by Unknown
He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn’t have his room back. (SS 38)
Hogsmeade is also a space over which Harry’s desired use is often in conflict with others’ perspectives. During his third year, when Sirius Black is believed to be looking to find and kill Harry, Lupin contests Harry’s sneaking into the village when he says, “Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them – gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks” (POA 290). Another instance of someone contesting Harry’s use of Hogsmeade takes place when Harry, Hermione and Ron go to the village on their way to Hogwarts in search of the final Horcruxes. Aberforth Dumbledore comes to their rescue after they set off the Caterwauling Charm and says gruffly, “You bloody fools… What were you thinking, coming here?” (DH 559). Like Dudley and Lupin, Aberforth does not agree with Harry’s use of a particular safe space.
Discussion
For over a century, sociologists have sought to theorize space. Their propositions have been central to the development of the Chicago School of Sociology and urban sociology. Yet, as others continue to maintain, we still have a long way to go in advancing a sociology of space. Not only do we intend for this chapter to add to an ever-growing body of research, but we aimed to apply concepts from the Muggle literature on space to the wizarding world.
We borrowed primarily from Herbert Gans’ approach to spatial sociology and its focus on the user and the use of space, although we recognize that this approach is not without its shortcomings (see Gieryn 2002 and Zukin 2002, for instance). The user in our examination is Harry Potter, while the uses and who designates these uses are complex and varied. Clearly, Harry and his friends use space primarily as a safe space, a space that provides them with a modicum of safety from harm at the hands (or wands) of Voldemort and his followers. Harry has some control over how he will use some spaces, although others – such as Professor Dumbledore and members of the Order of the Phoenix – can also establish a safe space’s use. Nevertheless, the matter of agency also leads to a discussion of how Harry Potter manages contentious spaces throughout the series. This part of our analysis certainly harkens back to previous handlings on the hierarchical nature of space and wars over territory (Simmel 1903/1976; Lynch 1960; Harvey 1985; Urry 2000).
Future writings can focus on some of the questions beyond the scope of the current discussion. While we focus on safe spaces, there are innumerable alternative ways that Harry and others use space in the wizarding world. How do spaces help Harry develop an identity as a wizard and in his understanding of his roles and responsibilities? In what ways do spaces maintain and/or challenge gendered expectations throughout the wizarding world? What are the implications for different species (e.g., house-elves) and their ability to transcend place and space? Overall, we hope that this chapter will usher in a new body of discourse on the sociology of space and the wizarding world.
References
Bachelard, Gaston. 1969. The Poetics of Space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Gans, Herbert J. 2002. “The Sociology of Space: A Use–Centered View.” City & Community 1(4): 329–339.
Gieryn, Thomas F. 2002. “Give Place a Chance: Reply to Gans.” City and Community 1(4): 341–343.
Harvey, David. 1985. Consciousness and the Urban Experience. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hyndman, Jennifer. 2003. “Preventive, Palliative, or Punitive? Safe Spaces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and Sri Lanka.” Journal of Refugee Studies 16(2): 167-185.
Lefebvre, Henri. 1992. The Production of Space. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lynch, Kevin. 1960. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Redmond, Melissa. 2010. “Safe Space Oddity: Revisiting Critical Pedagogy.” Journal of Teaching in Social Work 30(1): 1-14.
Simmel, Georg. 1903[1976]. The Metropolis and Mental Life: The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York, NY: Free Press.
Stoudt, Brett G. 2007. “The Co-Construction of Knowledge in ‘Safe Spaces’: Reflecting on Politics and Power in Participatory Action Research.” Children, Youth and Environments 17(2): 280-297.
Urry, John. 2000. “The Sociology of Space and Place.” Pp. 416-433 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, 2nd edition. Edited by B. Turner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Zukin, Sharon. 2002. “What’s Space Got to Do with It?” City & Community 1(4): 345-348.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself
if you can’t see where it keeps its brain”
The Social Shaping of Technology
in the Wizarding World
Sheruni Ratnabalasuriar
Introduction
The wizarding world offers a compelling site for an analysis of the ways in which various types of technologies are constructed, understood, and used in the wizarding and Muggle worlds. More specifically, the wizarding world provides an important set of case studies that can help reflect our own understandings of our own everyday technologies back to ourselves through a magical lens. To do so, this chapter provides a brief discussion of several theories in a branch of sociology focusing on the social shaping of technology (SST).
