Technological politics, ideology

As society advances, its values depend on what is produced and those sources of production. However, as the means to acquire products becomes easier, values turn inward to the general societal welfare and our environment. Uncontrolled fire can devastate our assets and production sources, and this relates to the societal costs of fire prevention and loss restoration. The effects of fire on people and the environment become social issues that depend on the political ideology and economics that prevail in the state. Thus, attention to fire prevention and control depend on its perceived damage potential and our social values in the state. While these issues have faced all cultures, perhaps the twentieth century ultimately provided the basis for addressing fire with proper science in the midst of significant social and technological advances, especially among the developed countries. 

Fries, Sylvia Doughty. 1983. Expertise against Politics Technology as Ideology on Capital Hill, 1966-1972. Science, Technology and Human Values 8, no. 2 6-15. 

The political theorist Langdon Winner (1977) described the first position - advocated in the writings of critics like EUul and Mumford - as an ideology of technological politics. This view had two defining tenets (i) technical decisions were inherently political, and thus technological systems embodied political philosophies and (ii) once the dominant system was sufficiently advanced, it would become autonomous. Analysis between society s is and its ought would drive reasoned action to liberate man from totalitarian rationality. In the absence of blueprints for a human-centered society, one s first task was to become aware of his place in the system. 

Gorz, A. (1976) Technology, technicians and the class struggle , in A. Gorz (ed) The Division of Labour The Labour Process and Class-Struggle in Modern Capitalism, Harvester Press, Hassocks Habermas, J. (1971) Technology and science as Ideology , in Toward a Rational Society Student Protest, Science and Politics, trans. J. Shapiro, Heinemann Educational, London Habermas, J. (1977) Hannah Arendt s communications concept of power , Social Research, vol 44, pp2-24... 

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