Technology Choice

A Critique Of The Appropriate Technology Movement

Kelvin W Willoughby

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367305154
• eBook ISBN: 9781000314168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book attempts to provide a theoretical framework for answering difficult questions evoked by the concept of technology choice primarily by conducting a review of the Appropriate Technology movement and its ideas and experiments.

PART ONE
Conceptual Groundwork

1
Introduction: The Concept of Technology Choice

Prolegomena: The Rise of Technology Studies

Every period is marked by its characteristic catchcries and commonplaces. "Technology" and "technological change" are marking our time as ubiquitous symbols and themes for debate.

Until recently the general public in the now industrialized countries tended to relegate technology to the professional domain of the engineer or technologist, or take it for granted as the benevolent provider of material wealth. In earlier historical periods common people were often more personally familiar than their modern counterparts with the workings of technology, albeit in a much simpler form; but while turbulent responses to the introduction of new technology did occur during earlier periods, as did large technology-related social changes, it would appear that popular attitudes towards technology per se are now more intense and deeply rooted.

The pervasiveness of technology appears to be increasing in urban-industrial societies and elsewhere - enough for the phrase "the technological society" to become common. Technology is frequently reified in popular rhetoric and has come to be viewed as a system or a form of rationality rather than just a collection of artefacts. Some view it as a kind of saviour, capable of solving most of the perennial problems of human existence; others view it as a kind of demon which threatens the health of human society and the environment. Some argue that a felicitous future will only be possible with continually increasing technological growth; others plead for the rejection of technology, arguing that it is intrinsically destructive. The ubiquity of technology in contemporary society means that most significant social, political, economic and environmental problems have a technological dimension to them. Technological issues tend to mirror the wider spectrum of issues around which various interest groups in society rally.¹

Controversy over technological change has occurred amidst widespread controversy on a number of other fronts. Concern has been expressed about the basic prospects for human society and the natural environment. Many commentators point to the specters of catastrophic levels of natural resource depletion, irreparable damage to global and local ecosystems, structural economic malaise, mounting international military conflict, the explosion of human population levels, the spread of debilitating poverty, the degradation of human society and culture, and even the possibility of extinction through global nuclear confrontation. These problems are increasingly linked together by analysts on the understanding that they form a complex of mutually reinforcing factors, spawning such phrases as "the global problematique".

In contrast to a sanguine view of "progress" exhibited by previous generations, lack of confidence about the future is now endemic. Widely cited studies of the above global problems have been made by many writers and there is no need to duplicate their work here.² This book is grounded on the observation that technology, or technological change, is widely implicated in diagnoses of such problems by scholars, policymakers and others. By considering the nature of technology, the way in which it develops within society, and the manner in which it might be managed by people, this book presents a fresh look at the prospects for addressing the constellation of problems mentioned above.

This book is an interdisciplinary study in the emerging held of technology studies. Technology studies is not yet well established as an academic discipline in its own right but a serious body of both scholarly and popular literature in the field is now emerging. The growth of academic activity centered on technology sui generis accompanies the increasing prominence of technological phenomena in society.³ In recent decades this trend has been accompanied by increasing contention over the status and meaning of technology and its value to human beings. The contention over technology has been exacerbated by the increasing rate of technological change. Technological change, although probably always present throughout human history and not always greeted with equanimity, is now a controversial issue.

The Problem of Inappropriate Technology

It is in the above context that the concept of technology choice has emerged. It may be seen as an attempt to get beyond the simplistic options of either uncritical acceptance or uncritical rejection of technology. While some critics espouse a negative assessment of technology per se, a growing number have drawn attention to the notion that the adoption of inappropriate technology may undergird the contemporary constellation of critical issues. They claim that poor choices of technology are frequently made and that by placing more attention on the processes of technology choice the groundwork may be laid for better policy and practice. Adopting the choice of technology as a focus for analysis means recognizing that inappropriate technology choices can and do indeed occur.

