Technology for Development

This book employs a critical sociology to focus on science and technology and their relationship to development. While "knowledge" and the ways it is created and privileged has been increasingly critiqued, the specific role of technology in shaping development has received little focus. Science and technology are not neutral but shape their context and are shaped dialectically in return. Organized around key ideas and debates and using case study material from Africa, Latin American and Asia, a range of technologies are examined, including biotechnology, tissue culture technology, bioenergy and "appropriate technologies," ICT, genomics and pharmaceuticals, vaccine developments, and nanotechnologies. Asking among other questions if the promise of future technological breakthroughs actually work to distance meaningful development from the present, this book is essential reading for all students of development.

James Smith is co-director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh.