An article from “Social Epistemology” (2005) concerning technological determinism and the social construction of technology
Social EpistemologyVol. 19, Nos. 2-3, April–September 2005, pp. 287–313 Recognizing the Role of the Modern Business Corporation in the “Social Construction” of Technology Wade Rowland Conventional models for Social Construction of Technology fail to take into account the prevailing influence of a new technological/social phenomenon-the modern business corpo- ration. Corporate autonomy, power and influence, as exhibited especially since the mid- 1970s, has made necessary the consideration of a new concept: the Technological Construc- tion of Society, a novel form of...
Read MoreCorporate Cyborgs: the Ontology of the Modern Business Corporation
Wade Rowland Introduction (Note: a version of this article was published in the journal Social Epistemoplogy in 2005) Corporations are much in the news as this is being written. Pharmaceutical firms are being questioned for their unwillingness to provide affordable anti-AIDS drugs to Africa, and for having promoted hormone replacement therapy for menopausal Western women with bogus health claims. Corporate concentration in media is being called a threat to democracy, second only to corporate donations to political campaigns. Corporate lobbies...
Read MoreWill Covid-19 Give Canada a Guaranteed Basic Income Plan?
With the adoption early Wednesday morning of legislation to seamlessly transfer Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) recipients over to Employment Insurance, Ottawa has moved one step closer to implementing a guaranteed basic income for all Canadians. The revamped EI program will provide those transitioning from the CERB with an identical $500 per week subsidy for at least 26 weeks. They need not be unemployed—they can work and earn up to a maximum of $38,000 per year while still claiming the EI benefit. That looks remarkably similar to a pilot guaranteed basic income (GBI) trial...
Read MoreCOVID-19 and Guaranteed Basic Income GBI – Minimum Income
March 20, 2020 By Wade Rowland It’s a commonplace to observe that an existential crisis clarifies thought. Frequently, it offers opportunity to do the impossible, to get things straight. Case in point: the graduated income tax, by now universally accepted as the most equitable way to raise money for running any country, was brought in during the crisis of World War 1. It is still with us because it works much better than the system of customs and excise taxes it largely replaced. It was introduced, reluctantly, by a Conservative government, under Sir Robert Borden. It was...
Read MoreA preface to Morality by Design
I have spent much of my working life toiling in various fields journalism, a craft that allowed me to indulge an obsessive interest in trying understand to the big, existential questions of our time, and then pass along whatever insight I’d gleaned. Decades of research into politics, media, corporate crime, energy policy, environmental pollution, climate change, and, most recently, the impact of technological innovation led me more and more frequently to wonder: “Why is this happening?” and “Why do we let it happen?” Those sorts of questions, it would eventually occur...
Read More“Critical Moral Realism as an approach to thinking about, and teaching, ethics in communication studies.”
Media Ecology Conference June 28, 2019: Panel 2.4.10 “Critical Moral Realism as an approach to thinking about, and teaching, ethics in communication studies.” By Wade Rowland A brief biographical note: about two-thirds of my working life has been spend in print and television journalism; the remaining third has been in the academy, mainly at Ryerson, Trent, and eventually at York University. As a journalist, I had found it crucially helpful to have a credible, time-tested framework of ethical standards within which to pursue my work: standards like objectivity, balance, fairness,...
Read MoreAbout Wade Rowland
Ranked among Canada’s leading literary journalists, Wade Davies Rowland has written more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from television journalism, organized crime, and international environmental law to his current concerns, which include communications technology, the philosophy of science, and technology and human values. Full author bio.