New social actors in the context of a developing country: Computerisation in Brazil

Against a background of sociological theories of post-industrial society, development and youth, the relationship between Brazilian adolescents and modern technologies with special reference to computers was analysed in an ethnographic study, carried out within a phenomenological perspective. Three distinct user sub-groups were identified: secretaries, engineers and authors. When people use computers to reorganise and make presentable what they normally work upon, they are called secretaries. As a group these users exhibit a certain fear for their own place and for their country's place in a technology-bound future. Computers are a means by which they reproduce order. Engineers, on the other hand take their perception of a problem and a series of skills, anchored in utilitarian values and use computers to build products designed to resolve the identified problem. They seek to link both innovation and the reproduction of order. Their computer-related skills support their perception that their own futures are guaranteed. In general they exhibit little concern about the future of their fellow citizens. Authors seek to explore the capacities of computers and other modern technologies to develop new products. In so doing, learning, human, artistic or self development are the seeds of their creative process. They seek both to innovate and to produce change. Whilst they have a certain feal about the nation's future they express optimism about their own individual futures. The consequences of the existence of these diverse social actors within the context of a developing economy are then examined.