GMAT閱讀沖750 Test 6 passage 3單詞、詞組預(yù)習(xí)，文章翻譯

Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and?

(5) socialogy of technology: technological determinism and (35) social constructivism.?

Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology (10) can be a primary determinant of social and managerial (40) organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the (15) shape of a technological system is subordinate to the (45) manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties? who seek to incorporate their own interests into (20) the design and configuration of the machinery. This (50) position represents the new mainstream called social? constructivism.

The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepre- senting technological determinism: technological (25) determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work? (30) organization.?

Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he defines "technology" in terms of relationships between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semielectronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark attributes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: "When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?"

喬恩·克拉克關(guān)于電話交換機的現(xiàn)代化對交換機的維護(hù)工作和工人造成的影響的研究,對圍繞技術(shù)歷史和社會學(xué)兩個熱點話題一一科技決定論和社會結(jié)構(gòu)論一做出了相當(dāng)大的貢獻(xiàn)。

克拉克認(rèn)為,一項技術(shù)的特點決定性地影響著工作技能和工作組織。更加有力的觀點就是,技術(shù)對于社會和管理組織可能是一個決定因素?？死苏J(rèn)為,這種可能性被近期的社會學(xué)潮流弄模糊了，例如,布雷弗曼的分析強調(diào)機械方式反映社會選擇。對布雷弗曼來說,一個技術(shù)系統(tǒng)的形態(tài)受制于經(jīng)理從工人那里攫取對勞動過程的控制權(quán)的愿望。技術(shù)改變被解釋成相關(guān)利益團(tuán)體協(xié)商的結(jié)果,這些團(tuán)體尋求把自身利益結(jié)合到機器的設(shè)計與配置中。這種觀點代表了一種新的主流,即“社會結(jié)構(gòu)論”。

社會結(jié)構(gòu)論主義者通過歪曲技術(shù)決定論而獲得廣泛認(rèn)可:比如技術(shù)決定論者應(yīng)該認(rèn)為機器對社會施加正確的秩序形式。換句話說,社會結(jié)構(gòu)論的替代理論就是認(rèn)為技術(shù)存在于社會之外,能直接影響工作技能和工作組織。

克拉克從理論和經(jīng)驗方面來駁斥社會結(jié)構(gòu)論者的極端言論。理論上,他根據(jù)社會和技術(shù)變量間的關(guān)系定義“技術(shù)”。嘗試把技術(shù)的意義降低為又冷又硬的金屬注定要失敗,因為機器如果沒有按照功能組織,并由恰當(dāng)?shù)牟僮骱途S護(hù)系統(tǒng)支持,只是一堆廢鐵。在經(jīng)驗層面上,克拉克證明了電話交換機從密集維護(hù)的機電開關(guān)轉(zhuǎn)變成半電子開關(guān)系統(tǒng),是如何改變工作任務(wù)、技能、培訓(xùn)機會、管理及工人的架構(gòu)的?？死税岩恍└淖儦w于管理層和勞動聯(lián)盟協(xié)商引進(jìn)技術(shù)的個別方式,而另一些改變來自技術(shù)本身的功能和性質(zhì)。所以,克拉克幫助我們回答了這個問題:“什么時候社會選擇是決定性的,什么時候技術(shù)的具體特性更重要?”