LARGE TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS (LTS)
The evolution of large technological systems - Hughes (1987)
Technological systems = messy, complex, problem-solving (reordering the material world,
making it more productive) → socially constructed and society shaping.
→ components: physical artifacts, organizations, legislative artifacts and
natural resources → are socially constructed artifacts.
→ invented and developed by system builders (entrepreneurs) =
trans-disciplinary problem-solvers → manipulate and re-align
heterogeneous system elements to identify and solve critical problems.
→ portrayed as heroes (protagonists) → types: (a) inventor-entrepreneur
(inv+dev), (b) manager-entrepreneur (innov+comp+growth), (c)
financier- entrepreneur (growth+consol), (d) engineer-entrepreneur
(consolid).
If TS is not organised like this, the system will fall apart → if something is
removed from the system, the system has to be affected.
Artifact = (non-/)physical component in a system that interacts with other artifacts.
→ they compensate → FEX. electric light and power system → change in resistance brings
compensatory changes in transmission, distribution and generation components.
Ideal: closed system (without environment), bureaucracy, routinization, eliminating uncertainty.
→ 2 environments with an open TS: (a) ones on who they depend and (b) ones dependent on
them → both a one-way influence → environmental factors not part of system (not under
control).
Evolution of LTSs: (7th phase of LTS evolution = stagnation and decline)
1. Invention: radical during innovation phase (FEX. Edison, electric light), conservative
during competition and growth → improvements of earlier failed inventions that are
independent (free from constraints of organizations) and professional → can be
independent, but not professional (become professional by experience) → results: deskill
workers, engineers and managers, wipe out financial investments and stimulate anxiety
in large organizations.
2. Development: successful radical inventions give rise to TS → one inventor may be
responsible for all/most following inventions of a TS → is the inventor-entrepreneur →
invention embodied with economic, political and social characteristics it needs to survive
→ harmonizing component characteristics results in patentable inventions → creating
SCOT → problems arise from the systematic relationships of system components.
3. Innovation: combining invented and developed physical components into a complex
system of manufacturing, sales and service → add system components to enter market.
4. Technology transfer: transfer of tech to different environments, at any time in history
TS → system is suited for survival in a particular time and place → problems in
transferring to another time or different environment → often adaptation necessary for
transfer.
5. Technological style: adaptation is a response to different environments, leading to style
→ corresponds with SCOT and shaped by numerous, diverse factors → variation in style
not by quantity of output, but in way it is distributed, generated and t ransmitted →
natural geography shapes style (it influences tech) → regional styles emerge in national.
6. Growth, Competition, Consolidation: causes of growth; (a) economies of scale (FEX.
savings in materials and heat energy by using large containers), (b) drive for personal
, power and organizational amplification → BUT, large-scale output and organizational
size are not necessary for profitability and personal power → (c) drive for high diversity,
load factors and a good economic mix → extension over large geographical area
increases diversity and improves the load factor → load factor (growth) = ratio of average
output to max output during a specific period → indicator of a return on investment.
Consolidation; system has acquired momentum = appearance of autonomy and that
appearance is due to (a) mass, (b) velocity and (c) goal-directedness a TS has acquired.
→ momentum more useful than autonomy: M does not contradict social construction of tech and
does not support (wrong) belief in technological determinism (tech drives innovation).
→ includes structural factors and contingent events (mogelijke gebeurtenissen) → high-
momentum systems: interconnection of production and distribution into high flow systems.
→ actor networks add to system momentum → concepts related: vested interests (spelende
belangen), fixed assets (vaste lasten), sunk costs (already spent money that can’t be recovered).
Reverse salient (limits to potential) = technical/organisational anomaly when TS expands →
progress on one front causes backwardness elsewhere → 2 key features: (1) keeps entire system
from expanding and (2) is an element of the system that is lagging.
→ response; inventions that increase output, created by problem-solver → if reverse salient
cannot be corrected within the existing system, the solution is a new, competing system.
Reverse salients and load factor refer to internal dynamics, momentum to external effects.
Presumptive anomaly = under some future conditions the conventional system will fail or a
radically different system will do better → difference with reverse salient: PA constantly stresses
the role of science in identifying reverse salients.
Large technical systems: concepts and issues - Joerges (1988)
Large technical system = system of many interconnected elements to understand co-evolution
of technology and society → distinct type of technical system with dynamics → functions as a
network → to understand and analyse socio technical change.
→ system of technical components (artifacts), i ndividuals (independently or in organisations)
and institutions (knowledge, rules, routines) → broken down in sub and subsub systems.
→ evidence LTS: inventor-engineers → motive forces, resources and problem-solving styles →
are beginnings of LTS and sometimes transfer can be traced back to inventor-entrepreneurs.
Big Technology = high risk and high threat tech → more uncertainty in terms of health,
environmental damage, social identity and finance than conventional production technologies.
2 aims of social research: (1) turn from images of things to (technical) things. (2) specify technical
scale and explore implications of large, growing scale in technical and social phenomena.
System = creation, fitting together, projecting in business world and non-engineering activities.
Networks of power = series of conceptualizations that promise to be flexible enough for other
datasets derived from other micro and macro perspectives.
→ micro-macro problem: concerns about inner structure of LTS (interorganizational networks).
Strategies for recognizing embedded tech:
(1) conceptual strategy = making tech susceptible to social science analysis by looking at
analogies with other social phenomena.
(2) explanatory issues = what makes technical systems different from other cultural
artifacts (FEX. organizations, ideologies)? → difficulty: lack of elaborated theories.
2 explanatory strategies for risk-analysis: (1) aimed at understanding what makes for system
accidents, (2) aimed at explaining what makes even very large systems almost failure-free.
External vs internal: are LTSs responding to demands and requirements "outside" themselves?
