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Preface
- Paul A. Youngman, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
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- Book:
- We Are the Machine
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 05 February 2013
- Print publication:
- 01 September 2009, pp ix-xiv
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- Chapter
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Summary
THE PACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION has accelerated rapidly over time. In the beginning, human beings survived for 300,000 years by fashioning flint into tools used for hunting, preparing food, and building shelters. For another 10,000 years, metal tools primarily served the same purpose. The Industrial Revolution in Germany began more than 200 years ago sometime during the long reign of metal tools, marking in earnest the beginning of the relationship between humans and machines that continues to this day. Most recently, human-computer interaction, a refined version of human and machine interaction, has become the identifying characteristic of the information age — a fledgling and brief era compared with the long run simple hand tools have enjoyed, but also one marked by rapid growth. For example, on June 23, 2008, the world took note of the sale of the one billionth computer. It took more than fifty years to reach that milestone. By contrast, according to a BBC News report, the two billionth computer will be sold in the year 2014. Given that Germany ranks number four on the list of number of in-use computers in the world, Germans are not strangers to the effects of this rapid technological acceleration.
This astonishing growth rate, coupled with the remarkable capabilities of information technology (IT), has allowed denizens of the information age to co-opt the word “technology” in the seemingly exclusive service of the world of computing.
3 - A structural approach to markets
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- By Chapel Hill, C. White, University of Arizona
- Edited by Mark S. Mizruchi, Columbia University, New York, Michael Schwartz, State University of New York, Stony Brook
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- Book:
- Intercorporate Relations
- Published online:
- 04 February 2010
- Print publication:
- 07 January 1988, pp 85-108
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Summary
Structural analysis focusses upon the patterns of relationships among social actors. This emphasis rests on the often unspoken postulate that these patterns – independent of the content of the ties – are themselves central to individual action. Moreover, structural analysis posits that the constraints associated with positions in a network of relationships are frequently more important in determining individual action than either the information or attitudes people hold (Berkowitz, 1982: 8).
Structural context is represented by patterns of ties of varying content, and the analyst's interest is in how individual behavior serves to reproduce the structural context (Burt, 1982). The discovery of “self-reproducing” structural contexts has occupied structural analysts in such diverse areas as kinship systems (White, 1963), organizational structures (Kanter, 1977), world systems (Snyder and Kick, 1979; Love 1982; Breiger, 1981) and abstract social structures (Lorrain and White, 1971). In this endeavor structures are “explained” when their self-reproducing properties – and therefore their continued existence – are analytically understood.
This approach contrasts sharply with information-oriented approaches, which explain the existence and/or continuation of a particular structure by showing how it is more “efficient” (in terms of a set of defined goals) than any available alternative (Williamson, 1975). Only efficient structures are likely to be empirically observed, because inefficient structures would perish through natural selection or be made more efficient through the “maximizing” efforts of interested individuals. Structural approaches, on the other hand, identify a self-perpetuating system of structural constraints, without stepping within the kind of information framework needed to assess efficiency.