Social construction of technology

The social construction of technology (SCOT) is a framework developed by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker that analyzes technological artifacts as products of social negotiation rather than as self-evident solutions to technical problems. SCOT argues that the design, adoption, and meaning of a technology are determined by the relevant social groups that interact with it — users, producers, regulators, and critics — each of whom brings different interpretations and requirements to the artifact. A technology does not have one true meaning; it has as many meanings as there are groups that define it.

The SCOT framework is an application of social constructivism to the domain of technology, and it stands in direct opposition to technological determinism — the view that technology drives social change autonomously, independent of human intention. SCOT insists that the opposite is true: social choices shape technology, and the same physical artifact can be stabilized into radically different social forms depending on which groups dominate the interpretive process.

SCOT's critics complain that it ignores the material constraints of technology. But the deeper point is that material constraints are themselves socially interpreted: a brick is a building material to a builder, a weapon to a rioter, and a canvas to an artist. The material does not determine the meaning; the social group does.