ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an involvement in a project about the design of advanced manufacturing technology. Karl Marx's original analysis of the societal consequences of trends in manufacturing technology contained much of what a present-day social scientist would call sociotechnical understanding; that, understands of the interplay between human and technical aspects of technology. With increasing frequency, social scientists were invited to take part in the conferences of engineering institutions. Once engineers and social scientists are working together, many of the issues that have been discussed often emerge operationally as problems of phasing. The engineers approached the "human-centred design" task specifically from a wish to counter the effect of Taylorism, with which they were familiar. As a group of professions, engineers have, of course, been evolving their methods and developing their products for much longer than social scientists. The design of transitional systems such as prototyping, simulation, and the systematic testing of alternatives may be a particularly fruitful area for collaboration.
