ARTS 2877 (Sociology) Year 2
In today day, such frameworks of oppression, on which the building of capitalism is built upon, creates a culture wherein ‘technical systems of numerous kinds are deeply intertwined in the problems of contemporary politics’ (Winner 1980:122 To say technology is not political would certainly be a completely incorrect declaration, for the system we stay in makes it near difficult to designate technological artefacts a neutral position no matter their “selfhood”– a lot more so lack of selfhood. Nonetheless, while ‘it is apparent that modern technologies can be utilized in manner ins which improve the power, authority, and benefit of some over others,’ Champion highlights that ‘to our accustomed mindset, innovations are viewed as neutral devices that can be made use of well or badly, completely, wicked, or something in between. But we generally do not quit to inquire whether an offered device may have been made and integrated in such a manner in which it generates a set of effects logically and temporally before any one of its proclaimed usages’ (1980:125
Thus, the inevitable politicisation of technology, highlighted through Champion’s instance of Moses’ parkway bridges, embodies disproportionate power and social relationships communicated by deliberate accessibility limitations for those with reduced socioeconomic conditions. Although ‘backgrounds of style, city preparation, and public works include many instances of physical plans which contain explicit or implicit political functions’ (1980: 124, the political salience emphasizing the frameworks of power and opportunity is extremely apparent as a social work significant. In observing such variations of power relations, I discover myself unconsciously attracting links to the social phenomenon of the Matthew Impact (Merton 1968 in which “the abundant obtain richer and the poor obtain poorer.” This embedded cycle of oppression subsequently brings me to an extra recent occasion, that is: the execution of the NSW Light Rail (in this case the Eastern Suburbs line) resulting in the desecration of substantial Indigenous heritage websites.
Although the public transportation can be noted as a useful enhancement to boosting the overall NSW transportation system, this piece of modern technology can not solely be judged on ‘their contributions of efficiency and performance … however also for the ways in which they can embody details forms of power and authority’ (1980:121 Thus, while it can be argued that the intentions behind contemporary transportation emerge from a location of sustainability or effectiveness, similar to Moses’ bridges that ‘used to lug cars from one indicate an additional … nevertheless, included functions much beyond their immediate use’ (1980: 125, there is no warranty contesting undertones of a political (discriminative) nature. Furthermore, in using this notion to existing situations, examples such as the discouraging results of the Voice Mandate, more interact political high qualities embedded within the social– highlighting the architectural structure of colonial values main to White Australia.
By overlooking the cultural landscape and historical stories of dispossession, especially ignoring Australia’s settler background across Sydney’s eastern, the prioritisation of upper-class (mostly White) citizens is made abundantly clear via the lens of classism; accentuating issues of fitting the fortunate outs perform the significance of individuals social connections to Indigenous land. Hence, as the integral political nature credited to the technical dictates the really constructs necessitating our social problems and communications, Champion emphasises ‘what matters is not modern technology itself, however the social or economic system in which it is ingrained’ (1980:122