The Mastery-Technology Articulation: Ability, Experience, Certainty
Ali ErgurFinance capitalism, which comes to existence more rapidly and in a more complex way than other modes of production, has brought about significant changes in the nature of the relationship between human beings and nature. Our information society not only functionalizes technology as an instrument, but also renders it a determinant framework in both material and intellectual terms. Professions such as medicine and aviation, which deal with vital issues and are obliged to adapt themselves to technological innovations by their very nature, function as a road map enabling us to track this transformation. We conducted a field study between 2015 and 2017 and we interviewed 25 physicians and 27 pilots using a semi-structured interview technique. We conducted this field study to comprehend how this technology-centered approach transforms pilotage and medicine, two professions that are directly influenced by the results of technological invasion, in terms of their social meaning and professional values such as mastery and skill inherent to them. Based on the findings of this research, our article aims to develop a conceptualization that has the potential to help us better understand social transformations starting from the position of professions vis-à-vis technology and the transformation that they underwent in terms of their performance and mastery practice.
Ustalık ve Teknoloji Eklemlenmesi: Beceri, Deneyim, Kesinlik
Ali ErgurBütün üretim biçimi dönüşümlerinde gözlemlendiği gibi, diğerlerine göre daha hızlı ve karmaşık bir şekilde gelen finans kapitalizmi de insanın doğayla ve insanla kurduğu ilişkinin mahiyetinde ciddi değişiklikler getirmiştir. Enformasyon toplumu teknolojiyi yalnızca bir araç olarak işlevselleştirmekle kalmayıp onu hem maddi hem düşünsel anlamda belirleyici bir çerçeve haline getirmektedir. Hayatın her alanı bu dönüşümden etkilenmekte, özellikle doğaları itibarıyla teknolojik anlamda sürekli kendisini yenilemek zorunda olan ve hayati nitelikte işler yapan hekimlik ve pilotluk gibi meslekler, bu dönüşümü izleyebileceğimiz bir yol haritası olarak işlevselleşmektedir. Teknolojik yeniliklerin git gide daha fazla otomasyona dayanması ve ayrıntılı tanılamayı mümkün kılması, eğitim-pratik-deneyimden kaynaklanan bir edinim olan ustalığın, aşamalı bir şekilde alan kaybetmesine neden olmaktadır. Teknolojikleşmenin sonuçlarını doğrudan hisseden pilotluk ve hekimlikte mesleğin toplumsal anlamının, ustalık, beceri gibi mesleğe içkin değerlerin ve mesleğin doğasının teknoloji-merkezli bir yaklaşımda ne şekilde dönüştüğünü çözümleyebilmek için 2015 - 2017 yılları arasında, 25 hekim ve 27 pilotla yarı-yapılandırılmış mülakat tekniği kullanılarak bir saha çalışması gerçekleştirdik. Makalemiz, bu araştırmanın bulgularından yola çıkarak, mesleklerin teknoloji karşısındaki konumunu ve mesleğin icrası ile ustalık edimlerinin anlamındaki dönüşüm üzerinden daha geniş çaplı toplumsal dönüşümleri anlamamıza yardımcı olacak bir kavramsallaştırma ve savlama yapmayı hedeflemektedir.
Finance capitalism, a more rapid and complex transformation than any other transformation or mode of production in human history, has created a state of continuous complexity within the information society it has formed. This complexity manifests itself in various ways and different dimensions of life on both an individual and a social scale. The information society not only functionalizes technology as an instrument, but also envisions it as a determinant field of existence and an intellectual framework. While every domain of life is influenced by this transformation, professions are also not immune from it for they are constantly redefined through the social values in which they exist. Our article aims to examine how the nature and social meanings of professions have transformed in this technology-dominated culture by analyzing the examples of medicine and aviation. We chose these two fields as our research subject due to two main criteria: (1) professionals in these fields have to adapt themselves constantly to technological innovations; (2) they are professions that deal with vital issues. In addition to this, pilotage and medicine are professions that can also be conceptualized as ideal-types in the Weberian sense, which will help us to understand the position of occupations in the face of technology. For this purpose, we conducted a field study between 2015 and 2017 with 25 physicians and 27 pilots using semi-structured interview technique.
According to the findings of our research, it is possible to illustrate a paradox of mastery: the acquisition of a mixture of education, practice, and experience, which we call mastery, gradually becomes difficult with the penetration of the technology into the profession. This penetration increases the claim on perfecting the performance, which was once entrusted to human imperfection. Thus, the field of the master is narrowed in the face of the high-tech operation of the machine. This orientation is welcomed within the legitimizing discourse of technology to eliminate any accident or error but it results in reducing the knowledge and skills of the actors responsible for the performance of the profession. In this case, the mastery knowledge necessary for the intervention of technology cannot be developed sufficiently since the required practical area is limited.
In addition, our research revealed that the nature of the relationship between professionals and professional knowledge is also transforming. On the one hand, knowledge is no longer composed of interdependent units that are acquired by learning the whole systematic, holistic collection with defined boundaries, but rather it becomes a component of action, which is filtered from a huge pool of information with only functional purposes for a specific action. Thus, knowledge becomes a practical skill input, and no longer an intellectual phenomenon at least in the professional sense. On the other hand, a working regime, in which the information processing becomes the main goal, results in the rapid transformation of the notion of expertise into the ability for management of technology.
The nature of the meaning attributed to the profession also significantly transforms in the Information Age because of the decline in the value of labor and the consequences of the competitive neoliberal economic policies. The changing occupational preferences from puritan values to hedonistic values and calculated preferences signifies, on the one hand, an orientation to affordable choices instead of passion for occupation. On the other hand, it indicates that professional knowledge has become an exchange value. The fact that the training and the performance of the profession are substantially transformed into a technical-operational process reduces the level of spiritual satisfaction in the work.
Technology functions as a deus ex machina for professionals. The non-integrated professional knowledge acquired in the high-tech environment is experienced as a technical procedure rather than an intellectual activity. Therefore, the definition of the professional skill also transforms with the influences of the technology-dominated approach and is replaced by a tendency to technician thinking. This redefinition of skill as a technological process poses another paradox: professional skill is being transformed to (1) management of technology and (2) final touch rather than a result of the personal effort of the physician or the pilot in the relatively analog systems in which the human contact is predominant. However, aside from the technical and operational dimension of the work, it is still necessary for pilots and physicians to have a profound knowledge of mastery to realize this human control and this is only possible for these professionals by staying effective in the professional practice field dramatically occupied by technology. Based on all these findings, we can claim that professions are undergoing an ontological or even an epistemological transformation. However, claiming that the automatic and algorithmic processing skill brought about by technology completely replaces mastery may result in overlooking the unpredictable orientations of the professional as a human and the dialectical relation between human beings and technology.
