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The Real World of Technology

Ursula Martius Franklin

4.20 · Rating details · 271 ratings · 42 reviews

In this expanded edition of her bestselling 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, renowned scientist and humanitarian Ursula M. Franklin examines the impact of technology upon our lives and addresses the extraordinary changes since The Real World of Technology was first published.

In four new chapters, Franklin tackles contentious issues, such as the dilution of privacy and intellectua ...more

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Paperback, Large Print, 224 pages

Published June 1st 1999 by House of Anansi Press (first published January 1st 1990)

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Feb 01, 2015 Wes Hazard rated it it was amazing

Every person even remotely responsible for public policy (from the municipal to the international level) should read and learn from this.

"To give just one general example of unmet needs: The field of accountancy and bookkeeping is in urgent need of redemptive technologies. In order to make socially responsible decisions, a community requires three sets of books. One is the customary dollars-and-cents book, but with a clear and discernable column for money saved. The second book relates to peopl ...more

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Nov 08, 2016 Ryan rated it it was ok

Ursula Franklin provides an important 'alternative reality' voice to the dominance of what she calls 'technology' today. Even more impressive that the book was written nearly 30 years ago.

Unfortunately, her book only looks at one side of the coin. On the opposite end of any sweatshop laborer are potentially hundreds of people clothed. It doesn't exactly work like that, but it's hard to make the case that the sewing machine has caused more harm than good by 'enslaving sweatshop laborers.' She is ...more

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May 17, 2017 Peter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, nf, critical, ohiolink, tech

This is a rather gentle introduction to a staggeringly anti-establishment and humanist way of thinking about technology, expanding our understanding beyond "the sum of its artifacts" to "a system ...involv[ing] organization, procedures, symbols, new words, equations, and most of all, a mindset. ...it includes activities as well as a body of knowledge, structures as well as the act of structuring" that have cultural, social, and political implications for concepts such as privacy, freedom, power, ...more

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May 03, 2021 Siddiq Khan rated it it was amazing

Soft spoken, very Canadian, and wonderfully insightful historical perspective on the social role of technology made by an experimental physicist, a politically active pacifist, and a feminist.

Professor Franklin brings to bear her particular combination of allegiences and expertise to provide a completely unique take on technology that is both complimentary to and quite distict from the likes of EF Schumacher, Lewis Mumford, Ivan Illich, and Jacques Ellul. She has quite a lot of interesting thin Soft spoken, very Canadian, and wonderfully insightful historical perspective on the social role of technology made by an experimental physicist, a politically active pacifist, and a feminist.

Professor Franklin brings to bear her particular combination of allegiences and expertise to provide a completely unique take on technology that is both complimentary to and quite distict from the likes of EF Schumacher, Lewis Mumford, Ivan Illich, and Jacques Ellul. She has quite a lot of interesting things to say about the relation between women and technology, between war and technological development, and ultimately on the fact that only a radical transformation of valuesat the ethical level will ensure that we live in a society able to put technology in the service of people rather than the other way around.

She begins by distinguishing between prescriptive (those which people are controlled by the production/consumption process, performing fragmentary tasks in assembly line fashion) and holistic (those in which people control the production/comsumption process in an integral fashion) technologies, noting that historically the former have increasingly tended to predominate over the latter. The rest of the book comprises of an excellent analysis of the implications of this distinction.

She lays a great stress on reciprocity in human relations and the way development based on prescriptive technologies militates against this. The situationists, in their critique of the society of the spectacle, of urbanism and bureaucratisation, placed a similar emphasis on the ability of ordinary people to create the situations in which they lived in terms of the real material, sensuous world around them, as the basis by which humans become creators of their own history in general:

´It is necessary to transcend the barriers that technology puts up against reciprocity and human contact. One of the reasons why I dwelt so much on non-communications technologies and on the concept of reciprocity is that one has to realize just how technology makes it very difficult for people to talk to each other. People rarely work together on regular, non-technologically interrupted projects. Because of this we have to make the time to create the occasion — be it on the bus, or in the waiting room — to talk to each other not about the weather, but about our “common future.“

How do we speak to each other? Here much can be learned from the women’s movement — from the way women got together to talk about their status, about the oppression of women historically, politically, and economically. Let us begin with a principled stand and develop a fresh sense of justice.

When, on the basis of principled objections, an established social practice has become less and less acceptable, then, and maybe only then, will alternatives be found. From then on tasks that need to be done will be carried out differently and by more acceptable means.

I firmly believe that when we find certain aspects of the real world of technology objectionable we should explore our objections in terms of principle, in terms of justice, fairness, and equality. It may be well to express concerns as questions of principle rather than to try to emphasize merely pragmatic explanations — for instance, that objectionable practices may also be inefficient, inappropriate, or polluting.The emphasis on a pragmatic rationale for choice tends to hide the value judgements involved in particular technological stances.

Today the values of technology have so permeated the public mind that all too frequently what is efficient is seen as the right thing to do. Conversely, when something is perceived to be wrong, it tends to be critiqued in practical terms as being inefficient or counterproductive (a significant term in its own right). The public discourse I am urging here needs to break away from the technological mindset to focus on justice, fairness, and equality in the global sense. Once technological practices are questioned on a principled basis and, if necessary, rejected on that level, new practical ways of doing what needs to be done will evolve.´

It is important to note that justice is not necessarily the only or even the most significant value by which technology is to be assessed. Women´s dissatisfaction in post-war affluent countries stemmed not merely from a sense of injustice but from a deep sense of anxiety concerning the basic meaning of their lives, an anxiety most clearly elucidated by Nietzsche as the crux of the crisis of modern man. The mastery over the world by modern man has led in no sense to mastery over himself, and is directed towards trivial and destructive ends. That technology plays a central role in this mastery is obvious, that the central fault of the role it plays is a question of injustice is far less obvious. The transvaluation of all values that Nietzsche advocates, which the Situationists took up in their way, and which the global rebellion in late 20th century capitalism, of which second-wave feminism was one aspect, expressed, embodied a deeper revolt than simple questions of equality and justice, throwing into question the very purpose of efficiency, mastery and life itself, that are ultimately existential and as such "beyond good and evil". ...more

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Oct 23, 2021 Malahat rated it really liked it

My sociology teacher was a bitch but i am so glad she recommended this book to me. Really outs a lot of things in perspective with respect to technology and it’s impact. A very insightful read.

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Sep 05, 2020 Masatoshi Nishimura rated it did not like it

Shelves: biography

She excuses herself for not trying to be a philosoper yet she spins up grand categorizations like vernacular reality or extended reality. I couldn't shake up the fact she sounded like an amateur blogger who is so desperate to sound smart.

This is rather a criticism for modern pop-humanity people. It's extremely under researched. Franklin, please do some homework. If you want to make a granular narrative about technology, don't act as if you are an outside observer merely touching its bare surfac ...more

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Oct 20, 2018 Alex Strohschein rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sociocultural

3.5/5.

This book reminded me a lot of Neil Postman's "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology," which also came out in the early 1990s. Many of the remarks and warnings that Ursula Franklin makes I had already read in Postman's book, but this was still a good book. I appreciate that Franklin often focused specifically on the Canadian scenario, using Canadian examples to illustrate her point. With technology becoming so much a part of fabric of our everyday lives, I appreciate Franklin' ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Natalie rated it it was amazing

An incredibly lucid and accessible argument for creating community and human centred technology. As relevant now as it was when it was originally published in 1989.

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Jul 17, 2021 Pierre rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A very interesting read which - despite having been published in 1989 - still resonates a lot with the tech-driven reality most of us live in today. Very dense and insightful yet accessible. This book should be a mandatory read for any policy maker in charge of protecting the public interest from corporate greed.

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Apr 07, 2019 Erhardt Graeff rated it it was amazing

This book, especially the first six chapters delivered in lecture in 1989 is simply prophetic. Ursula Franklin's synthesis continues to resonate. ...more

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Aug 03, 2018 Jerry Wall rated it really liked it

The problem of technology is that we don't see technology (ies) as problematic anymore than we see
any other tool such as a screwdriver or pliers as being a problem. We know how much of a time sink technology can be for children and adults. While technology can do things for us to make work easier, or calculation both easier and more accurate, or iterative thinking easier, it has been shown that it can and does let us go thoughtless and creationless (?) while using it to pass the time or to colle The problem of technology is that we don't see technology (ies) as problematic anymore than we see
any other tool such as a screwdriver or pliers as being a problem. We know how much of a time sink technology can be for children and adults. While technology can do things for us to make work easier, or calculation both easier and more accurate, or iterative thinking easier, it has been shown that it can and does let us go thoughtless and creationless (?) while using it to pass the time or to collect myriads of banal photos or personal entries or minimal or any significance.

