Alternative human role in manufacturing

The limits of Taylorism are alive and well in today's manufacturing systems. Automation does have to constrain human ability creativity, judgement and skill, and undermine human dignity. The paper presents an interactive concept of manufacturing. Human-Oriented Manufacturing Systems (HOMS), which aims to achieve high flexibility and quality of production while creating an environment for happy working and joyful living.Presented at conference on Ecology of Science and Technology, Japan Science Foundation, Tokyo, 1992.     

Ethics,science, and the mechanisation of the world picture

A nascent science in the sixteenth century rejected explanations in terms of purpose in favour of causality, and this bias has persisted and grown stronger. It has unfortunate consequences in areas where social and ethical considerations should prevail, and the paper describes a search extending over 20 years for a way in which these consequences could be avoided.

Engineering perspectives and technology design in the United States

Technology design has social as well as technical determinants. These social factors, such as the political context and social philosophy, vary historically and cross-nationally. The work upon which this paper is based addresses the nature of process technology design in the United States and focuses on the underlying assumptions that guide technology design, based on both historical analysis and survey and case studies of current design practices. Central to this work is an analysis of how the US approaches compare to some of the other industrial nations and the assumptions and implications of different social design concepts such as human-centered design, skill-based design, and human factors.     

The individual ‘working-to-rules’: reducing determinism in Taylor-made expert systems

Holden (1989) suggested that Taylorist scientific management principles, based upon machine-like models of man, may influence the development and application of expert systems. While Holden's work is a major contribution to the debate on the effects of technology on employment, it is argued that a similar deterministic and mechanistic image of the users of expert systems is implicit in his paper. In addition, this commentary also addresses some of the related issues concerning autonomous expert systems.     

Technology and its environment

If one interprets the ecology of technology as the study of technology in relation to its environment, there are two important levels at which this study can be made. It is possible to consider the different environments in Europe, Japan and the USA, and look for the different technological influences which accompany them. At a more general level, one can look at those factors which are common to all three environments, and which are associated with generic similarities in the technology of all three areas.The paper considers both aspects as they have been experienced in Europe in some attempts to develop a human-centred technology.Paper given at Conference on Ecology of Science and Technology, Japan Science Foundation, Tokyo, 1992.     

Cities on the Edge of Chaos

Is the mass-customised city no more than a smokescreen, a re-evocation of Modernist positivism and its problem-solving ideology? Colin Fournier , Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), and Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), questions the premise of this issue and asks if the variation required for a city's survival ‘at the edge of chaos’ lies beyond mass customisation.