School of Communication and Culture

The effort to comprehend innovation across cultures and time highlights the importance of the explicating factors external to technology. It becomes relevant to nuance or differentiate the understanding of social and cultural responses to adopted technologies by recognizing that technology shapes culture, and just as importantly that culture shapes technology. By looking at a recent transfer of technology this reciprocal exchange is elaborated by considering the cultural or contextual influence in the adaptation of technology. In this connection the notion of technological style is revisited by questioning whether it pays due attention to the non-technical factors of the process? In order to compensate for the deficiencies of the technological style as a sensitizing device the concept of sociotechnical style is introduced – a concept more in tune with resent research in technology studies.