She says the technological imperative (i.e. what technology commands of us) is that if technology can be used it will be used.
If there were no enemy (ies) we would not need our army or military structure. We spend so much developing weapons whose only use is for war that if we diverted this to science, or health, or conveniences even we could make the world a nicer place rather than more intimidating or ominous.
instead of a war tax how about a peace tax fund from which to improve our lives.
Technology brings about for people a lack of control, a lack of skill (not needed as technology does it, e.g. 3d construction of models, guns, etc.), and a lack of autonomy as we must serve the technology rather than it serving us.
Tools structure our responses by its programmed needs . Technology is subject to viruses but it can not get pregnant so less down time.
Technology does not acknowledge that nature exists.
Technology amounts to external control of us we are slaves (as we respond) to our tech toys.
There are non communicative technologies.
So now our government has a role in making society safe for technology
Technology has a hand in stealing from the commons and from the future with waster of human resources and other resources.
Leaves question of whether or how much people matter or are they just in the way of technology.
We should continue to ask with technology and of technology who benefits from its machinations and who pays an unexpected or undue cost.
We need to have some concern for the demands of ignorance in using technology and set up, for technology, three books -- lst a book of dollars and cents (costs in money, lost jobs, etc.) 2nd. a book of what happens to people with the technology and 3d ecology book or what does technology do to or for nature.
government can turn into an instrument to advance technology, to make the world safe for technology and we must consider whether tech is just and fair to people. ...more

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May 17, 2019 Josh rated it really liked it

Franklin's lectures synthesize a variety of critiques levied by the humanities and social sciences against a cultural value system that equates "technological progress" with "the good." Her summary is concise, well organized, and useful for reviewing these ideas.

However, I found her notion of "the real world of technology" - which is foundational to her analysis - promising in concept but hazy and ill-defined in use.

Having said that, I think this book's great value is twofold. First, Franklin s ...more

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Jul 06, 2021 Mjhancock rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, technology

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Franklin provides a rundown of 20th century technology and its effects on society, while paying particular attention to its potentially negative transformational aspects. A lot of media and technology study from this period tends to underfocus on the human cost and potential dangers of technology, so I really appreciated where she was coming from. The four new lectures at the end didn't quite sit as well; they felt less focused, and brief. (They were certainly s ...more

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May 17, 2020 Jim rated it it was amazing

When I feel very lonely in the world, there's a few little clips on youtube of Ursula Franklin that I turn to. Her voice, raspy and German and carefully pronounced with all the intent of a scientist, is the sound of a friend's love.

This person was one of those souls you hope sticks around after death to prevent global catastrophe. If we'd listened to this Ursula (and also the more science fiction Ursula), we'd be living in a brighter world than we now inhabit. ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Jeroen Nijs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you work in technology, and don’t know much about the humanities (which describes, like me, most people I’ve met in IT), you will find this to be an excellent, insightful read.

Although I must say that the original 6 chapters are better than the 4 that were added later; they feel a bit tacked-on.

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Mar 31, 2021 Matt rated it really liked it

Shelves: technological-society, technology, nonfiction, author-female, read-in-2021, tech-critical-canon

This was pretty good. Not mind blowing as I had already encountered most of her ideas through a variety of other people. But, outside of possibly Neil Postman, Ursula Franklin is probably the clearest writer on the problem of technology in society that I have read. I could easily recommend her to others.

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Jan 20, 2019 Canadian 791 rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 24, 2022 Alice rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

A dense but succinct analysis of how technology, broadly defined, has transformed our lives and societies (in mostly negative ways) along with a little on what we need to be aware of and do in order to find a better balance and build a better future for all.

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Apr 18, 2021 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tech-and-society

extremely dense, incredibly rich. bears rereading many times.

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Jan 19, 2020 Sunni C. | vanreads rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: social-science

In the 80s, Ursula Franklin was already calling out potential issues that arise with advancing technologies (and climate concerns) while giving us advice on how we should approach technological advancement. If only we had listened to her then, but it’s better late than never. Please give this one a read. Franklin is brilliant.

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Jul 20, 2020 Bridget Bonaparte rated it liked it

I feel really lucky to have spoken with Ursula and to have attended Ursula Franklin Academy. Although the school has its problems, the values on which it was founded are inspiring tenets. A lot of what is said in this book is salient today. The broad way technological thinking is spoken of is something we need reminding of. Technology is here a system of thought and a mode of being, a more holistic look than the STEM/ Humanities divide engenders.

