Decomposing the Sociotechnical (Fractal)

From a sociotechnical perspective, a system is described in terms of both socially mediated relationships and technically mediated relationships. 

Many people think of a socio-technical system as a composite system, containing some social subsystems and some technical subsystems. 

For example, some people like to think that all benefits can be attributed to the machine, and any implementation problems belong to the social system. This leads to a story about resistance.

And some people like to attach the benefits of automation to the social system. This leads to a story about workforce productivity.

But this separation between social and technical is a simplification, which can sometimes be dangerously misleading. All social systems are technically mediated. We get an increasing amount of our information about our social world through technical media: email, telephone, management information systems, television, Reuters newswire. These technologies screen information for us, screen information from us.

(For example, computers and televisions both provide information as services through a screen. The screen is both literal and metaphorical. It is a surface on which the data are presented, and also a filter that controls what the user sees. The screen is a two-sided device -- it both reveals information and hides information.)

And all technical systems are socially mediated. Technology is produced, distributed and managed by people within social structures, for socio-economic or political purposes. It is interpreted and used according to social intentions.

For some purposes, therefore, it is appropriate to treat all the subsystems, even the smallest components, of a socio-technical system as if they were themselves socio-technical. (This kind of decomposition is sometimes called fractal.)

And the “same” machinery can coexist with different social arrangements. The costs, benefits and risks of the technology belong to the whole socio-technical system, not just the machine in isolation.

 

 Originally posted at http://www.veryard.com/system/sociotechnical.htm