How Technologies Harm: A Relational Approach

Technologies contribute to harms in a variety of ways, but can we ever say they are harmful in-and-of-themselves?

This book offers a new way to understand how technologies, while not intrinsically harmful, are laden with values and dispositions that can contribute to negative outcomes. Building on insights from postphenomenology, realist social theory and the philosophy of action, it provides a framework for examining technology-harm relations: relations with technology that are harmful by virtue of what they contribute to bringing about. It is for anyone seeking to design, regulate, research or simply use technology in a way that prioritizes well-being.

© 2025 Bristol University Press (Ebook): 9781529247091

Release date

Ebook: October 30, 2025