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Aug 23, 2016 JC rated it it was amazing

Shelves: warfare-anti-war, sts-engineering-tech, jewish, quaker, can-con

I feel like this book should be mandatory reading for all engineering students. I first encountered Ursula Franklin on a sociology course website (which was no longer being taught at the time I discovered it) called "Engineering and Social Justice", taught by a global development professor (Richard Day) who has been involved in 'anarchist'/'post-anarchist' activism. I'm not sure if Franklin has any explicit affinity for anarchist politics, though by virtue of her Quaker faith, I did learn in thi I feel like this book should be mandatory reading for all engineering students. I first encountered Ursula Franklin on a sociology course website (which was no longer being taught at the time I discovered it) called "Engineering and Social Justice", taught by a global development professor (Richard Day) who has been involved in 'anarchist'/'post-anarchist' activism. I'm not sure if Franklin has any explicit affinity for anarchist politics, though by virtue of her Quaker faith, I did learn in this book about 'peace tax funds' (one tax resistance option available for contemporary pacifists or people troubled by their tax dollars going towards military spending). Franklin explains one practice of diverting the proportion of one's tax (that is estimated as going into military spending), into an account designated for non-military expenses and refuse to pay it to the government if no such option is available (this is still not available in Canada). (I believe Chomsky has advocated for tax refusal before on a similar basis.) She explains how conscientious objection to conscription is acknowledged in Canada under a UN Human Rights resolution, but how military technology's effective replacement of soldiers in contemporary society means tax dollars going to the military is not very different than directly participating in the military (hence why she believes 'peace tax funds' should be legalized for those with religious convictions against participating in war, which Mennonites and Quakers explicitly have). If military tax resistance seems interesting to you, and you live in Canada, 'Conscience Canada' has a lot more information about options you have, and repercussions typically faced.

Ursula Franklin is one of my favourite speakers to listen to, and I think she has since remained one of the scientists most influential in my life, because she understood that science and the way it is used is never merely 'neutral' -- rather it is always entangled in existing power structures that persist between real human beings (her clear readings of Foucault's work is reason enough to pick up this book). Most engineers and people involved with the development of technology I have encountered believe that the social, political, and moral implications of their work remain outside the domain of their responsibility and concern, which is very troubling to me. I feel like if more people in technology and engineering read Franklin and took her seriously, we would live in a much better world. She just passed away this summer, and I cannot fully express the gratitude I have for the life she lived and her work. ...more

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Jun 13, 2015 Clinton rated it it was amazing

Should be a mandatory read for political leaders and technology developers alike!

A book of essays, can get a little academic in verbiage but still superb insight into what we need to be mindful about as we move ahead! The importance of using technology to enhance humanity not profit from human isolation; facebook ads/dating websites = which can never fully replace the time and care needed to helping human relationships flourish. More importantly thus far is how women can be reintroduced in our t ...more

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Aug 19, 2016 Woodward Library added it

Shelves: science-literacy-week-2017

Elizabeth Croft, Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean, Education and Professional Development, Faculty of Applied Science recommends . . .
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner

Why is this a favourite book?

The Real World of Technology is based on Dr. Franklin’s 1989 Massey Lectures. Her arguments are both profound and prophetic. She
recognized the effect of Facebook, smartphones and the web on our communities before they were even invented. Where ...more

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Jan 11, 2015 Jaya K rated it it was amazing

Not recent, but SO relevant. Ideas on privacy, and the importance of being critical of government priorities, are truly timely and important. Other biggies that come up: holistic vs. prescriptive technology, a growth model vs. a production model, divisible vs. indivisible costs, planners vs. plan-ees, maximizing gain vs. minimizing disaster, the natural environment vs. the built environment. You can listen to the whole thing free online which I did since bébé was not enabling a whole lotta readi ...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Julia Hendon rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthropology-archaeology

I was more interested in Franklin's discussion of technology as practice then in her social activism so I read this selectively. Her focus on technology as a system, a set of practices, etc. agrees well with current anthropological views. Similarities with Heather Lechtman's cultural approach as well.
...more

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Aug 30, 2013 Aaron rated it really liked it

Eye-opening and deeply insightful treatise on the social implications of technology -- amazing how much is still relevant today despite this being written in the 90s. Everyone working on large-scale consumer technologies should read this.

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Jun 28, 2014 Broadsnark rated it really liked it

Shelves: recommended

You can skip the additional chapters that she added on to the second publishing (in my opinion). But the first three chapters are essential reading for anyone trying to understand how technology is shaping our lives and creating a culture of compliance.

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Apr 07, 2015 Kareena added it

Shelves: read-school

Started reading this for school (for my social science course), but didn't get far at all. I'll probably just stop here. So yes, I did not "read" this, but I'm marking it as "read" because .... Ya. [April 8, 2015] ...more

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Jan 17, 2016 Nidhi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an authoritative text on the real world of technology and its implications on our everyday life comprising of social and professional relationships but most importantly on our identity and body, mind and soul.

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About Ursula Martius Franklin

Ursula Martius Franklin

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Ursula Martius Franklin was a German-Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author, and educator who taught at the University of Toronto for more than 40 years. She was the author of The Real World of Technology, which is based on her 1989 Massey Lectures; The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, a collection of her papers, interviews, and talks; and Ursula Franklin Speaks: Thoughts and ...more