Science, Technology and Society Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Such societies are called Surveillance societies.

The term, developed by writers such as David Lyon, describes societies in which the routine collection, storage, analysis and use of personal information by states and corporations is a basic way of monitoring and managing populations.

'Controlling society', 'subservient society' and 'closed society' are not the established term; a closed society, in Popper's sense, is one that resists criticism and change, not one defined by information gathering.

Answer: A

The Second Media Age was written by Mark Poster.

In The Second Media Age (1995), Mark Poster contrasted the first media age of broadcasting, few senders to many receivers, with the second media age of interactive networks such as the internet, where many communicate with many.

Marshall McLuhan wrote Understanding Media and Daniel Lerner (spelled Learner in the paper) The Passing of Traditional Society; neither, nor David Holmes, is the author of this book.

Answer: D

Ethnopharmacology lies at the intersection of the medical, natural sciences and social sciences.

Ethnopharmacology studies the plants, animals and other substances that human groups use as medicines. It draws on the medical sciences (pharmacology, toxicology), the natural sciences (botany, chemistry) and the social sciences (anthropology, ethnology), so the broadest description is the correct one.

The other options each name only some of the contributing disciplines, which is why they are too narrow.

Answer: D

The sociologist is Castells.

Manuel Castells' trilogy The Information Age, beginning with The Rise of the Network Society, argues that society is now organised in networks and a 'space of flows' of capital, information, technology and images, in which places are linked through electronic circuits.

Ulrich Beck is known for the risk society, George Ritzer for McDonaldization, and Anthony Giddens for structuration and late modernity.

Answer: B

Such a place is a Niche.

In media and online sociology a niche is a specialised space, such as a niche website, community or channel, that serves a group of users with a shared interest and lets them display and pursue that interest.

A network links people in general, a gateway is an entry point to other resources, and a bill-board advertises to everyone; none is defined by a common interest.

Answer: A

A social network is a set of nodes and a set of ties that connect some or all of these nodes.

In social network analysis the nodes are actors, such as persons, groups or organisations, and the ties are the relationships between them, such as friendship, kinship or exchange. The definition is formal, so it applies at any scale and does not assume that the network forms a bounded group.

A social group with defined boundaries is precisely what a network need not be. Bonds that build up over time describe social capital or solidarity, and informal organisations are only one setting in which networks are found.

Answer: B

The national cloud initiative is Megh Raj (MeghRaj).

MeghRaj is the Government of India's cloud computing initiative (GI Cloud), launched by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology to let government departments share computing infrastructure and applications, so that e-governance services can be deployed faster and more cheaply. 'Megh' means cloud.

e-Kranti is a pillar of the Digital India programme for electronic delivery of services, and Project Arrow was the scheme to modernise post offices. 'e-Bharat' is not the cloud project.

Answer: D

The National Cyber Security Policy was released in 2013.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology announced the National Cyber Security Policy in 2013. It aims to build a secure cyberspace, protect critical information infrastructure, create a large pool of skilled cybersecurity professionals and strengthen the national response through bodies such as CERT-In.

2007, 2009 and 2011 come before the policy. The Information Technology Act dates from 2000 and its major amendment from 2008, but neither is the cyber security policy.

Answer: A

The key treats the growing digital divide as a change in material culture.

Material culture is the physical side of culture: tools, machines, buildings and technology. The digital divide is unequal access to computers, smartphones, broadband and the internet, that is, to technological artefacts, between rich and poor, urban and rural, or men and women.

Non-material culture covers values, beliefs, norms and language. Ogburn's idea of cultural lag holds that material culture changes faster than non-material culture, and the digital divide is a case of rapidly changing material culture reaching people unevenly. Popular culture and mass culture refer to forms of entertainment and media consumption rather than to access to technology itself.

Answer: B

The key's answer is that technology becomes important.

The question draws on Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition. Lyotard argued that in computerised societies knowledge is produced in order to be sold and is valued as an informational commodity. Its legitimation then shifts from grand narratives of truth or emancipation to performativity: the efficiency of the input-output system. Knowledge counts when it improves performance, and that criterion is a technological one, so technology and technical efficiency become central.

'Knowledge is narrative' describes traditional, pre-modern knowledge in Lyotard's account, the opposite of commodified knowledge. 'Information is not knowledge' reverses his point that knowledge is converted into information, and spiritual knowledge plays no part in the argument.