Technology is present in society in several ways and used for very different purposes. First, following the revelation of Harry Potter’s status as a member of the magical community, we accompany Harry on his journey into this secret world and share his wonder at its many dazzling and strange occurrences. Throughout, we have the opportunity to compare them with the now more mundane Muggle world. Specifically, some of the more everyday types of magical artifacts such as quills show interesting parallels to the development of Muggle writing technologies. Second, Muggle technology becomes a point of reflection through Harry’s journey and, at times, is illustrated through comparisons with magical technology. Finally, an important case study is found in Mr. Arthur Weasley, a wizard who attempts to bridge both Muggle and magical worlds through his fascination with magical modifications of Muggle technologies. The tension between his roles as a magical law enforcement officer responsible for regulating the use of Muggle artifacts for magical means on the one hand, and his enthusiasm for tinkering with and modifying Muggle artifacts on the other, provide yet another interesting point of reflection on our Muggle world and our own attitudes towards technology. Understanding the various ways Muggle technology serves as both a counterpoint to and augmentation of magic can help us better understand our own experiences with everyday technologies and understand how they are continually socially constructed.
Social Context and Sociological Framework:
The Social Shaping of Technology
Contemporary Muggle technologies are shifting, developing, and changing at an unprecedented rate. With this rapid pace, an interesting facet of technology has begun to emerge. Advanced technologies that once seemed magical to Muggles have become more mundane, diminishing much of their fantastic and magical aspects. A recent visit to the headquarters of one of the most prolific Muggle technology firms (Facebook) by United States Muggle president Barack Obama led him to comment on this lack of wonder and awe concerning the rapid pace of technological change. The president suggested this might be remedied through renewed commitments to improving science, technology, engineering, and medical (STEM) education: “I want people to feel about the next big energy breakthrough and the next big Internet breakthrough the same way they felt about the moonwalk” (quoted in Tsotsis 2011).
Devices and gadgets that once seemed the product of fantastical science fiction are now relatively ordinary occurrences. Muggle technology corporations such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft continue a tradition of releasing new products each year in large mediated press events constructed as major spectacles of technological change. However, the release of these “revolutionary products” have become such a regular occurrence (often in bi-annual or quarterly events) that much of
the magic of new technologies becomes old news the moment the newest and shiniest version of a particularly piece of technology is unveiled. The Muggle world is a world in which feats such as the near-instantaneous transfer of information through one of the largest, most interconnected infrastructures in history, is shrugged off and accepted as the most mundane of everyday occurrences.
In the wizarding world, the appearance and disappearance of things (apparition and invisibility cloaks), the transformation of objects (transfiguration), the manipulation of time (Hermione Granger’s use of the Time-Turner), space (the existence of platform 9 ¾), and perception (the confundus charm), all serve as the context in which the magical world operates. However, what is so compelling is the juxtaposition of the magical world against the boundaries of the Muggle world. This difference is most apparent in the contrasting ways both the Muggle and magical worlds have of enhancing everyday existence accomplished through various means. One of the most ready examples is the differences between various means of magical communication (Owls and floo powder) and Muggle communication technologies (email, telephones, etc.). It is in the colliding of these two worlds that we can most easily see differences in the construction of each type of communication method. For example, Ronald Weasley’s humorous attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at his aunt and uncle’s house during summer holidays is a prime example of the ways magical outsiders not socialized to use Muggle technologies encounter our world. Practically screaming into the phone, Ron misunderstands even this most commonplace Muggle technology, in turn highlighting how taken for granted this technology has become for Muggles.
This contrast can help us understand the diminishing magical quality – the banality – of technology in our own social contexts. To that end, SST can provide a powerful tool for understanding the various ways the wizarding world comments upon technology. This area of study is concerned with broadening analyses of technologies to include examinations of socio-economic and cultural patterns embedded in the development, innovation, and content of various technologies (McKenzie and Wajcman 1999; Williams and Edge 1996). As a field, SST emerged in response to and to critique popular ideas about technology which dominated much of the discourse of technology at the time. Known as technological determinism, this view is a conceptualization of technology as being an inevitable, unchangeable, almost non-controllable force that, for the most part, is treated as unproblematic. This mode of thinking about technology was most eloquently unpacked in the work of David Edge (1988). He explains that one of the key dangers of technology’s determinism lies in the unproblematic acceptance of technology as a given; that technological changes effecting social, economic, and political outcomes are predetermined and unable to be influenced by anything other than what appears to be the inevitable march of technological progress. Ignoring that technology development is a phenomenon influenced and controlled by social forces is to abdicate responsibility for the ways society shapes and influences technology.
SST has drawn a large number of scholars from a diverse range of academic disciplines. There is now an extensive body of literature on the ways various types of technologies are constructed depending on their social and cultural context, as well as the various meanings assigned to different types of technology over time. The field has offered some important commentary on the ways in which technologies shift and change. It has pointed out how technologies are not only shaped by programmers, engineers, and designers, but are also shaped by their actual users within specific social contexts for various purposes, whether these align with the original intended uses or not. According to Robin Williams and David Edge (1996: 4), SST research is characterized by several key areas of investigation: “SST research investigates the ways in which social, institutional, economic and cultural factors have shaped: i) the direction as well as the rate of innovation; ii) the form of the content of technological artifacts and practices; iii) the outcomes of technological change for different groups in society” (emphasis in the original).
