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 ?”

Which of the following statements from the passage suggests that the hypothetical sociological studies of change in industry most clearly exemplifies the social constructivists’ version of technological determinism? 

पर्याय

• It is the available technology that determines worker’s skills, rather than workers’ skills influencing the application of technology.

• Some industrial technology eliminates jobs, but educated workers can create whole new skills areas by the adaptation of the technology.

• Most major technological advances in industry have been generated through research and development.

• All progress in industrial technology grows out of a continuing negotiation between technological possibility and human need.

Answer 1

It is the available technology that determines worker’s skills, rather than workers’ skills influencing the application of technology.

Explanation:

1. The third paragraph suggests that constructivists  are “misrepresenting technological determinism.” The  constructivists are reported to hold that technological  determinism views technology as an “existing outside  society, capable of directly influencing skills and  work for organization.” In simple words, constructivists view that technological determinism sees technology as outside of society, influencing worker’s skills.   
2. The passage does not portray either constructivists or determinists as being concerned with technology-driven job elimination or creation.   
3. According to the passage, neither constructivists nor determinists are concerned with technological research and development.   
4. The passage states that the constructivists hold that  “technological determinists are supposed to believe…that machinery imposes appropriate forms  of order on society.” This suggests that no negotiation is present.   
Therefore, 'It is the available technology that determines worker’s skills, rather than workers’ skills influencing the application of technology.' is the apt answer.