Technology and Societal Development

Abstract

It has been convincingly argued that the development of societies rests at least in part on the developments of their technologies. For example, preindustrial societies developed from nomadic familial units to more extended villages and towns as they were enabled by technology to advance from hunting and gathering societies to horticultural and eventually to agrarian societies. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, society experienced a more marked and less gradual change as jobs and populations became more centered around the artifacts of technology. As a result, a shift occurred from extended to nuclear families and the concomitant development of societal institutions to take the place of the extended family in many instances. Society continues to change and development as postindustrial technology requires society to rethink such basic concepts as gender roles. Sociologists today must take a multidisciplinary approach in order to better study and understand the processes and effects of the influence of postindustrial technology on globalization, and the way that society must develop and change in order to meet the needs of its members in the postindustrial age.

Common uses of technology such as computers that take dictation and even talk back, wireless communication devices, and electronic pads that can display books automatically downloaded from afar or take notes as people work in the field are tools that, in many ways, have changed the way that business is conducted and people live their lives. Because of technological advances, society has moved from one that is primarily industrial to one that is primarily postindustrial in nature. Jobs today increasingly require one to be able to use newer technologies, and growing numbers of jobs require one to be able to develop new technology. As technology advances, society changes and grows in response, adapting to and incorporating it.

It would be difficult to argue that technology does not shape the development of society. At its most basic, technology is the application of scientific methods and knowledge to the attainment of industrial or commercial objectives. Technology includes products, processes, and knowledge.

According to Gehard Lenski, societal development occurs along a continuum of sociocultural evolution, the process by which a society develops through the growth of its stores of cultural information. One of the catalysts for societal growth, in this theory, is the society's level of technology, a specially defined term referring to information about the ways in which material resources of the environment can be used to satisfy the needs and desires of human beings.

Overview

Preindustrial. In Lenski's theory, there are several stages of sociocultural evolution. The first stage, preindustrial, comprises several levels, starting with the hunting-and-gathering society. These societies have minimal technology (e.g., spears, gathering baskets), and their members rely on whatever food and fiber they can easily acquire. Hunting-and-gathering societies are typically organized into nomadic groups, often composed primarily of extended family members, to better help them sustain themselves without actually cultivating the land. To further aid in the endeavors of hunting and gathering, these groups are typically geographically widely dispersed so that each group can have the best possible range of environmental resources to sustain its members. Because hunting-and-gathering societies tend to be organized around blood ties, family is particularly important, issues of authority and influence revolve around kinship, and social differentiation is usually based on such variables as gender, age, and family background.

The next preindustrial stage of society is the horticultural society. These societies subsist not only on readily available foods, as in hunting-and-gathering societies, but also on plant seeds and crops. The advent of a horticultural society is enabled by the development of the appropriate technologies, including basic digging and cultivation tools, irrigation systems, and fertilization techniques. Horticultural societies are typically much less nomadic than hunting-and-gathering societies because of their need to cultivate the land, at least through one growing season. They place greater emphasis on producing technology in the shape of tools and household objects than do hunting-and-gathering societies.

As the tools of the horticultural societies advance beyond the basics necessary to cultivate the land, they move into the final preindustrial stage of society: the agrarian society. Although agrarian societies are also engaged in the production of food from crops, technological innovations such as plows and irrigation allow them to do so much more efficiently. In addition, because of improvements in technology, agrarian societies tend to be larger than either hunting-and-gathering or horticultural societies. Technology also encourages the members of agrarian societies to become more specialized than in other types of preindustrial societies, as the wider use of technology combined with these societies' relative stability allows their members to focus on specialized tasks. This leads to higher degrees of specialization and even greater stability . Agrarian societies are marked by a greater permanence than hunting-and-gathering or horticultural societies, which allows them to store greater surpluses and create artifacts (e.g., statues, monuments) that can be passed from one generation to another.

