Mechanization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mechanization ( English technicization ) describes the use of technical aids in processes that were previously reserved for the man of the spiritual or artisanal activity. It can be understood as a generic term for automation , mechanization and machinization . The interpretation of the term mechanization changed in the course of history and fluctuated between the hope for progress and relief, and the fear of the instrumentalization and the loss of autonomy of humans. From today's perspective, actions, natural processes or drawing processes are considered to be engineered if they achieve an expected effect repeatably and reliably according to a fixed scheme.

Technization is also understood as a condition of cultural development, since regularity and reliability over time stabilize and develop collective structures and identities. Technical rules relieve the burden of constantly having to rethink the options, necessities and rationality of action in every situation. For non-repeatable actions, e.g. B. for political or economic measures, the formulation of technical rules in the strict sense is not possible.

definition

The term mechanization is not clearly defined in terms of industrial sociology and has been interpreted differently over time. If technology is not determined substantially, but relationally as a social process, then mechanization is to be understood as a special form of purposeful schematization and a regulated coupling of elements. The coupled elements are located in an artificial, closed system and are fixed in a medium of actions, symbols or things, which is why a desired effect can be firmly expected.

These forms of technology can be embodied, objectified or registered in various carrier media:

  • In action technique, physical movements are subject to a mechanization scheme: one speaks of habitualization when actions take place unconsciously, quasi-automatically. When work and dance movements are broken down into simple elements, freed from the superfluous, specialized in partial aspects and artfully combined. Example: while dissecting is a technique, snipping around is not.
  • A mechanization process is called mechanization if it relates to the construction and combination of physical things to form machines and complex systems: e.g. B. the material processing of turning, milling and drilling is simplified by specialization and transferred to the mechanics of machine tools.
  • In the case of character processing techniques , this process is called algorithmization , which means the breaking down of instructions into the simplest and unambiguous commands, which are combined into programs for sequential processing of the task, starting with simple written computing technology (adding in the system of ten by writing under one another in columns) to the complicated computer programs of artificial intelligence technology .

Examples of mechanization are:

Concept history

In antiquity and in some cases in the early Middle Ages, technology was viewed as outwitting nature by human action. In the Middle Ages, the understanding of technology was then shaped by instruments , technology is increasingly valued as a practical optimization of natural conditions by the acting people. This reinterpretation of the understanding of technology goes hand in hand with several changes in the area of ​​technical artifacts in the Middle Ages up to the Renaissance: The transition from slavery to feudalism leads to the fact that handicrafts are upgraded and new handicraft techniques are primarily used. Book printing with movable type is ultimately a combination of different craft techniques. The technology of this time is shaped by power machines, by water power, as well as by human and animal driving force, the focus was on the forces of nature and on the decoupling of power generation and use. The idea that human purpose setting follows a divine example will persist into the early modern times. Efforts to develop new power technologies in the early Middle Ages still revolved around the forces of nature set by God ( i.e. wind, water and muscle power), then the technicians of the late 17th century began using the gunpowder known from weapon technology, which was produced by explosion To deal with negative pressure and the force of water vapor.

From an anthropological point of view, humans are technicians by nature. Technization is always felt as an experience of alienation. Other approaches show that the technical belongs to human self-development and is therefore not in contradiction to the "nature" of humans. For Hegel and Cassirer , the "original nature" of man can only be understood in his technical works. This contradicts the "uomo pre-tecnologico" in Galimberti and the "homme naturel" in Rousseau , since human existence has always been characterized by a technical relation to self and the world.

From a certain stage of development onwards, Marx saw the division of labor through machines as a “technical necessity”. As Hegel had already formulated it, Marx also pointed out that in the world of work that has been changed by machines, an “exploitation” of human labor is possible.

This point of view there was in the ancient times and even in Kant not. On the one hand, Kant understood technology as an artistic ability, but, unlike in antiquity, he used it to describe the structural context, which compared technical and moral action; his interpretation as the end-means relationship remained the guiding principle for the description of technology. On the other hand, for Kant, technology was a kind of productivity that could also be seen in looking at nature. He differentiated technical action from “merely” mechanical, it encompassed a large degree of self-development.

From 1930 onwards, tendencies towards a contemporary concept of mechanization formed philosophers such as Ernst Cassirer , Edmund Husserl , Hans Blumenberg , who no longer regard technology as a material substance with certain properties, but as a special form of reality and as a process or procedure: not the finished work (opus operatum), but the production method itself (opus operandi) came to the fore.

