Customer Reviews

Society and Technological Change

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have taught a sophomore level class in Technology & Society for about 20 years, and long ago quit using the Volti text. Students find the book boring, it is overly superficial and lacks in-depth examples or analysis, and it does not cover many of the issues central to Science and Technology Studies. The book's breezy "factoids" are maddening, and unless you are willing to build your entire course around explaining and analysing them, the text will confuse students and encourage shallow thinking.

The recent text by Bauchspies, Croissant, and Restivo [Science, Technology, and Society (Blackwell, 2006) provides a much better foundation in the key intellectual issues for STS.

The Marcus and Segal text [Technology in America (Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1989) provides an excellent historical overview--including a periodization that helps students grasp the way technology and society interact and shape our lives.

I'm going to build a class around this book next fall. This book will be perfect for my freshman-level "Technology and Society" class. I found the book very interesting and I think my class will too.

The book is well researched and well written. Some may argue that the book lacks depth, but for my purposes, I appreciate the book's breadth versus depth compromise. I was wonderfully pleased to find a book that actually met the expectations I formed as a I perused its table of contents.

It is true that the book could be organized differently, but I didn't find the current organization to be as poor as the previous reviewer did.

Once again, the book is perfect for my purposes and I was thrilled to find it.

Society and Technological Change is a respectable effort to present the issues relating to technology's impact on society. The information is sound and the research is reliable. But some important ideas are neglected--there is little about social construction of technology--and many ideas are confusingly overanalyzed as Mr. Volti argues various points of view. But the main shortcoming of this textbook is that it is in need of reorganization. Throughout, the reader wonders why this or that idea was not presented with earlier related notions. Mr. Volti should be commended for his scholarship and chided for his editorial choices.

Fantastic read even if you are not taking a class! Eye opening, informative, not the normal biased, liberal drivel you see so often in college textbooks! Well written and organized! Highly recommend to anyone interested in understanding the relationship between technology and society!

The books was pretty good, just don't take the class for this text book at BGSU, the prof wouldn't give out an A if the fate of the World depended on it!

As a student of philosophy, this book is fantastic. Volti's intelligent perspective on technology and its affect on society is breathtaking. Furthermore, his style is unique and fun to read, leaving no room for misunderstandings. Volti is a professor of Science, Technology, and Society at the highly esteemed Pitzer College in California. I highly recomend reading this book, Volti's insight will change your life.

Volti brings to life the wonderous oft-forgotten connection between people and the things they make. This book explores how society has influences technology, and how technology has influenced society.

I have had to use this text for a few years now in one version of the Technology & Society classes that I teach. Most of the students I've had who had to read this book hated it. They found it just as boring, if not more so, than I did. I'll say that, although Volti does present bits and pieces that should be covered in an introductory class on STS, overall not only is the book boring and tediously lethargic, Volti makes various presumptuous claims, logical and ethical contradictions, and demonstrates the metaphysics of language and capitalism throughout. Volti might tell you what there is, as he and many perceive it, but the text certainly falls short of any academic work of critical importance.

The description specifically said, "NO markings" and there were highlights in the book. Not a huge deal, but specifically why I chose this book over another. Fast shipping, got what I paid 4.

I use Rudi Volti's book in course I teach and find his engaging writing style, passion for the subject and well research material invaluable. The university students like it too!