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Innovation and emerging technologies

The impact on Australian society

As you are studying innovation and emerging technologies it is important to consider the overall impact on society but more particularly the impact on Australian society. Each society will be affected differently by innovation and technology and to a certain extent is influenced by economic and political issues, culture and history.

Outcomes

This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcome:

H6.2 The student critically assesses the emergence and impact of new technologies, and the factors affecting their development.

Source: Board of Studies NSW, Stage 6 Design and Technology Syllabus, Preliminary and HSC Courses (1999)

Hugh Mackay is a well-known Australian social researcher who has been interviewing Australians and analysing the results of those interviews for over 20 years. In his book Reinventing Australia, Mackay has attempted to summarise the main themes that emerged from The Mackay Report, a continuous program of qualitative social research started in 1979.

Qualitative versus quantitative research

So how does qualitative research differ from quantitative research? When you want to know facts and figures you conduct quantitative research using something like a survey. X number of people live in houses, X number of people eat take-away once a week. If however you want to find out why they live in houses or why they eat take-away then you need to start asking questions that elicit more information, that is conduct qualitative research.

Qualitative research sets out to investigate attitudes, values and beliefs without the use of structured survey techniques which are designed to produce numbers (Mackay, 1993: 311)

The Mackay Report uses two qualitative research methods:

non-directive groups discussion: where a real social group of 5-8 friends, neighbours or workmates meet somewhere where they feel comfortable, maybe one person's house, and discuss the issue the researcher is examining. The researcher does not participate, they site and listen.
unstructured personal interview: this is a one-on-one interview between the researcher and one person. There are no set questions, it is a free ranging discussion of an issue.

The information gathered by these methods is then analysed using qualitative analysis procedures.

Below are some excerpts from Reinventing Australia which may be pertinent to your understanding of the impact of innovation and emerging technologies on Australian society.

Computers

As we come to depend more and more upon impersonal electronic technology, we try to invest machines with characteristics which make them seem more human (such as talking ATMs, and computers which we call user-friendly). (Mackay, 1993: 276)

Activity

Draw some thumbnail sketches of technology which has human qualities.
Read about anthropomorphism (giving human form or attributes to things which are not human) in The Aibo case study.

Further reading

Interested in the impact of technology and information? Read the excerpt The Electronic Age and its Impact from the following speech:

Reading the Future , 1st May 1996, paper presented by The Hon. Sir Anthony Mason AC, KBE, Chairman, National Library of Australia Council.

Innovation

For some people it is important to develop a vision of Australia's future. For others innovation is seen as the answer to all our problems and for yet another group who love all things new they are ready to embrace any change that comes along. For example, Australians are one of the greatest consumers of mobile phones in the world. For those people,

...if life were a videoplayer, their finger would constantly be on the "fast forward" button... They are not troubled by change, because they welcome it. (Mackay, 1993: 267)

Activity
Which type of person are you?

A planner for the future?
A she'll be right, technology has the answers believer?
A did someone say new? let me at it! kind of person?

Do you think there is a right attitude to innovation and change? Which of these attitudes may result in a more sustainable future?

One way of looking at the potential impact of an innovation or emerging technology is to complete a futures wheel .

When you need to consider the impact of the innovation you are studying try a futures wheel.

Technology

...technology has played its part in facilitating and even accelerating the processes of social change: the three most popular new domestic appliances of the eighties (the VCR, the microwave oven and the dishwasher) have all facilitated the breaking down of family activities; they have all made it easier for individuals to act individually. The VCR reduces the need for household to coordinate its viewing of paricular TV programs... (Mackay, 1993: 80)

Even on the domestic front technology has played its part in fragmenting the herd: the dishwaher replaces an episode of personal interaction during the washing-up; the microwave oven reduces the need for the family to eat at the same time. (Mackay: 1993: 272)

Activity
These statements were made in 1993, compare them with the ideas presented in Mackay's 2002 article:

Mackay, H. (2002) One for all and all for one: it's a tribe thing, July 13 2002, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/12/1026185109842.html