In 1930 Ernst Cassirer drew attention from the “structure of what has become” (the “forma formata” of the technical ensemble) to the “process of becoming” (the “forma formans” of technology). He saw a similarity between the linguistic and technical functions: word and tool both served to take possession of reality through creative design. Language constructs the communicative path with the means of linguistic-theoretical thinking, technology constructs material reality through the “medium of action”. For Cassirer, both forms of meaningful practice were still connected to one another in magical techniques; only the thought of causal relationships and the necessary coupling separates modern technology from “magical technology” and from artistic work. The modern conception of technology was only able to assert itself from this point onwards, in that it sees the process of technology production as an instrumental abstraction from other meanings and connotations, thereby objectifying the world.

In 1936 Edmund Husserl showed a critical attitude towards modern science and technology. Modern mathematics and the technical use of formulas in the natural sciences lead him to conclude that the process, which he describes as "mechanization", is the central cause of the crisis of modernity; it increases the effectiveness at the price of "meaninglessness" (restriction experience by ignoring other meanings, simplification through formation of forms and methodology, pure operation with formulas). In 1963, Hans Blumenberg pointed out the inevitable ambivalence of mechanization, which does not allow the creation of new worlds without risking alienation from the lifeworld, and that Husserl's phenomenological method is itself part of the mechanization that it criticizes.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the belief in progress prevailed, followed in the late 1970s by the notion of the ability to design technology according to social and human-oriented aspects, and then in the 1970s and 1980s the opposing interests of capitalist production relations were reflected as living work through the dead work of the machinery seemed manageable and controllable at will. The current concept of mechanization is more neutral and less socially critical:

Development and Consequences

Mechanization has taken place in several stages over the course of human history, starting with the use of tools for simple work. The first step in mechanization was / is mechanization , which increases production output and speed by applying force and levers. Mechanization is currently going through a new phase, from mechanization to electrification to electronization . The EDP is considered a key technology . The shortening of the necessary working time by increasing productivity is called rationalization , it is achieved by means of mechanization or changing the work organization .

The industrial technology trend has gone through three stages so far and is moving in the direction of Industry 4.0 . In the service industry as well as in the handicrafts there is also increasing mechanization. In the area of ​​communication, information technology represents a further step in technologization after the development of book printing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the new CAD , CNC and CIM concepts no longer only stood for mass production and standard products, but these machines allow a new, flexible series production: Machines are manufactured using machines that are controlled by machines. "With the CNC production the mechanization of the mechanization of the mechanization is introduced."

From the late 1970s it became increasingly clear that the Taylorist division of labor was becoming less efficient. Industrial work was traditionally associated with physical work, but with the spread of Taylorist rationalization and intensification of work, psychological stress due to monotony, certain working conditions (e.g. noise from 90 decibels), nervous tension due to performance wages and piecework also became a characteristic of industrial work Job. In the organization of work, a fundamental change can be observed , especially with microelectronics in the technically advanced area of ​​industrial production. Instead of the dequalification and standardization associated with Taylorist rationalization , there is now a tendency towards requalification and expansion of room for maneuver.

At the end of the 1980s, the “end of technological determinism ” brought a consensus in social science research: Processes of mechanization were now viewed from the perspective of the actors involved as users, users and manufacturers and their interests, but the thesis of an inseparable connection was also found of technology and capital recovery. The information technology gained in relation to the production technology is becoming increasingly important, she served as data-technical link between the sub-processes. The information and communication technologies linked technology and organization to organization technologies (including organizational sociology ).

Automation is seen as the "complete mechanization of work processes"; its goal is not only to replace any manual work with mechanical work, but also to leave the operation, monitoring and control of the production processes to the machine so that from the start of work to no human intervention is required for the finished product.

Mechanization (and automation) are sometimes seen as part of digitization , which is seen as an accelerator of existing trends in the creation of value by companies. With increasing digitalization, for example, there is a different occupation of the executive staff, and the strategy and policy in human resources must be geared towards minimizing risks, such as dependence on technology or employees no longer seeing any prospects. The mechanization of companies has a significant impact on employees and their cooperation, which is rarely taken up in the management literature, but is only reduced to the question of availability and necessary skills. On the other hand, the importance of mechanization for value creation processes, as well as possible consequences, such as decreasing employer attractiveness due to atrophy of social relationships, deterioration in health and the motivation potential of employees, is also little discussed. The digitization of education, medicine, the health industry, etc. are examples of the far-reaching change in all areas of work and life that is being affected by advancing technology. The use of modern technologies will become more important in personal services. a. Due to the aging of society, for example, the use of robotic household assistants.