A perspective that has particular relevance for the exploration of Muggle technologies through a magical lens comes from the work of Hughie Mackay and Gareth Gillespie (1992). These Muggle sociologists explored and extended social shaping of technology by bringing new understandings of the role of appropriation of technology by users. They argue that different technologies are “open” to varying degrees. In other words, certain technologies lend themselves more easily to being changed and modified by end users than other types of technology and that this adaptability has different meanings for users. In many cases, it is precisely this lack of openness which drains innovation of its magical character.
Technology vs. Magic: Of Apparition and Quills
Once Harry’s identity as a member of the magical world is revealed, he marvels at the many wonders that magical folk experience in their everyday lives as regular occurrences. When introduced to the various aspects of the fascinating magical world, Harry’s encounters with various wizards and witches provide an important counterpoint to Muggle existence. And, aiding in this re-enchantment of the everyday, magical folk themselves express fascination with the various technologies that Muggles have devised in order to go about the daily business of living. In some ways, the fascination with Muggle technologies evinced by various magical folk like Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Mr. Arthur Weasley, agent in the Ministry of Magic’s Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, can be seen as an appreciation for the efforts Muggles make towards enacting their own type of “magic” under limited circumstances, without any type of magical power or aid. Muggle technology such as ticket takers, turnstiles, parking meters, and batteries are objects of fascination for both Mr. Weasley and Hagrid who marvel at the devices Muggles have developed to help them with the tasks of everyday life.
A Muggle historian and contributor to studies of sociotechnical factors shaping technology development who shares this fascination with everyday technologies is Wiebe Bijker. He has contributed several key works in SST that provides insight into the relationship between various social forces and their influence of Muggle technology development that can also be applied to examinations of magical artifacts. His writing, particularly his collaboration with colleagues Trevor J. Pinch and Thomas P. Hughes in their edited volume The Social Construction of Technological Systems (1987), as well as Bijker’s own solo-authored book Of Bicycles, Bakelights and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change (1995) are some of the major works in SST discussing the processes influencing the somewhat magical quality of technologies that, due to their ubiquity, seem mundane and an unchanging, taken-for-granted part of everyday life. Bijker explains that what appear to be magical devices in the realm of Muggle technology do not just apparate into existence out of thin air in a finished, pre-determined form. Instead Bijker and other SST researchers propose that there are very specific and deliberate design choices influenced by social contexts that are quite intentional that lead to the final marketed form of various technologies.
If we linger a moment on a memory from Harry Potter’s school days, we can revisit that excellent yet potentially hazardous mode of magical travel, apparition. While at first apparition seems to be an everyday occurrence among magical adults, we see how complex a process it actually is as Harry, Hermione, and Ron approach the age when older Hogwarts students begin to learn how to apparate – a process akin to Muggle teenagers learning to drive an automobile. Apparition involves intention. If the proper technique is not employed – if the “user” does not maintain a clear intention of his destination, as Charlie Weasley once did not – the results can be disastrous, perhaps even landing a traveler five miles from their intended destination, on top of an old Muggle lady doing her shopping (GOF 67). Preparation and careful planning are required if one wishes to avoid ending up in the wrong place, potentially violating the statue of secrecy, which protects Muggles by requiring witches and wizards to conceal their powers. In fact
, a 12 week course on apparition is offered to older Hogwarts students during their sixth year. Professor Wilkie Twycross hammers homes the importance of the three Ds of Apparition – Destination, Determination, and Deliberation in his classes (HBP 384). A particularly painful example of the complexity of the apparition process is shown in Ron’s experience of splinching – accidently leaving a body part behind due to insufficient concentration upon the intended destination – during his escape from Voldemort’s agents in their search for his Horcruxes.
Bijker also explores the importance of social forces that can shape the development of various technologies as can be seen in his excellent discussions of the historical power struggles that occurred during the development of fluorescent lighting technology. These tensions arose among companies who made the bulbs and fixtures as well as the utility companies who were developing access to electricity. Struggles emerged over the use of filament materials, current and voltage standardization, as well as a host of other factors necessary to deliver fluorescent lighting to private homes and businesses. Bijker emphasizes the importance of these power struggles and how they serve to constrain choices.
Similar struggles and choices constrain the evolution of magical techniques as well. Take the example of the use of quills in the magical world and the development of the QWERTY keyboard ubiquitous in Muggle computing technologies. The wizarding world has adopted the exclusive use of quill, ink, and parchment for most types of communication. The accessories for writing, and even the use of Owls as one of the major forms of communication, stem from the particular choice of writing implementation. We are treated to an example of this during Harry’s first foray into Diagon Alley with Hagrid when each of these technologies must be acquired as part of his school supplies.
