles

William Charles is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami University. His research interests include economic and organizational sociology, sociology of work, social movements, and social theory.