The Global Economy: R&D, Structural Change and Employment Shifts

Abstract

Whither science and technology in the decades ahead? All leading industrial nations have been looking for plausible answers to this question. Government agencies and industry - particularly in Japan and the United States - have been carrying out technological studies in recent years to marshal facts and arguments for their research planning The key studies undertaken in Japan and the US so far have provided important clues for respective work in Europe. Meanwhile, several European foresight studies are available. They highlight the structural changes which technology itself has undergone. They attest to integrational trends in what used to be separate branches of knowledge, the emergence of new disciplines and their growing interpenetration. The technology sectors fall under headings such as advanced materials, nanotechnology, microelectronics, photonics, microsystems engineering, software and simulation, molecular electronics, cellular biotechnology, information, production and management engineering. The technology of the early 21st century will defy any attempt at demarcation in the traditional sense. However different the various lines of development may be, they are all bound to converge and interact.