Changing Large Technical Systems

Jane Summerton

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429723414
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Chemistry
• Index: Chemistry

This international anthology presents case studies of historical and contemporary transformations of large technical systems such as railways, telecommunications, electricity, and automobiles. The authors, working at the forefront of historical and social science research on the dynamics of large technical systems, analyze how and why these systems undergo change. Because of their important roles in contemporary society, large technical systems such as railways, airlines, road systems, telecommunications, and electric power network share drawing considerable academic and political interest. In this collaborative study on processes of change in large technical systems, the contributing authors present historical and current case studies of transformation within these systems. Working at the forefront of historical and social science research on the dynamics of large technical systems, the authors specifically analyze how and why the systems undergo change. In some cases, new technologies are solving old problems and presenting opportunities for system growth. In other areas, new regulatory approaches have brought competition and deregulation, often posing challenges to system builders. The authors also show how the breakup of national boundaries and new corporate strategies for global management of technology are transforming systems in ways that will have significant impacts on all consumers

1
Introductory Essay: The Systems Approach to Technological Change

Jane Summerton

This book is about processes of change in systems of technology. More specifically, it concerns processes by which the large technical systems of our everyday lives — railways, electricity, telecommunication systems, and others — are reshaped or reconfigured in various ways.

At first glance, this phenomenon appears almost counter-intuitive. For most of us, technical systems conjure up images of stability and permanence. In social science research as well, they are often regarded as symbols of the complexity, ubiquity and embodied power of modern technology. Pending system failure or other strong forces, reconfiguration appears unlikely to occur.

Historical and contemporary experience clearly shows, however, that large technical systems can and do undergo processes of reconfiguration. National systems are transformed into transnational ones as they expand over territorial borders. Transnational systems are disintegrated as a result of political developments such as those in the former Soviet Union. Systems or parts of systems with different functions are integrated in new ways with far-reaching impacts, exemplified by the adoption of telegraphy in railroads. In the last few decades, many systems have been deregulated or re-regulated, resulting in some areas in what has been termed the most fundamental industry reorganization since the appearance of large, franchised monopolies earlier in this century.

What factors impact upon large technical systems and induce — or force — such reconfiguration? What can we learn about the dynamics and processes by which transformation takes place (or perhaps is prevented from occurring), actors' responses or strategies, the problems encountered and how these are dealt with? The purpose of this book is to take a step toward answering these questions by analyzing processes of system reconfiguration in different kinds of systems, in different contexts, and over time. The reader will not find a general theory of systemic change in these pages. Instead, the chapters are primarily empirical in nature, drawing upon historical and contemporary case studies. Some of the systems studied are ones we all recognize, others are less known. The ambition is to provide a range of empirical studies that can be used as a base for comparison and generalization.

One point of departure is that an understanding of how and why large technical systems are reshaped is useful for policy makers, managers, engineers, and other operators who are responsible for the workings of these systems. There are at least three additional reasons for studying processes of reconfiguration in technical systems. The first is a user argument, stemming from the uncontested ubiquity of such systems and our dependence upon them (at least in industrialized societies). Technical systems are integral to our daily lives: they heat and light our homes and offices, fly us to conferences and vacation islands, and allow us to call grandmother on Sundays. In other words, we as consumers are undeniably parts of these systems. When they are reshaped, parts of our lives are reshaped.

The second reason why it is important to understand reconfiguration in technical systems has to do with public policy, political control and our roles as citizens. Many technical systems are public systems, if not formally, at least in terms of their service mandates. It is widely recognized, however, that large systems of technology are often challenges to public insight and control; indeed the metaphor of technics out-of-control is the epitomal example of modern technology.¹ As citizens, most of us harbor a perhaps naive hope that things are not that bad: a measure of democratic insight and some form of regulation is both possible and necessary. Several chapters of this book show, however, that when systems are reshaped, shifts in control or power are likely to occur. It is important to understand the implications of these changes for public policy.

The third motive for studying processes of reconfiguration is a social science researcher perspective. It is well known that analyzing extreme situations — system failure, periods of rapid growth or structural transformation — often help us to elucidate "the normal" in different expressions of technology. By studying phases in which technical systems undergo radical change, we might expect to gain new insights into basic dynamics and properties of these systems.

The organization of this essay is as follows. The systems perspective to technology is briefly presented and types of reconfiguration in large technical systems are discussed. Thereafter the various chapters of the book are summarized in relation to the themes they reflect. Following a discussion of driving forces and actors' roles, the essay concludes by suggesting some issues for future research.

Technology as Systems

The point of departure for a systems perspective is that many technologies cannot be viewed as isolated artifacts. Instead they are parts of larger "wholes" (material technologies, organizations, institutional rule systems and structures, and cultural values) which support and sustain them. Seen as an artifact, the telephone is a small box in our kitchens and bedrooms. Viewed as part of a system of cables, exchanges, corporations and global telecommunications links, it is just one visible expression of what might be the largest technical system ever installed/ Similarly, to become a car owner is not merely to own an artifact of mobility. It is:

...to gain admission to a web of complex sociotechnical systems. To buy a car is, in a real sense, to buy into complex road, energy supply, parts distribution, maintenance, registration, insurance, police and legal systems.³

Implicit to the systems approach is thus the perspective that in seamless webs⁴ of technology, the "technical" and "social" dimensions of technology are intertwined. The technical is inherently social. In the terminology of this book and elsewhere within the approach, a large technical system carries with it the assumption of the sociotechcal character of such technology.

