Which of the following statements about the modernization of the telephone exchange is supported by information in the passage? A. The new technology reduced the role of managers in labor negotiations. B. The modernization was implemented without the consent of the employees directly affected by it. C.
The modernization had an impact that went significantly beyond maintenance routines. D. Some of the maintenance workers felt victimized by the new technology. E. The modernization gave credence to the view of advocates of social constructivism. 答案是C，怎么解释呢 原文如下
GWD-8-Q25-Q28Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance Line work and workers is a solid contribution (5) to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and social- ogy of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism. // Clark makes the point that the char- (10) acteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determi- nant of social and managerial organ- (15) ization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent soci- ological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social (20) choices. // For Braverman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is (25) construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents (30) the new mainstream called social con- structivism. // The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological deter- minism: technological determinists are (35) 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 (40) society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization. Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he (45) 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 (50) is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by approp- riate systems of operation and main- tenance. / At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone (55) exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semi- electronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of (60) workers. Some changes Clark attri- butes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the intro- duction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the (65) capabilities and nature of the technol- ogy itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: “When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?”
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发表于 2006-12-4 13:39:00
