Question

Read the following passage carefully and then answer the question that follows.

Surajendu Kumar’s study on the effect of the modernization of a Government Printing Press on Press maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and sociology of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism.

Kumar makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determinant of social and managerial organization. Kumar believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Cravman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Cravman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism. The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological determinism: technological determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization. Kumar refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically, he defines “technology” in terms of relationship between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level, Kumar shows how a change at the Printing Press from maintenance-intensive electromechanical devices to semi-electronic devices altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Kumar attributes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus, Kumar helps answer the question: “When is social choice decisive and when are concrete characteristics of technology more important ?”

According to the passage, Kumar believes if social constructivism had not gained widespread acceptance, then which of the following would be true? 

पर्याय

• Modernization would have occurred at a slower rate.

• Businesses would be more likely to modernize without considering the social consequences of their actions.

• There would be greater understanding of the role played by technology in producing social change.

• Businesses would be less likely to understand the attitudes of employees affected by modernization.

Answer 1

There would be greater understanding of the role played by technology in producing social change.

Explanation:

(1) The passage does not suggest that sociological analyses affect the pace of modernization; rather, it describes a debate about the history and sociology of technology.   
(2) Kumar holds that constructivists are obscure or uncertain about how modernization might have social consequences. Thus, the statement is untrue.   
(3) The passage aligns Kumar’s study closely with technological determinists. He believes that  “technology can be a primary determinant of social  and managerial organization….this possibility is  obscured by the recent sociological fashion,  exemplified by Cravman’s analysis….represents the new mainstream called the social constructivism.” He sees constructivism as obscuring the possibility that technology plays a primary role in social change.   
(4) The passage does not discuss how the attitudes of employees are perceived by their employers.   
Therefore, 'There would be greater understanding of the role played by technology in producing social change.' is the apt answer.