The concepts of "system" and "systemicy" are used in highly divergent ways in the literature, both theoretically and empirically. Beckman (this volume) reviews some of these uses, asking the question of what exactly is "systemic" about technology.⁵ As a basis for defining the nature of systemic interdependency in technology, Beckman identifies a number of general types of operations in technical systems. Systems regulation is one approach within social theory for explaining technical change. Beckman argues, however, that there is not necessarily a connection between something being "systemic" and its being systems regulated.

The systems approach to technology has a long history.⁶ As Staudenmaier has pointed out, Adam Smith used the machine as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of systems.⁷ Marx' philosophy of social systems and the impacts of technology on social relations is well known. Within sociology, important early roots to the view of modern technologies as systems can be found in the works of Ogburn and Mumford. Even before the 1920s, Veblen emphasized the complexity and fragility of the modern industrial system. A systems perspective has also been pervasive within the history of technology for at least the past three decades.⁸

In the mid-1980s, social science and historical interest in technical systems experienced a renaissance. A research approach that focused specifically on large technical systems (LTS) emerged. This approach is the intellectual framework for the present book. The single most important work in shaping the perspective was Thomas P. Hughes' pathbreaking Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society 1880 — 1930 (1983). Hughes developed a number of concepts that are useful in understanding the dynamics of change in technical systems. One such concept is system builders, referring to the inventors, engineers, managers, financiers and others who develop, support and sustain technical systems. System builders use a variety of tactics to promote and defend their systems. They can be expected to block attempts at reconfiguration that threaten their control.

Another concept from Hughes' work that is relevant to understanding system change is reverse salients.⁹ Reverse salients is a military metaphor for problems or lags that hold back a system on some "front" of its development. A reverse salient, which can be technical, economic, organizational or political in nature, thwarts the further growth of the system. System builders must be able to correctly identify reverse salients and turn them into solvable problems.¹⁰

Within the past few years, large technical systems have been studied by increasing numbers of researchers in the history and sociology of technology, political science, economics, and other fields.¹¹ The growth of intellectual interest is also reflected in a series of international round table conferences that have been held among researchers since 1986.

Two contemporary research approaches that are related to the systems perspective in analyzing processes of technological change are actor-network theory¹² and the social construction of technology.¹³ Among other things, these approaches emphasize that systems and networks are constructs. They are shaped in contingent and often conflict-filled processes of interpretation, interaction and negotiation among purposeful actors or groups of actors. While much of the large technical systems research tends to treat actors as units within the analysis, actor-network theory and the social construction of technology view actors as the explicit units of their analysis.

Types of Reconfiguration

This book concerns reconfiguration in large technical systems. In some ways this approach is of course not new. As Braun and Joerges point out (this volume), an interest in large-scale and historically unprecedented change has been implicit in most earlier research in the systems field. Similarly, actor-network theory and the social construction of technology are concerned with processes of change by which stabilization or "closure" is achieved in technology.¹⁴

This book complements these perspectives, taking a somewhat different point of departure. It is well known in the research approaches noted above that periods of stability in technical systems and networks are typically only provisional. Systems and networks are dynamic entities; they can seldom — if ever — be "blackboxed" (closed) for good. The current volume focuses on the dynamics of situations or periods in the development of technical systems in which previously achieved closure is undone. This is another way of formulating the classic question of what causes black boxes of technology to open.

The undoing of closure opens up the potential for transformation. The system is in transition from a "business as usual" mode to a new phase in which various aspects of system operation are called into question. In such periods, the inner workings and structure of a system often begin to show. Taken-for-granted assumptions about a system — its function, the configuration of its core technology, its organization, how it is controlled — are perhaps challenged. In the process, competitive battles among actors or even broader social conflicts are likely to occur.

It might be tempting to associate the dynamics of reconfiguration with rapid or revolutionary process. Such an assumption is, however, potentially deceptive. What initially might appear to be a "revolution" can in fact be the outcome of a series of small, incremental adaptations over time. The cumulative effects of these steps can nevertheless be at least as substantial as the effect of abrupt innovation.

From a historical perspective, several types of reconfiguration in large sociotechnical systems can be discerned. One well-known type has been the territorial expansion and interconnection of similar systems across political borders, transforming regional systems into national ones and national systems into transnational ones. In this book, the clearest examples of territorial border crossing are the integration of the telecommunications systems of formerly East and West Germany, as well as the interconnection of regional electricity systems in Australia to form a national system.

A second type of reconfiguration has been the result of linkages between systems with heterogeneous functions. Here we see a different form of "border crossing", namely the crossing of functional system boundaries by combining parts of different systems that complement each other. For example, transportation systems have been fundamentally changed by linkages with communication systems or energy systems, as witnessed by the use of telegraph systems and electricity in railways or the adoption of radiotelegraphy in ocean transport sytems. Examples in this book are found in the shaping of such disparate phenomena as organ transplant systems and industrial mass warfare systems.

Finally, a third type of reconfigura...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1 Introductory Essay: The Systems Approach to Technological Change
• PART ONE Combining Parts of Systems
• PART TWO Crossing Territorial Borders
• PART THREE Confronting Cultural Incompatibilities
• PART FOUR Controlling Car Traffic Will the System Change?
• PART FIVE Reflections on Systemicy in Technology
• About the Contributors
• About the Book
• Index