La sociedad como artefactoSistemas sociotécnicos, sociotecnologías y sociotécnicas

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the relevance of technical systems in contemporary society, and also on the need to characterize technology and technical systems more broadly, understanding that both can be focused on the transformation of society itself. Society will be shown as a partially artificial entity, which may therefore be subject to deliberate modification. In the modification of the social sphere, we must keep in mind socio-technologies and sociotechniques, concepts that I will develop based on the reflections of the philosopher Mario Bunge. Socio-technology will be understood as a field whose goal is the transformation of social reality, socio-techniques being a system of actions focused on the transformation of human beings. The latter would be precisely the object of the technical systems of the social field, which I will call socio-technical systems, making an alternative use of this concept originally developed by the approach of socio-technical systems. The need to distinguish in social fields between those of basic social science, applied social science, socio-technology and praxis will be justified in turn.