Industrial Revolution. Societies remained in one of the three preindustrial modes until the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Industrialization brought with it new sources of power to perform tasks, a dependence on mechanization to produce goods and services, and new inventions to facilitate agricultural and industrial production. Because the technology associated with industrialization tended to be centralized, the populations of these societies became more centralized as well. This led to increasing urbanization and the creation of more and larger cities. For many societies, the concentration of technology and the jobs that it produced within urban centers resulted in an irrevocable transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. Due to the advances in technology and the resulting industrialization, it was no longer necessary for a single individual or even a single family to focus on producing a single product or service. This enabled factory production, division of labor, and the concentration of industries and populations within certain geographical areas. Society became less dependent on the family as many workers left home to work in the new industrial centers, and the family lost its unique position as a source of power and authority within society. Industrialization meant that villages and other small communities became increasingly less independent, relying on each other for the exchange of goods and services. Industrialization also necessitated the creation of a more formalized education system in order to teach its members to use and advance its technology. A summary of Lenski's theory of technology's effects on societal development is shown in Table 1.

Postindustrial Society. Although Lenski's theory ends with the industrialization of society, most observers now think that society has entered a new era of technology and concomitant sociocultural development. Today's postindustrial societies have an economy that is primarily based on the processing and control of information and the provision of services rather than the production of goods or other tangible products.

The development of digital computer technology and its evolution into the powerful computers, tablets, and smartphones of today have in many ways revolutionized the way that people live their lives. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was considered a luxury for a teenager to have a phone in her or his own bedroom, and to have one's own phone number at that age was remarkable. A mere ten or twenty years later, it seemed that virtually all teenagers (and many children much younger) had their own phones that they carried with them everywhere. The teenager of the twentieth century was often restricted to using the phone for a set period of time each day. In the twenty-first century, not only do many teenagers not have such restrictions, they seemingly try to constantly keep in touch with others via calling, text messaging, e-mailing, and social networks.

In many ways, these are minor changes. However, when one thinks about it, the culture of modern youth increasingly demands not only constant contact but a greater monetary investment in equipment than ever before. Societal norms are gradually changing to expect these things, while the person who prefers to remain at home and read a book becomes someone who does not fit in with the rest of society.

Similarly, the use of computers and other technological innovations in the workplace has changed not only the way that business is conducted but also some basic tenets of more traditional societies. For example, although the historical norms regarding the division of labor between the sexes are similar across cultures, to a great extent these norms are changing in postindustrial societies. Many of the jobs in industrial and postindustrial societies no longer require the physical strength necessary in hunting- and-gathering societies for one to support one's family. Success frequently depends on mental rather than physical skill, an area in which neither gender has an innate advantage.

Further, as women earn more gender equality in the workplace, they expect (and need) more gender equality in the home as well. Although some couples continue to work best within the traditional paradigm of a wife and mother who stays home and tends to the children and household while the husband and father goes out and works for a living, relatively new educational opportunities for women and the changing nature of many jobs mean that more and more women are also working outside the home. Some families handle this situation by having the woman not only work at a full-time job but also try to fulfill the domestic responsibilities at the same pre-career level. Other families attempt to compromise by having the woman only work part time outside the home, lowering their standards at home, or hiring someone to do the domestic tasks for them, such as a housecleaner, a personal chef, or a nanny. Still other families attempt to work out a more equitable division of domestic responsibilities between wife and husband. Because of postindustrial reliance on high technology, telecommuting is another option that can help couples balance these responsibilities. Modern society can adapt in order to accommodate all these approaches. Because of technology, society's expectations for gender roles are changing, becoming much less rigidly defined than they have traditionally been in the past.

Today's technological advances have implications not only for economically developed postindustrial societies but for societies that are still developing economically as well. Modernization theory posits that less developed countries will eventually industrialize in the manner of more developed countries and that the process of modernization will gradually improve the quality of life for their citizens due to political and economic forces. Modernization is thought to affect virtually all countries that have been affected by technological change. Thompson examines this phenomenon in terms of technology and societal development (1974). He contends that large social groupings of human beings have been growing larger throughout history. At first, families bonded together to form small communities so that they could hunt better and have a higher probability of success. As societies progress from horticultural to agricultural, these groups tend to get larger as specialization takes place, with some families continuing to farm, others making and selling products, and so forth; this eventually leads to the rise of villages and larger communities, all of which require societal development to progress. Although these changes may be evolutionary, the advent of industrialization in a society often has revolutionary effects on society. For example, the opportunity to find better jobs in industry than in agriculture leads many individuals leave the farm and head to the city. This creates urban centers that require different approaches to living together. The extended family is replaced by the nuclear family, and young couples move out of their parents' homes to start their own families. In some ways, this also contributes to the number of people living in poverty, as young women in particular choose to raise families on their own rather than return to their families of origin. Urbanization also lends itself to greater migration and social mobility, which in turn results in greater social distance, again requiring society to adapt and change in response to the new requirements of its members as based on their responses to technology.

