IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v34y2012i4p326-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technology, choice and the good life: Questioning technological liberalism

Author

Listed:
  • Dotson, Taylor

Abstract

Technologies should be recognized as impacting personal choice concerning the good life. Yet, technological liberalism – the idea that technology permits an extending of individual volition concerning the good without distortion – remains a dominant collective belief. It is not enough to recognize that technologies can serve as “radical monopolies” or “script” human action. They also influence human action and choice in terms of cognition and affect. Technologies-of-choice can be viewed as enabling the belief that one may act as an unencumbered self, even though they do not unequivocally extend the human will. Consideration of the impact of technologies on human volition suggests possible avenues of research into when and how technologically reflexive decision making may actually occur as well as how societies could create space for technologies more compatible with alternative notions of the good, such as that exemplified in the philosophy of Albert Borgmann. Yet, the task of enabling a wider deployment of more focal or communitarian kinds of technology is far from straightforward.

Suggested Citation

  • Dotson, Taylor, 2012. "Technology, choice and the good life: Questioning technological liberalism," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 326-336.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:4:p:326-336
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.10.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X12000589
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.10.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry Wellman, 2001. "Physical Place and Cyberplace: The Rise of Personalized Networking," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 227-252, June.
    2. Hazel Rose Markus & Barry Schwartz, 2010. "Does Choice Mean Freedom and Well-Being?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 344-355, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oostveen, Anne-Marie & Lehtonen, Pinja, 2018. "The requirement of accessibility: European automated border control systems for persons with disabilities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 60-69.
    2. Sadowski, Jathan & Selinger, Evan, 2014. "Creating a taxonomic tool for technocracy and applying it to Silicon Valley," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 161-168.
    3. Pütz, Fabian & Murphy, Finbarr & Mullins, Martin & O'Malley, Lisa, 2019. "Connected automated vehicles and insurance: Analysing future market-structure from a business ecosystem perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Ravanbakhsh, Rostam & Taqavi, Mostafa, 2020. "Muslim scholars and technological volition," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Voinea, Cristina, 2018. "Designing for conviviality," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 70-78.
    6. Sætra, Henrik Skaug, 2019. "When nudge comes to shove: Liberty and nudging in the era of big data," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tallberg, Teemu, 2003. "Networks, Organisations and Men: Concepts and Interrelations," Working Papers 495, Hanken School of Economics.
    2. Sören Petermann, 2014. "Neighbourhoods and Municipalities as Contextual Opportunities for Interethnic Contact," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(6), pages 1214-1235, May.
    3. Fang, Lan & Quan, Yurong & Mao, Hui & Chen, Shaojian, 2022. "The Information Communication Technology and Off-farm Employment of Rural Laborers: An Analysis Based on the Micro Data of China Family Panel Studies," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322088, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Misra, Shalini & Stokols, Daniel, 2012. "A typology of people–environment relationships in the Digital Age," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 311-325.
    5. David Beer & Roger Burrows, 2007. "Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 67-79, September.
    6. Gallagher, H. Colin & Block, Karen & Gibbs, Lisa & Forbes, David & Lusher, Dean & Molyneaux, Robyn & Richardson, John & Pattison, Philippa & MacDougall, Colin & Bryant, Richard A., 2019. "The effect of group involvement on post-disaster mental health: A longitudinal multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 167-175.
    7. Janice Y. Jung & Barbara A. Mellers, 2016. "American attitudes toward nudges," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(1), pages 62-74, January.
    8. BEN YOUSSEF, Adel & METHAMEM, Raouchen & M'HENNI, Hatem, 2009. "Disparités régionales et diffusion des TIC en Tunisie [Regional disparities and ICTs diffusion in Tunisia]," MPRA Paper 17938, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    9. Mitzinneck, Björn C. & Coenen, Jana & Noseleit, Florian & Rupietta, Christian, 2024. "Impact creation approaches of community-based enterprises: A configurational analysis of enabling conditions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(6).
    10. Sandikci, Ozlem & Jafari, Aliakbar & Fischer, Eileen, 2024. "Claiming market ownership: Territorial activism in stigmatized markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Scheiner, Joachim, 2020. "Telekommunikation: Bedeutung von Virtualisierung und Digitalisierung für die Multilokalität," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Danielzyk, Rainer & Dittrich-Wesbuer, Andrea & Hilti, Nicola & Tippel, Cornelia (ed.), Multilokale Lebensführungen und räumliche Entwicklungen: ein Kompendium, volume 13, pages 147-153, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    12. Manfred E Beutel & Eva M Klein & Stefan Aufenanger & Elmar Brähler & Michael Dreier & Kai W Müller & Oliver Quiring & Leonard Reinecke & Gabriele Schmutzer & Birgit Stark & Klaus Wölfling, 2016. "Procrastination, Distress and Life Satisfaction across the Age Range – A German Representative Community Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-12, February.
    13. Juan Antonio Carrasco & Bernie Hogan & Barry Wellman & Eric J. Miller, 2008. "Agency In Social Activity Interactions: The Role Of Social Networks In Time And Space," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 99(5), pages 562-583, December.
    14. Arne Roets & Barry Schwartz & Yanjun Guan, 2012. "The tyranny of choice: a cross-cultural investigation of maximizing-satisfising effects on well-being," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 7(6), pages 689-704, November.
    15. Normand Carpentier, 2013. "Entry Into a Care Trajectory," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(2), pages 21582440134, June.
    16. Ratna K. Shrestha & Raunak Shrestha & Sara Shneiderman & Jeevan Baniya, 2023. "Beyond Reconstruction: What Leads to Satisfaction in Post-Disaster Recovery?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1367-1395, April.
    17. Sara Hanson & Hong Yuan, 2018. "Friends with benefits: social coupons as a strategy to enhance customers’ social empowerment," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 768-787, July.
    18. Gaston-Breton, Charlotte & Sørensen, Elin Brandi & Thomsen, Thyra Uth, 2020. "“I want to break free!” How experiences of freedom foster consumer happiness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 22-32.
    19. repec:bfv:journl:014 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Briggs, Xavier, 2002. "Bridging Networks, Social Capital, and Racial Segregation in America," Working Paper Series rwp02-011, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    21. Huang, Zhongqiang (Tak) & Kwong, Jessica Y.Y., 2016. "Illusion of variety: Lower readability enhances perceived variety," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 674-687.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:4:p:326-336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.