GMAT阅读冲750 Test 6 passage 3单词、词组预习，文章翻译

GMAT阅读冲750 Test 6 passage 3单词、词组预习，文章翻译

Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and 

(5) socialogy of technology: technological determinism and (35) social constructivism. 

Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology (10) can be a primary determinant of social and managerial (40) organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the (15) shape of a technological system is subordinate to the (45) manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties  who seek to incorporate their own interests into (20) the design and configuration of the machinery. This (50) position represents the new mainstream called social  constructivism.

The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepre- senting technological determinism: technological (25) determinists are 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 society, capable of directly influencing skills and work  (30) organization. 

Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he 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 is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semielectronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark attributes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: "When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?"

乔恩·克拉克关于电话交换机的现代化对交换机的维护工作和工人造成的影响的研究,对围绕技术历史和社会学两个热点话题一一科技决定论和社会结构论一做出了相当大的贡献。

克拉克认为,一项技术的特点决定性地影响着工作技能和工作组织。更加有力的观点就是,技术对于社会和管理组织可能是一个决定因素。克拉克认为,这种可能性被近期的社会学潮流弄模糊了，例如,布雷弗曼的分析强调机械方式反映社会选择。对布雷弗曼来说,一个技术系统的形态受制于经理从工人那里攫取对劳动过程的控制权的愿望。技术改变被解释成相关利益团体协商的结果,这些团体寻求把自身利益结合到机器的设计与配置中。这种观点代表了一种新的主流,即“社会结构论”。

社会结构论主义者通过歪曲技术决定论而获得广泛认可:比如技术决定论者应该认为机器对社会施加正确的秩序形式。换句话说,社会结构论的替代理论就是认为技术存在于社会之外,能直接影响工作技能和工作组织。

克拉克从理论和经验方面来驳斥社会结构论者的极端言论。理论上,他根据社会和技术变量间的关系定义“技术”。尝试把技术的意义降低为又冷又硬的金属注定要失败,因为机器如果没有按照功能组织,并由恰当的操作和维护系统支持,只是一堆废铁。在经验层面上,克拉克证明了电话交换机从密集维护的机电开关转变成半电子开关系统,是如何改变工作任务、技能、培训机会、管理及工人的架构的。克拉克把一些改变归于管理层和劳动联盟协商引进技术的个别方式,而另一些改变来自技术本身的功能和性质。所以,克拉克帮助我们回答了这个问题:“什么时候社会选择是决定性的,什么时候技术的具体特性更重要?”