Examine science and technology as agents of social change. (150 words) (2013)
An agent of change is a force that initiates change rather than merely transmitting it. Science and technology qualify in part: they alter the material conditions of social life, but the direction of change is set elsewhere.
The case for agency
- William F. Ogburn (Social Change, 1922) treated invention as the prime mover, with law, custom and belief adjusting afterwards — the interval being cultural lag.
- Max Weber saw science driving rationalisation and the disenchantment of the world.
- India’s digital payments and telemedicine networks have reorganised routine economic and health behaviour within a decade; the government’s eSanjeevani service crossed 10 crore teleconsultations by 2023, placing a doctor within reach of villages that never had one.
The limits of agency
- Technology is itself socially shaped, carrying its makers’ interests; as Melvin Kranzberg put it, technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.
- Ultrasound, absorbed by son preference, produced sex-selective abortion rather than ending discrimination, forcing the PC-PNDT Act, 1994.
- Access follows class, caste and gender, so the same innovation can widen inequality.
Conclusion
Science and technology are enabling agents: they expand society’s capacities, while structures of power decide whose capacities expand.