ARTICLE ABSTRACT: Technology- and product-oriented movements (TPMs) are mobilizations of civil society organizations that generally include alliances with private-sector firms, for which the target of social change is support for an alternative technology and/or product, as well as the policies with which they are associated. TPMs generally involve "private-sector symbiosis," that is, a mixture of advocacy organizations/networks and private-sector firms. Case studies of nutritional therapeutics, wind energy, and open-source software are used to explore the tendency for large corporations in established industries to incorporate the products and technologies advocated by the TPM. As the incorporation process proceeds, the alternative technologies undergo design transformations that make them more compatible with existing products and technological systems. As the technological/product field undergoes diversification, "object conflicts" erupt over a range of design possibilities, from those advocated by the more social movement oriented organizations to those advocated by the established industries.
David J. Hess, "2005. Hess. "Technology- and Product-Oriented Movements: Approximating Social Movement Studies and Science and Technology Studies"", contributed by James Adams, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 7 June 2018, accessed 24 April 2024. http://www.stsinfrastructures.org/content/2005-hess-technology-and-product-oriented-movements-approximating-social-movement-studies
Critical Commentary
In this 2005 article, David Hess introduces the concept of "technology- and product-oriented movements" to analyze how advocacy organizations have partnered with private-sector firms to promote the adoption of a number of alternative technologies, including wind energy.