Sociotechnical Systems

Sociotechnical systems are assemblages of technological, material, cultural, political, and psychological components interwoven together. The operation of technological systems that provide societal goods, such as water, energy, transport, consumer products, and chemicals, depends on how humans process information about the world, interact with each other and with technologies, and translate cultural values into resource use. Technological systems can influence consumption greatly through absorbing social norms, practices, and relationships, helping create the conditions for consumer behavior, and increasing resource inputs. However, consumption studies have seldom looked at sociotechnical systems as an important player in driving and structuring consumption (and vice versa).

The idea of “sociotechnical systems” first appeared during the 1950s when Eric Trist and Ken Bamforth at the Tavistock Institute in London studied why British industry had puzzlingly low productivity despite the advent of new technologies expected to enhance labor output. They concluded that the technologies disrupted existing organizational procedures, leading to worker discontent and higher absenteeism. Since then, researchers have focused on the use of technologies inside organizations: when, how, and why organizational elements such as employee groups, training, operating procedures, and physical layouts may influence technology performance. For example, computer network designers did not take into account how bank clerks balanced their running ledgers day-to-day, so introducing a remote transaction system in the banking sector in Uganda in the early 2000s failed in part because the clerks resisted the dramatic changes in their work practices. Much of this microscale research emphasizes maximizing the efficiency of organizational use of technology.

From the 1980s onward, researchers in the science and technology studies (STS) field have extended the sociotechnical perspective to explain how a range of societal influences, including consumption, can shape the nature, trajectories, and impacts of entire technological systems and infrastructures. Using interpretive methods, they explore how, why, when, and where technology designers, customers, markets, financiers and credit availability, regulatory and industry standards, and organizations can help generate, modify, and challenge technologies. Sociotechnical systems do not develop linearly or inevitably. Rather, their specific features—such as gasoline engines, Internet protocols, preferences for direct or alternating current, or cell phone touch screens—grow out of [Page 1344]a succession of human and institutional choices in particular historical moments. Technologies could be (but often have not been) designed with environmental and resource use impacts in mind.

Energy and water are well-studied examples of how sociotechnical systems affect consumption by creating new commodities and market demand. For instance, Thomas Hughes conducted a comparative analysis of how the American, German, and British electricity industries emerged and evolved in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He showed that how companies approached the challenge of selling a new product, electricity, to city governments, industry, and consumers was a key factor shaping the geographical spread of the power grid. David Nye investigated how the electrification of the United States took place as a sociopolitical process, and how electricity use became joined with new markets for lighting and appliances. Consumer products have also been studied, especially lighting, bicycles, plastics, and electronics. The social construction of technology framework developed by Wiebe Bijker includes different consumer groups (such as women, young men, and older men) as one of the important social groups influencing the bicycle's development through their demand for specific bicycle features.

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