The idea of social theories of science and technology initially seems counterintuitive, because commonsense notions of science and technology separate them from the social world, and place them instead into the world of nature and fact. But closer scrutiny reveals a number of relevant aspects of social theory that can assist in understanding the development of science and technology, and the ethical and political aspects of such changes.

Social Theory: Scale, Structure, Agency, and Critique

Social theory is a body of scholarly work that describes and explains the social world. While ordinary people use workable models of social interaction and causality to get through the day, these folk sociologies, psychologies, and economic theories are not carefully articulated as testable models, and are often limited in scale and scope.

The idea of scale—or the size, duration, and level...