The technosphere as a source of systemic threats: an analytical review of contemporary theoretical approaches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33408/2519-237X.2025.9-3.422Keywords:
technosphere, sociotechnical system, structural risk, autonomy of technology, systemic vulnerability, sociotechnical risk, philosophy of technologyAbstract
Purpose. To systematize the most influential humanities-based, primarily socio-philosophical, approaches to technology, and to identify the key properties of the technosphere that are recognized by the scientific community as primary sources of threats.
Methods. Critical source analysis, typological comparison and conceptual synthesis are employed.
Findings. The object of the study is the technosphere as a historically formed socio-technical system, and the subject is the internal mechanisms of risk generation embedded in its structure and logic of functioning. The review is based on a comparative analytical understanding of four theoretical schools: philosophical critics of technology, systemic realists, reflexive modernists and network constructivists (STS/ANT). Major findings include: conceptual image of the technosphere as a heterogeneous, multi‑level and weakly controllable net of interactions among technical, social and institutional elements; risk typology that covers infrastructural vulnerability, managerial indeterminacy, manipulative social reconstruction and behavioral exploitation; demonstration that technospheric risks are not external or accidental but systemic and unavoidable, rooted in the very architecture of today’s technological world. The novelty of the research lies in the interdisciplinary integration of diverse conceptual approaches and in proposing an integral analytical frame that views risk not as a malfunction but as a normal condition of existence within the technosphere.
Application field of research. The practical significance of the review is manifested in the possibility of using the proposed typology of risks in developing management strategies, expertise and educational programs in the field of technosphere safety. The material is addressed to specialists interested in an interdisciplinary understanding of threats to technogenic civilization.
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