Table of Contents

Part 1 Defining Technology.- 1. The Nature of Technology.- 2. Winners and Losers: The Differential Effects of Technological Change.- Part Two The Process of Technological Change.- 3. The Sources of Technological Change.- 4. Scientific Knowledge and Technological Advance.- 5. The Diffusion of Technology.- Part Three How Technology Affects the Health of the Earth and Its Inhabitants.- 6. Technology, Energy, and the Environment.- 7. Medical Technologies.- 8. Genetic Technologies.- Part Four Technology and the Transformation of Work.- 9. Work in Nonindustrial Societies.- 10. Technology and Jobs: More of One and Less of the Other?.- 11. Technological Change and Life on the Job.- Part Five Communication.- 12. Printing.- 13. The Electronic Media: From the Telegraph to Television.- 14. The Internet Age      .- Part Six The Tools of Destruction.- 15. Weapons and Their Consequences.- 16. The Era of Smart Weapons*.- 17. How New Weapons Emerge—And How They May Be Contained.- Part Seven The Shaping and Control of Technology.- 18. Technology and Its Creators: Who’s in Charge of Whom?.- 19. Organizations and Technological Change.- 20. Governing Technology.

About the Author

Rudi Volti is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, and he is a founding member of the program in Science, Technology, and Society of the Claremont Colleges. His books and articles have covered a variety of topics relating to the interaction of technology and society, including technology transfer to East Asia, the history of the engineering profession, the origin of frozen foods, and the history of automobile engines.