The inappropriateness of technology may be reflected in the severity of unforeseen side effects, or by the gradual (undesirable) change in the dynamics and structures over time of a society through its dependence upon technology. The inappropriateness of technology might stem from its being deployed in a context quite different to that for which it was designed, or it might be manifested in the harmful effects of technology upon one class of people despite its appropriateness from the point of view of another class of people. Technology might even be inappropriate for the specific purposes for which it was designed - due to technical incompetence of the designer or inability to effectively relate technical parameters to the real world of practice.

A school of thought has emerged which holds that the existence of inappropriate technology has become so ubiquitous as to constitute a major and urgent issue for policy and practice - at both the global level and the local level. The hallmark of this school of thought is its claim that concerted effort is required to ensure that the technology adopted in all fields of practice is as "appropriate" as possible. This claim is accompanied by the conviction that the appropriate choice of technology ought to be treated as a cardinal principle of human affairs and not just as a matter worthy of attention by specialists and enthusiasts.

During the previous two decades the number of publications, projects and organizations which have appeared as an outworking of this school of thought has burgeoned. This phenomenon has resulted in an international social movement operating under the rubric of "appropriate technology". The extent of the movement's efforts, as will be revealed later, is substantial.

The emphasis which the Appropriate Technology movement⁴ places on "appropriateness" as a theme acknowledges the positive value of technology, as promoted by the proponents of technology, yet also responds to the shortcomings of technology, as stressed by its critics, In contrast to crude judgements as to whether or not technology should be developed, the concept of Appropriate Technology attempts to discriminate between different technologies according to their relative suitability for specific purposes or situations. As such it may be seen as a common sense approach to technology which may provide hope for the preeminence of human concerns in an increasingly technological world.

When approached in this common sense manner the importance of technology being appropriate seems rather obvious. It could therefore be argued that using the term "appropriate technology" achieves little more than cluttering our vocabulary with superfluous jargon. It may also be questioned whether there is much value in an extended discussion of something which appears so straightforward. In support of this view it might be suggested that no engineer would wish to design "inappropriate technology". It may be further suggested that the complexity and sophistication of modern economies, particularly of those with a competitive market, ensures that the technology employed is the most appropriate currently possible - otherwise it would not have been developed and put into use. The so-called "command" economies, it might also be claimed, have refined planning mechanisms to ensure that the best possible technology is employed. Furthermore, others may claim, "technology is technology!" and that a choice therefore exists only between "good" and "bad" technology, i.e., between technology which is well designed and constructed and that which is not: speaking of "appropriate technology" would thus be tautologous, like speaking of "true truth".

To foreshadow a thorough response to these objections in later chapters, the following rejoinder is offered here: there is now a solid record of evidence from a variety of fields that technologies deployed for specific purposes and circumstances are not automatically suitable for those same purposes and circumstances. In other words, in addition to the normal economic processes which occur in market oriented societies at present, or to the normal economic planning which currently occurs in socialist oriented societies, there is a need for deliberate and specific attention to be given to the peculiar difficulties of assessing and adopting technology. The Appropriate Technology notion points to the need for knowledge of a diversity of technical options for given purposes, careful analysis of the local human and natural environment, normative evaluation of alternative options, and the exercise of political and technological choice. Conscious human effort is required to ensure that technology is appropriate.

The factors which are implicated in technology choice extend beyond those which are normally taken into account by engineers and business managers under the rubrics of "efficiency" or "profit". In short, as this study will attempt to demonstrate, the selection of technology within a given context is fraught with problems. It is fraught with problems not only in the sense of many problems being presented which require solutions, but also in the sense that such solutions may not, in the main, be either straightforward or reducible to a technical format alone. Assurance of technology's appropriateness - from the point of view of people's interests or of certain environmental objectives - may only be gained if special effort is directed towards ensuring that it is so.

Unfortunately, despite its rather common sense nature, this important insight has been overlooked by the majority of commentators in the past because technology has generally been regarded as a neutral factor in social and economic policy. This has led to it either being ignored as a variable in its own right,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Part One Conceptual Groundwork
• Part Two The Appropriate Technology Movement
• Part Three Prospects for Technology Choice
• Index