中文摘要

本文評述技術的社會建構論（social construction of technology; SCOT）自1980年代中期發表之後，歷年來STS（science and technology studies）學界對其所做的重要檢討。這些檢討主要是質疑許多應用SCOT所做的技術研究成果，不但欠缺社會結構面的考量，還忽略對技術價值與性質的省思，而這主要是因為SCOT過於關注到技術創新的微觀要素及過程。本文也藉對SCOT的檢討，來對東亞及台灣技術研究能走多遠這樣的問題，提供一個方法上的看法。除對技術價值及性質的哲學性探究之外，本文建議在中觀、甚至是巨觀的結構設定及微觀的議題選擇等面向上，基於東亞社會的特殊結構所發展出來的論點及理論應具有主體性，而有機會足以與西方相提並論。當國家（state）作為一種相關社會團體時，探索其與其他國家對某個技術的共識及衝突，還有理解其本身內在的社會結構性特色，或許是一種適合東亞的SCOT取徑，特別是在指涉國際技術移轉的系絡時，這樣的SCOT亞型應更有助於研究非歐美先進國家的技術史及技術社會學。本文也建議SCOT並不是被西方學者所認為是西方的，卻更是一種理解技術的科學或是技術的技術，而在提問東亞技術研究能走多遠時，也必須審視它與西方STS分享了多少的路。

Abstract

This article reviews some critical challenges to the social construction of technology (SCOT) theory, which has been an effective and useful theoretical approach to study technology innovation since the middle 1980s. These challenges question whether the theory of SCOT might be limited in its analysis of some deeper and broader relations between technology and society due to SCOT's lack of some considerations in terms of social structure. They also indicate that the theory confines itself to exploring some philosophical relations between modernity and technology. By reviewing SCOT’s theoretical development, this article offers a methodological response to Daiwie Fu’s question of how far East Asian technology studies (EATS) can go. It suggests that EATS might be able to develop its academic and methodological subjectivity by integrating its specific social structures, such as colonial and historical backgrounds, into the theory of SCOT. Therefore, the theory of SCOT should not be exclusively categorized as a research model for the West only. As long as SCOT incorporates the considerations of social structure, it helps explore the technology stories in East Asia. The question of how far EATS can go, thus, points out another important question of how much it shares with the scholarship in western technology studies.