Choices at the Heart of Technology

What really drives the technologies that dominate our modern world? Ruth Conway here brings under scrutiny: the deceptive dreams of development, the masculine "voice and structure" of so much technology, the obsession with control that obliterates both recognition of human fallibility and sensitivity to the needs of "the other," the inadequacies of technologies that fail to take account of the "wholeness" of life and what might constitute "justice" (right relationships) within the human community and with nature, and the impact of information and communication technologies on our ways of relating to one another.

Conway sets forth key biblical insights that test our prevalent guiding motives and that suggest changes in the priorities and ways of working that would flow from faith in the God whose purposes of love have been revealed in Jesus Christ. She highlights technologies that empower rather than control, that support local communities, that respect nature's life-sustaining processes, that bring "externalities" and the experience of marginalized people into consideration, and that address needs rather than creating wants.

Ruth Conway is a founding member of the VALIDATE (Values in Design and Technology Education) network, initially associated with the British Council of Churches and now linked with professional associations of technology educators. Through articles and workshops she has explored the beliefs and commitments that lie behind the value judgments made in the development of any specific technology. With her husband Martin, she has been much involved in the life and work of the World Council of Churches.