Technological Change

4Technological Change and the Individual

The previous chapters called for the mobilization of disciplines concerned with technological change at the level of society as a whole or of productive organizations. At the individual level, a more psychological interpretation is useful. However, the association of individuals with technologies cannot be understood solely through their own characteristics (attitudes, motivations, personality traits, etc.). From the perspective of occupational psychology and activity-oriented¹ ergonomics, we will focus on them essentially as they are associated with technical objects in an activity system. Moreover, without forgetting the specificity of each technology, which can have its own effects, we will focus on digital technology, specifically information and communication technologies (ICTs), to reflect the most significant transformations of the current era, those of the “digital revolution”.

In a first section (section 4.1), we will first locate the technical object (called “digital technologies”) in the system of human activities.

We will then focus (section 4.2) on the encounter between the individual and the technical object, which will be captured at three levels: object design, adoption and use. We will conclude this section by focusing on the notion of the “technological individual”.

We will continue by focusing on the effects of technological change on work structures (section 4.3).

Finally, we will examine the consequences of the digital ...