What are socially disruptive technologies?

Scholarly discourse on disruptive technologies has been strongly influenced by disruptive innovation theory. This theory is tailored for analyzing disruptions in markets and business. It is of limited use, however, in analyzing the broader social, moral and existential dynamics of technosocial disruption. Yet these broader dynamics should be of great scholarly concern, both in coming to terms with technological disruptions of the past and those of our current age. Technologies can disrupt social relations, institutions, epistemic paradigms, foundational concepts, values, and even the nature of human cognition and experience - domains of disruption that are largely neglected in existing discourse on disruptive technologies. Accordingly, this paper seeks to reorient scholarly discussion around a broader notion of technosocial disruption. This broader notion raises three foundational questions. First, how can technosocial disruption be conceptualized in a way that clearly sets it apart from the disruptive innovation framework? Secondly, how does the notion of technosocial disruption relate to the concordant notions of disruptor and disruptiveness? Thirdly, can we advance criteria to assess the degree of social disruptiveness of different technologies? The paper clarifies these questions and proposes an answer to each of them. In doing so, it advances technosocial disruption as a key analysandum for future scholarship on the interactions between technology and society.

Automated summary

The scholarly discourse on disruptive technologies has been primarily influenced by disruptive innovation theory, which focuses on disruptions in markets and business, but lacks the ability to analyze the broader social, moral, and existential dynamics of technosocial disruption. This paper aims to reorient scholarly discussion around a broader notion of technosocial disruption, raising questions about how it differs from disruptive innovation, its relation to disruptor and disruptiveness, and the criteria for assessing the social disruptiveness of technologies. It proposes technosocial disruption as a key focus for future scholarship on the interactions between technology and society.