| The broad theme of this dissertation is the emergence and evolution of sociotechnical systems. The social, technical, and material factors that interact in the process are investigated using a broad survey of the emergence of municipal water and waste systems in the United States from 1800 to 1930 and a detailed case study of the emergence of Boston's local government and water systems from 1800 to 1908. Water and waste systems are the technologies that provide residential and industrial segments of modern industrial cities with a clean water supply and an outlet for waste disposal. The thesis focuses upon the practical work related to and the transformations that derive from the emergence of these systems.;This study uses primary and secondary historical sources from engineers, scientists, municipal and state governments, public health authorities, and public periodicals. These sources include published monographs, non-technical periodicals, journal articles, textbooks, and unpublished archival materials. The analytic framework of this study is drawn from the literature of science and technology studies and the related disciplines of sociology, history, philosophy and cultural studies. In particular, the theory of sociotechnical systems developed by Thomas Hughes and informed by theories of actor networks and infrastructure are employed.;It has been concluded that the emergence of water and waste systems was the result of the simultaneous and consubstantial emergence of society and technology in a interactive process that defined urban conditions, the problems associated with those conditions, the solutions to those problems and the identification of the relevant actors involved. This process contributed to the emergence of a new urban industrial society associated with new technical professions and a significantly transformed material environment. An analysis of this process suggests new ways of thinking about technology, social action and concepts of progress. |
