Technology and knowledge: the affirmation of power
When Durkheim (1933) wrote that the introduction of technologies had produced profound changes... in the structure of our societies in a very short time, he was warning against the unqualified acceptance of rapid technological change before a knowledge base had had time to develop from the existing values and shared experiences of individuals. This paper will consider how the technologising of society, in the context of work, is at once a suppression of knowledge and a reaffirmation of its power. Interpretive analysis of office-based employees in three organisations reveals how the abstraction, the alienation, the anomie that disorientates, invades, isolates and ultimately separates individuals from the conditions of their work, are symptoms of this assault on knowledge. Paradoxically, the analysis also disputes the pre-eminence of this view. It considers the technologising of society to be establishing a prevailing knowledge base that provides a range of new opportunities for not only communicating at work, but also increasing mobility within and without the workplace, raising employment prospects, and nurturing a greater sense of self-sufficiency, accountability and responsibility. This paper contends that these are factors, which indicate that the technologising of society, by cultivating fresh sources of knowledge, is also empowering individuals through the facilitation of new autonomous working practices.
technology knowledge power work modernity