Technopolis: the public life of technological artefacts

Abstract

Technology and public life are interwoven in many ways. Yet, many approaches treat them as separate entities, by analyzing technologies either as neutral means for realizing human ends, or as sources of alienation threatening human existence. Against this, the notion of technological mediation can be used to reveal how technologies actively help to shape human practices and experiences. Public life, then, is not only a result of human action, but also of architecture and road infrastructure. In Technopolis, technologies have a public life as much as humans do.