Applications

The globalization enabled by modern advanced technology is another such revolution. Technological innovations mean that in many cases, individuals no longer need to be collocated in order to work together, resulting in social isolation in some ways and the creation of a larger, global society in others as communications around the world occur almost instantaneously. The advances in technology also may mean that to get ahead, more education is required, not only to use technology but to develop it as well. This may result in an inversion of status between adult children and their parents, leading to a cult of youth and the need to develop social institutions to take care of the elderly, as their geographically and socially mobile offspring are no longer able to take care of them personally.

In addition, the globalization enabled by advances in modern technology can affect less developed societies as well. In many ways, once-separate societies are becoming closer despite their geographical separation. With business practices such as outsourcing and offshoring and technologies that make inexpensive and instantaneous communication a reality, a business in India or the Philippines, for example, can provide customer service for a corporation located in the United States. For this to be successful, however, the societies will have to become more similar so that they can more easily work together.

Conclusion

Throughout recorded history and even prehistory, technology has affected the development of societies. Far from being only a fact of historical interest, however, this phenomenon is still occurring today. However, to truly be able to understand and respond to the rapid changes in society that result from rapid advances in technology, sociologists need to become more multidisciplinary. As pointed out by Hansen (2004), early pioneers of sociology such as Marx, Durkheim, and Weber all drew on various academic fields to conduct systematic studies of the development processes of industrialized society. Similarly, modern sociologists must take a multidisciplinary approach in order to study and understand the processes and effects of the shift from industrial to postindustrial societies, the influence of technology on globalization, and the ways that society must develop and change in order to meet the needs of its members in the postindustrial age.

Terms & Concepts

Economic Development: The sustainable increase in living standards for a nation, region, or society. More than mere economic growth, economic development is sustainable and positively impacts the well-being of all members of the group through such things as increased health, education, environmental protection, and per capita income,. Economic development is progressive in nature and positively impacts the socioeconomic structure of a society.

Gender Roles: Separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as "male" and "female" by one's culture. Gender roles are largely products of the way in which one was socialized and may not be in conformance with one's gender identity.

Globalization: The process by which businesses or technologies spread across the world. This creates an interconnected global marketplace operating outside constraints of time zone or national boundary. Although globalization means an expanded marketplace, products are typically adapted to fit the specific needs of each locality or culture to which they are marketed.

Industrialization: The use of mechanization to produce economic goods and services within a society. Historically, industrialization is a society's transition between farm production and manufacturing production. Industrialization is associated with factory production, division of labor, and the concentration of industries and populations within certain geographical areas and concomitant urbanization.

Modernization Theory: A sociological perspective of globalization that posits that less developed countries will eventually industrialize in the manner of more developed countries and that the process of modernization will gradually improve the quality of life in these countries due to political and economic forces.

Norms: Standards or patterns of behavior that are accepted as normal within the culture.

Postindustrial: The nature of a society whose economy is no longer dependent on the manufacture of goods and is instead primarily based on the processing and control of information and the provision of services.

Preindustrial: The nature of a society that has not yet been industrialized. Preindustrial societies tend to be small and family oriented. There are three types of preindustrial societies: hunting- and-gathering societies, horticultural societies, and agrarian societies.

Society: A distinct group of people who live within the same territory, share a common culture and way of life, and are relatively independent from people outside the group. Society includes systems of social interactions that govern both culture and social organization.

Sociocultural Evolution: The process by which a society develops through the growth of its stores of cultural information.

Social Stratification: A relatively fixed hierarchical organization of a society in which entire subgroups are ranked according to social class. These divisions are marked by differences in economic rewards and power within the society and different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth. Social stratification is a system of structured social inequality.

Technology: The application of scientific methods and knowledge to the attainment of industrial or commercial objectives. Technology includes products, processes, and knowledge.

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Bubou, G. (2011). Platform technologies and socio-economic development: The case of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in Nigeria. International Journal of Emerging Technologies & Society, 9(1), 35–49. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=63479456&site=ehost-live

Corea, S. (2007). Promoting development through information technology innovation: The IT artifact, artfulness, and articulation. Information Technology for Development, 13 (1), 49–69. Retrieved September 15, 2008 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=23625731&site=ehost-live

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