The Economies of Small Appropriate technology in a changing world

About this book

This book describes the origins and character of the global Appropriate Technology movement, identifying its three major components - the environmental, the social and the economic. The author discusses appropriate technologies in the bread, brick, cement and sugar industries in Africa and Asia. The reasons for the increasing attractiveness of small-scale production in the industrially advanced countries are described, and the author aims to show how this approach can open the way to more human-centred patterns of development throughout the globe. The final chapters discuss the limited role played by markets in the development and diffusion of these appropriate technologies, and consider both the nature of suitable governmental policies and assess the likelihood of their emergence.

Contents

Part 1 Origins and nature of the AT movement: introduction; contextualizing the origins of the AT movement; origins of the AT movement; major issues in AT. Part 2 Definitions and measurement: what is AT?; measuring AT. Part 3 The political economy of diffusion - the bread industry in Kenya: bread in the Kenyan economy; the alternative technologies; specifying the appropriate technology; the diffusion of bread-making technologies; the political economy of the choice of baking technology; the political economy of technological development; evidence from other sectors - breakfast cereals. Part 4 The institutional framework of AT development and diffusion: brick manufacture in three African countries: introduction; setting the schumpsterian motor to work; brick technologies; AT in brick manufacture; the institutional framework for the development and diffusion of AT in brick manufacturing.

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