A general model for culture and technology

Abstract This paper offers a process model in which the interaction of technology and social institutions can be analyzed systematically within a single frame of reference. By considering both aspects of culture, not as substantive entities to be classified as to type, but as organizational states to be described and measured by a class of variables that is truly scaleable, it is possible to describe with precision and economy, a given state of techno-social organization and also design and predict future states of technological and social organization The potentialities and properties of various possible future states can be projected as highly compressed, synoptic models since the number of variables used to describe a real or projected system-state is small. Thus the model offers a versatile instrument for disciplining rich and diverse classes of data into manageable wholes. It also offers possibilities of making normative judgements of what kind of organizational linkages between technology and social institutions will produce relative consistency or effectiveness.