单项选择题

  Line      Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization
            of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance
            work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate
            that encompasses two lively issues in the history and
    (5)    sociology of technology: technological determinism
            and social constructivism.
              Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a
            technology have a decisive influence on job skills and
            work organization. Put more strongly, technology can
    (10)    be a primary determinant of social and managerial
            organization. Clark believes this possibility has
            been obscured by the recent sociological fashion,
            exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes
            the way machinery reflects social choices. For
    (15)    Braverman, the shape of a technological system is
            subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control
            of the labor process from the workers. Technological
            change is construed as the outcome of negotiations
            among interested parties who seek to incorporate
    (20)    their own interests into the design and configuration
            of the machinery. This position represents the new
            mainstream called social constructivism.
              The constructivists gain acceptance by
            misrepresenting technological determinism:
    (25)    technological determinists are supposed to believe,
            for example, that machinery imposes appropriate
            forms of order on society. The alternative to
            constructivism, in other words, is to view technology
            as existing outside society, capable of directly
    (30)    influencing skills and work organization.
              Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists
            by both theoretical and empirical arguments.
            Theoretically he defines "technology" in terms of
            relationships between social and technical variables.
    (35)    Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to
            cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is
            just scrap unless it is organized functionally and
            supported by appropriate systems of operation and
            maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how
    (40)    a change at the telephone exchange from
            maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches
            to semielectronic switching systems altered work
            tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration,
            and organization of workers. Some changes Clark
    (45)    attributes to the particular way management and
            labor unions negotiated the introduction of the
            technology, whereas others are seen as arising from
            the capabilities and nature of the technology itself.
            Thus Clark helps answer the question: "When is
    (50)    social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important"   The primary purpose of the passage is to