When thinking about technologies, a common assumption is that the current system is an inevitable outgrowth of earlier technologies. Those who suggest that technologies could or should be developed differently are often dismissed as Luddites engaged in a futile resistance against the natural pace of technological evolution. As we know by now, this is a simplistic outlook.
Watch the video about the Mondragon Cooperative. In the Basque County of Spain, the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation is a successful, high-tech group of industrial cooperatives that present an alternative to the unequal dynamics produced by the forms of capitalism that we have discussed so far. The corporation produces a number of consumer goods, industrial components, construction equipment, and business services, while empowering workers, paying high wages, and operating by a cooperative code of ethics that is largely absent elsewhere in multinational corporations. The story we most often hear about the relationship between information technology, the global economy, and inequality is not the only one that can be told.
Video Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-qZ7OTeR0c
Discussion Board questions
With insights from the video above, the module material, and this weeks assigned readings, please reflect upon one or several of the following questions:
Could our current technologies have been implemented in different ways?
Do technologies that have been designed with capitalist and military interests in mind inherently favour pre-existing systems of social organization, including social relations, practices, and ideologies that become embedded within them?
Does the globalization of technology, including ownership concentration, offshoring, and biopiracy, constitute a new imperialism, or are developing and least-developed countries already benefiting from technology transfer?
All of the week’s responses should be 350-500 words in length and should posted by 11:59 PM EST of the evening (Friday) preceding the following module.
