technocentric

Technocentric is a term used to describe an orientation, perspective, or approach that places technology at the center of human affairs. In scholarship and public discourse, technocentric describes analyses or policies that assume technology is the key driver of progress and problem-solving, often prioritizing technical feasibility and efficiency over other considerations.

In practice, technocentric thinking tends to privilege engineering, data, and quantitative methods. It supports rapid development and deployment of new technologies, emphasizes measurable outcomes, and frames social challenges as problems that can be solved with innovative tools or systems.

Technocentrism is distinct from broader technological determinism but overlaps with it. It can be a stance within technocracy or within science-and-technology-centered worldviews. It can coexist with human-centered or sociotechnical approaches that incorporate social, ethical, and cultural factors.

Critics argue that a technocentric stance risks neglecting nontechnical values, distributional impacts, and unintended consequences of tech deployments; it may overestimate technocratic governance and underappreciate political, economic, and ecological limits.

Examples include public policy that prioritizes digital infrastructure or automation as a cure-all; corporate strategies that focus on platformization and data monetization; and urban planning that emphasizes smart-city technologies.