April 1, 2014: The Politics behind Technological Development

Politics can be defined as occurring wherever authority is exercised in ways that have great impact on public well-being. "Because engineering systematically and authoritatively reshapes the everyday material world, and thereby helps shape ways of life for billions of people, engineering is in some respects as important a political arena as electoral politics and representative government" (Woodhouse, p. 147). Sometimes the implementation of simple technologies, such as overpasses and private pools, can have strong political and social connotations that consequently provoke the public well-being. This then suggests that certain facets of non-governmental life, such as science and engineering, have a political element that should not be overlooked.

Technologies authoritatively help determine who gets what, when, and how, just as politics is characterized as the struggle for who gets what, when, and how (Woodhouse, p.148-150). Robert Moses, a prominent figure in the building of New York City's infrastructure, demonstrated the power of technology by the suggestive nature of the low overpasses constructed during the mid-twentieth century. Moses deliberately designed hundreds of overpasses to have a low clearance, which happens to be smaller than would allow a standardized public bus. (Ibo, p. 199).  Although the reasons for this design specification have been debated since Langdon Winner's article, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?", Winner proposed that the motivation was to prevent the lower classes taking public transportation from having access to the public beaches. Biographer, Robert Caro, admitted that Moses demonstrated racial tendencies and pointed out that due to the specifications of these structures, "only people would could afford a car - and in Moses' days these were generally not Afro-American people - could easily access the beaches now" (Ibo, p. 199). Though Moses' intent for these overpasses have been doubted and debated, this example still demonstrates that people with the ability to influence the implementation of technology can do so with aspirations to induce social, and thus political, change.

The history behind the progression towards private pools, which are quite popular in the United States, illustrates the use of technology to influence social movements. Originally, municipal pools existed to keep the disgraceful youth, poor, and immigrants in a closed location, hidden from the public. These pools were used primarily for bathing, however after World War I, pools became a place for enjoyment and relaxation. Where initially pool usage was specific to just men or women on different days of the week, families were then encouraged to come as a whole to enjoy the water together. However, from this integration sprouted animosity and discrimination, as white people became very concerned that "the sexual atmosphere at a pool might promote racial mixing" (NPR, 2007). Following this point, pools were then racially segregated instead of by gender. Eventually, municipal pools were desegregated once more, however in retaliation white people began building private pools to enjoy swimming in their own space. In this example, the development of technology gave the people the power to induce social and political change as "Americans fought over where pools should be built, who should be allowed to use them, and how they should be used" (NPR, 2007).

Innovations in manufacturing, communication, and transportation technologies lead to fundamental changes in daily life every bit as significant as the effects of government legislation (Woodhouse, p.151). The implementation of technologies such as the overpass and private pools suggest that technological developments give people in control significant influence over social structure, and therefore politics. One must wonder that with the changes provoked by just these simple technologies, how much power and influence is given to those in control of more advanced science and engineering.

References

Plunging into Public Pools’ Contentious Past. NPR. 26 May 2007. Web. 1 April 2014.

van de Poel, Ibo; Royakkers, Lamber. Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Web. 31 March 2014.

Winner, Langdon. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Daedalus 109.1 (1980): 121-136. Web. 1 April 2014.

Woodhouse, Edward. The Future of Technological Civilization. University Readers, 2013. Print.