The mechanization of society

The resistance to technology that can be observed historically shows a basic characteristic of human societies: above all the technical in the social has a threatening effect, technology less than machines and apparatus. Examples of this "negative side" of regularity and thus of "technology" are the following social areas:

  • Bureaucracy works through regularity, hierarchical structuring, control of processes etc. like a "social machine" that produces certain repeatable results for certain functions, and people as "cogs in the gears" and functionally replaceable individual parts. The negative connotation can be recognized by terms such as “bureaucratization”.
  • The military as a whole can be seen as a technical system. Marching with the well-known goose step provides z. B. represent a technical way of locomotion of the soldier, or the communication technology through strict hierarchization of the command structures. In Wilhelmine Prussia, technical-military manners found favor in large areas of society.
  • In view of technical globalization , it is feared that more regularity and more uniformity would return around the world, which is associated with a considerable loss of traditions and cultural diversity.

Mechanization of the household

Around 1880 electrical devices such as cigar lighters, cooking appliances and electrical heating pads were still considered to be pure luxury items, which was not only due to the high prices and low purchasing power . In the 1920s and 1930s, when household electrical appliances were gradually introduced, the world of domesticity ( reproductive sphere ) was understood as an all-female one. The housewives, but also some men, were skeptical of the mechanization of the household. It was feared that women would be able to work more outside the home, which, in the context of contemporary concerns about the stability of the family, painted a horror and negative scenario for many. On the other hand, there were concerns that an objectification, rationalization and mechanization of the household threatened the protected privacy itself.

The interest of the device manufacturers in household technology resulted from sales problems and the hope of a new promising market. The interwar period was an important phase in the reorientation from the production of production goods, where there was no longer enough sales, to the production of consumer goods. Companies from outside the industry, especially those from the automotive industry, compensated economic crises with the production of electrical household appliances, and manufacturers of traditional devices electrified their products. The main target group of the companies were women of the middle class.

The Reich Association of German Housewives' Associations (RDH) also advocated household technology to ease the daily housework that many middle-class housewives perceived as a burden, but pursued a socio-cultural goal, namely the status and role of housewives and the professionalization of the housewife profession for the state and Value society.

Mechanization of warfare

The mechanization of the war and the scientification of military technology began after the end of the Franco-German war , when a number of weapon innovations had already been used. During this time, the German armament system was formed, in which several actors participated. Politicians saw the armaments strategy as a foundation of their claim to power, for which the (technical) sciences not only provided knowledge and processes, but also visions. The political guidelines were then not only implemented by the economy, but they also had the innovations patented and made them commercially usable through series production. The military enabled the pursuit of political power through the use of armaments products.

The First World War is seen as the first mechanized war, machine guns, submarines, zeppelin, tanks, reconnaissance and combat aircraft were used. The war was tactically and practically characterized by national armaments efforts, it became a war of the national economies and on the fronts and in the countries a war of attrition. The German armaments actors were convinced that warfare was engineered. They planned and calculated in advance what would be needed so that the right technology should be available for every war situation. Occurring deficiencies accelerated the development of weapons and the military-technical innovation system even more.

As a result of the increasing industrialization of the war and the mechanization of the military, warfare has decentralized spatially since the 20th century. From the field armies directly facing each other up to the 19th century, warfare expanded to continental and even global dimensions. In addition, a declining number of soldiers who can handle the weapon and fight in war is perceived. In today's Bundeswehr, more than three quarters of all soldiers carry out military-technical activities, either in repair work or using devices that are not weapons.

Mechanization of communication

The development of writing systems and the early forms of telecommunication are considered to be the first technical forms of communication. Since the invention of the printing press, social communication is no longer conceivable other than a functional relationship of elementary and technical forms of communication. Communication is generally considered to be the process of directing a message from a sending entity to a receiving entity, the message being expressed by symbols in a medium and conveyed through a channel. Engineered communication is usually understood to mean all communication processes in which an element (sender, receiver, medium, channel) is a technical one.

The following are considered typical of technical communication:

  • "Secondary symbol systems" (writing systems, Morse code, ASCII code),
  • technical equipment (printing machines, telephones, televisions, computers),
  • Networks (telephone networks, data networks, wave networks) and
  • Conservation memories (books, tapes, floppy disks).

Technological communication should not be confused with technical communication, for the latter it is not the use of a technical device that is constitutive, but communication about a technical topic.

