ABSTRACT
In a time when technical artefacts are of obviously great societal importance, it is a much discussed problem as to whether technological development is following a determined and dominant path, and, whether or not in the process of technical and social change comparable models are perceptible (cf. Katsikides/S., M. Campbell/J, Hochgerner/S., 1994). In such investigations it is not a question of comparing two separate spheres (one social, the other technical). Instead, the approach to socio-technical analysis brings about the issue how, and under which conditions technical objects and inanimate objects can become factors of the social world - more precisely: of social interaction. In order to find answers supporting the argument of continued development one needs a concept which is similar in approach to F. Braudel's (1979: 18) when he explored the "possibilities of a pre-industrialised world". For our purpose - to understand the possible development of nowadays industrialised/mechanised world - one has to base the sociological foundations from which emerge the technical machines in sound working order and which - then, once applied - seem "absolutely necessary".
