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Is software political? (www.jstor.org)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/opensource

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In this paper the author highlights how both engineers and social scientists misinterpret the relationship between technology and society. In particular he attacks the narrative, widespread among engineers, that technological artifacts, such as software, have no political properties in themselves and that function or efficiency are the only drivers of technological design and implementation.

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[–] thtroyer 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Even if you decide to not release it for the public and keep it to yourself, can be a political issue. The mere existence of something can create a imbalance of capabilities, e.g. people with access to the software have advantages over people with no access to it, which can be political.

In this sense, politics is a weird lens to view such abilities/actions, rather than something like socioeconomics. Granted, government policy affects peoples' wellbeing, which can definitely affect their political views, but making the jump to "everything is political" feels like a stretch?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Granted, government policy affects peoples' wellbeing, which can definitely affect their political views, but making the jump to "everything is political" feels like a stretch?

Granted, maybe I was a bit too fast there. This should be better: "Everything has the potential to become political, as decided by the society."

Someone alone cannot decide what is or isn't politics. They need a couple of other people believing it too. But they can try to convince them. But software development most surely is, because it touches a lot of stuff, that many people think is political, even before getting into CoCs and used jargon.