Sociology of technology and social engineering
Technology is regarded as a subject of sociological analysis and social engineering as that of socio-technological design. Systems design is aimed at re-organizing human activity, not only at developing machine components. Whereas traditional engineering design is a constituent of engineering activity, systems design may or may not incorporate (in inventing new machine components) engineering activity. The range of systems design applications is broadening and now includes all areas of social practice - not only industrial production (servicing, consumption, training, control, etc.). That is why in this article it is proposed to differentiate between systems engineering, socio-technological and social design. Technology assessment is described as a combination of systems analysis and social design. Modern technoscience is similar to social systems engineering as the analysis and design of complex socio-technical systems.