Abstract
In the closing pages of The New Social Contract (Macneil, 1980), Ian Macneil contrasts a dystopian world of La Technique with an imperfect, but more human, world of Post-Technique. Readers might think that this was something of an afterthought, not closely related to the book’s great insights in placing contractual transactions in a context of multifarious relationships and expectations. However, with the development of modern information and communication technologies1 that not only support new worlds of both consumer and commercial contracting, but also offer opportunities for just the kind of perfect control sought after by La Technique, there are reasons for thinking that the time has come for Post-Technique. That is to say, if we are to retain our essential humanity while enjoying the benefits of new technologies, we do indeed need a new Social Contract that sets limits to the imperialist thinking of Technical Man and the unreflective spread of new technologies — technologies that, in some applications, liberate and empower but, in others, confine and control (Brownsword, 2012a).
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© 2013 Roger Brownsword
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Brownsword, R. (2013). ‘Post-Technique’: The New Social Contract Today. In: Campbell, D., Mulcahy, L., Wheeler, S. (eds) Changing Concepts of Contract. Palgrave Macmillan Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-26927-0_2
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