A variant of technical communication is that which is not conditioned by technical elements in the communication process itself, but by certain forms of thinking about the world, which is expressed in the choice of technical comparisons and metaphors. In this metaphor, a mechanization of at least the medium language, if not thought, can be seen. The use of words for human abilities to describe machine processes can be viewed as reverse metaphor.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mechanization in Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon online
  2. ↑ a b c d Fritz Böhle , Gerd-Günter Voss , Günther Wachtler : Handbuch Arbeitsoziologie . Springer-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-15432-9 , pp. 231 ff . ( google.de [accessed on August 14, 2019]).
  3. ^ A b c Gerhard Banse: Technology and culture: conditions and influencing relationships . KIT Scientific Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86644-467-6 , pp. 113 ff . ( google.de [accessed on September 18, 2019]).
  4. ↑ a b Rammert, Werner: Technology from sociological perspectives, culture, innovation, virtuality . tape 2 . West German Verl, Opladen 2000, ISBN 978-3-322-87331-6 , p. 72-73 .
  5. ↑ a b Werner Rammert: Technology - Action - Knowledge: Towards a pragmatic technology and social theory . Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15260-8 , pp. 15th ff., 53 ff . ( google.de [accessed on August 13, 2019]).
  6. ^ Jan-Hendrik Passoth: Technology and Society. Theories of social science technology and the transformations of modernity. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15582-1 , pp. 69–80.
  7. ↑ Jan-Hendrik Passoth: Technology and society: For the development of social science technology theories from early modernity to the present . 1st edition. VS, Verlag für Sozialwiss, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-90844-1 , p. 69-79 .
  8. ↑ Oliver Müller: Self, World and Technology: An anthropological, intellectual history and ethical investigation. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-033646-7 , pp. 54 ff .
  9. ↑ Werner Rammert: Technology from a sociological perspective 2 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 978-3-531-13499-4 , p. 39 ff ., doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-322-87331-6 ( springer.com [accessed July 1, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b Steffen Wettengl: Introduction to Business Administration . John Wiley & Sons, 2019, ISBN 978-3-527-81952-2 ( google.de [accessed August 4, 2019]).
  11. ↑ Wiking Ehlert: Socially acceptable technology design and / or mechanization of practical constraints? Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-94231-9 , pp. 44 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  12. ↑ a b c Andreas Wiebe: The electronic declaration of intent: communication-theoretical and legal-dogmatic foundations of electronic business transactions . Mohr Siebeck, 2002, ISBN 978-3-16-147873-4 , p. 337 ff . ( google.de [accessed on August 10, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Jan-Hendrik Passoth: Technology and society: social science technology theories and the transformations of modernity . Springer-Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-90844-1 , p. 149–150 ( google.de [accessed on August 8, 2019]).
  14. ^ A b Hirsch-Kreinsen, Hartmut, Minssen, Heiner: Lexicon of work and industrial sociology: LAIS . Work and technology. 2nd Edition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, ISBN 978-3-8452-7602-1 , p. 36 ff . ( google.de [accessed on July 24, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Michael Gaitanides: Industrial work organization and technical development: Production-technical possibilities for qualitative improvement of working conditions . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-083807-7 , p. 35 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  16. ^ Sebastian Wörwag, Alexandra Cloots: Future of Work - Human Perspective: Current Research Findings and Good Practices . Springer-Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-22099-0 , pp. 250 ff . ( google.de [accessed on August 8, 2019]).
  17. ↑ Ingo Matuschek: TECHNIZATION, DIGITIZATION, INDUSTRY 4.0. (PDF) University of Duisburg-Essen, March 2016, pp. 5, 34 , accessed on September 20, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Karl Pichol, Wolfhard Weber, Lars Bluma: technology transfer and technology popularization . The long way home technology takes into everyday life. Waxmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8309-6361-5 , p. 235 ff . ( google.de [accessed on July 25, 2019]).
  19. ↑ Armin Heinen : Paths to the First World War . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-049632-1 , p. 3–4 ( google.de [accessed on August 6, 2019]).
  20. ^ Philipp Aumann: Armaments on the test stand: Kummersdorf, Peenemünde and the "total mobilization" . Ch. Links Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-864-6 , p. 30 ( google.de [accessed on August 6, 2019]).
  21. ^ Sven Gareis, Paul Klein: Handbook of the military and social science . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-93538-0 , pp. 15, 160 ( google.de [accessed on August 6, 2019]).
  22. ^ A b Rüdiger Weingarten, Reinhard Fiehler: Technisierte Kommunikation . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-86319-5 ( google.de [accessed on August 10, 2019]).
  23. ^ A b Hans P. Krings: Scientific foundations of technical communication . Gunter Narr Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-8233-4517-6 , pp. 12 ( google.de [accessed on August 10, 2019]).