Winner's "Do Artifacts Have Politics?"
Defining the Terms Artifacts, Politics, and Technology
artifacts: Things that are constructed by humans? Webster's definition of artifacts.
politics: He does, however, clearly define the term "politics." He writes, "By the term "politics" I mean arrangements of power and authority in human associations as well as the activities that take place within those arrangements" (22).
technology: He also defines technology. He writes, "For my purposes here, the term 'technology' is understood to mean all of modern practical artifice, but to avoid confusion I prefer to speak of 'technologies' plural, smaller or larger pieces or systems of hardware of a specific kind" (22).
Lewis Mumford
Mumford wrote about the two types of technology, he believed, had coexisted throughout Western history: technology with "authoritarian" characteristics and technology with "democratic" characteristics (19).
Dennis Hayes
Winner quotes the environmentalist Dennis Hayes.
According to Hayes, "The increased deployment of nuclear power facilities must lead society toward authoritarianism. Indeed, safe reliance upon nuclear power as the principal source of energy may be possible only in a totalitarian state" (qtd. in Winner 19).
Hayes further states that "dispersed solar sources are more compatible than centralized technologies with social equity, freedom and cultural pluralism" (qtd. in Winner 20).
Images of Nuclear Power and Images of Solar Power on the Web
Let's do a simple Google search. Which images most reflect these words?
Authoritarian? Safety? Equity? Totalitarianism?
Two Types of Technologies That Have Politics
"Technical Arrangements" and "Inherently Political Technologies"
"Technical Arrangements"
". . . the invention, design, or arrangement of a specific technical device or system becomes a way of settling an issue in the affairs of a particular community" (22).
Technical arrangements are specifically designed to accomplish the interests of those who have made them.
"Inherently Political Technologies"
". . . man-made systems that appear to require or to be strongly compatible with particular kinds of political relationships" (22).
With these types of technologies no one sets out to negatively or positively effect groups or individuals; however, the technology still does.
Example of a Technical Arrangement:
Robert Moses (master builder from the 1920s to the 1970s in New York State): Bridges over the parkways of Long Island, New York.
Example of an Inherently Political Technology:
Nuclear Power Plants
How Might We Apply Winner's Ideas to the Topic of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms?
The University of California, Los Angeles' Williams Institute is a think tank that conducts research on "sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy" (Williams). Its 2013 study on gender-segregated bathrooms could help us determine if and how these bathrooms are a technical arrangement (planned for specific motives) and/or an inherently political technology (naturally imposes itself).
Findings of the Williams study
Example of Harvard University's adoption of gender-neutral bathrooms.
The City of Charlotte does not want this. Video from Yahoo News.
Works Cited
"Artifact." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2017.
"Gender Neutral Bathrooms." Harvard Law School, http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/dos/housing/gender-neutral-bathrooms/. Accessed 12 September 2017.
Herman, Jody L. "Gendered Restrooms and Minority Stress: The Public Regulation of Gender and its Impact on Transgender People's Lives." The Williams Institute, https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/transgender-issues/herman-jpmss-june-2013. Accessed 12 September 2017.
"Now I Get It: North Carolina 'bathroom bill' HB2." Yahoo News, www.yahoo.com/katiecouric/now-north-carolina-bathroom-bill-161607080.html. Accessed 12 September 2017.
The Williams Institute. UCLA School of Law, https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/. Accessed 12 September 2017.
Winner, Langdon. "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1986, pp. 19-39.