The good despot: Technology firms' interventions in the public sphere. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tamir, Eran; Davidson, Roei
• Is Part Of: Public understanding of science. Volume 29:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 21
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: information technology intervention in education -- rhetoric of science and technology -- technology corporations and public schools -- technological sublime; Science news -- Periodicals; Science -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.483
• DOI: 10.1177/0963662519879368
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-6625

Abstract

We examine how the technology industry intervenes in social domains not directly tied to its products, services, and immediate commercial concerns. We intend to develop a framework for considering the ways technology and the technology industry reshape these domains in ways both intended and unintended. Drawing on sociologies of knowledge and technology and a set of 20 semi-structured interviews with technology workers and HR professionals working in the Israeli facilities of two large multi-national technology firms, we find evidence that the intervention allows the industry to re-purpose public education as a means of nurturing a firm's workforce with the goal of remaining competitive in a tight labor market both nationally and globally. In parallel, the programs allow workers to experience satisfying and pleasant interactions. These re-purposing interventions might aggravate existing education inequality while further cementing the legitimacy of a dominant industry as a model for an idealized commercial society.