Introduction

Abstract

It is now more than a decade since the publication of Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful (1973). And judging by the subsequent spectacular rise to prominence of the appropriate technology concept in the development literature, one would be entitled to conclude that the central message of this work has been at least thoroughly examined, if not necessarily widely accepted. But a closer inspection of the literature shows that such a conclusion is not at all warranted. For what Schumacher (1973) advocated was a redirection of the development effort in favour of the non-modern sector, and in particular, for a conscious effort to apply an ‘intermediate technology’ to improving the standard of living of the impoverished inhabitants of this sector. ¹ A major portion of the literature, in contrast, has taken as its primary focus the modern sector, and has addressed in great detail, the technological problems that are posed for this sector by international transfers of technology, multinationals, factor price distortions, etc. With few exceptions, the corresponding problems of the non-modern sector have suffered from considerable neglect. Yet, it is this sector that will have to bear the brunt of measures to alleviate poverty in the Third World over the next 30 to 40 years. A principal aim of this volume, accordingly, is to begin to redress this imbalance in the treatment of the subject, and to argue for a renewed interest in Schumacher’s original concern with the non-modern sector as the focus of policies for appropriate technology.