Short abstract:

This contribution presents a methodological approach for the analysis of dynamical socio-technical systems based on the hybridisation of the post-empirical turn philosophy of technology and STS studies on socio-technical systems.

Long abstract:

This paper presents a new approach to the analysis of dynamical socio-technical systems base in the hybridisation of the philosophy of technology after the empirical turn (Kroes and Meijers 2000; Achterhuis 2001) and the STS tradition on large socio-technical systems (Hughes 1986, 1994). As other authors have also pointed out (e.g. Geels and Schot 2007; Sovacool et al. 2018), mature technological systems perform adaptations in order to maintain themselves. However, socio-technical systems have been studied from static approaches that make it difficult to capture the dynamics of a mature system.

I use the forces of classical mechanics as an explanatory metaphor. Centripetal forces are real forces causally associated with the action of some agent outside the body on which they act. On the other hand, centrifugal force is the tendency of an object to resist any change in its state of rest or motion (Newton, 1999). In my view, the function of the system or the socio-technical imaginary (STIs) Jasanoff and Kim 2015; Jasanoff and Simmet 2021) acts as a centripetal force that tries to capture the elements of its technological environment. In contrast, the dissonant STI of the environmental agents maintain pressure in the opposite direction. Dissonant STIs act as centrifugal forces pushing the system to open up by making adaptations in order to extend its dominance and maintain itself. This contribution presents a methodological proposal that explains the complexity of this process (Fernández-Jimeno, 2024). The proposal will be illustrated through various cases.