Relations that constitute technology and media that make differences. Toward a social pragmatic theory of technicisation

Abstract

Technology is usually defined as tools made by men, as efficient means to an end, or as an ensemble of material artifacts. But technology also encompasses instrumental practices, like the creation, fabrication and the use of means and machines; it include the whole ensemble of material and no-material techno-facts; it is closely connected with institusionalised needs and ends-in-view that technologies serve to. When authors include a wide range of aspects in the view of technology, they think along the lines of an old and well established tradition. Since the times of Aristotle, four elements are discerned which constitute technology: stuff, shape, end and efficient action. This paper explains the main links of technology with the changing technical practices, along the time and its social relations with materiality and culture.