Technology Environment

and Society
BE CIVIL IV/II
Appropriate Technology

 Dr. E F Schumacher in his book “Small is beautiful”

 Objectives are:
 Utilizing the most effective technology to address
the needs of developing areas.
 Using socially and environmentally acceptable
knowledge in industrialized nations.
 Appropriate Technology

 Technology that is suitable to the

social and economic conditions of
the geographic area in which it is to
be applied, is environmentally
sound, and promotes self-sufficiency
on the part of those using it.
 Right for the
place (local
tech.
& expertise)

Right for the

Affordable Appropriate people (run
(initial costs Technology by
& parts) Projects locals & what
they need)

Sustainable
(last long term
but not
damage
env’t)
Appropriate Technology

 Appropriate technology are not only for rural

development problems but also for directing towards
sustainable technologies.
 Combination of elements of appropriate technology
with some aspects of high technology brings a new
paradigm of sustainable technology.
Appropriate Technology

 Generally, Appropriate Technologies are small scale

technologies that are ecologically and socially
benign, affordable, and often powered by renewable
energy.
Appropriate Technology VS Hi-tech Technology

Appropriate Technology Advance Technology

Smaller Scale Larger Scale

Cheap Equipments Expensive Equipments

Large Demand for labour Employs few people

Uses local resources Often requires imported materials

Involves traditional skills Needs training in new skills

Small demand for energy Higher demand for energy

 Characteristics of Appropriate technology

 Requirement of fewer resources

 Meets actual needs of the people
 Lower cost technology
 Uses renewable energy source
 Less impact on the environment
 Labour intensive
 Light capital
Appropriate technologies
Bike powered water pump Pot in pot refrigerator
 Hippo Roller
Corn Sheller
Universal nut sheller
Appropriate technologies
Criteria for Appropriate technologies

 Maximization of output
 Maximization of the rate of economic growth
 Reduction of unemployment
 Regional development
 Greater equity in the distribution of income
 Improvement in quality of life
Different types of technology

 Intermediate Technology
 Labour based Technology
 Labour intensive Technology
Intermediate technology

 Technology which combines sophisticated ideas with

cheap and readily available materials, especially for
use in developing countries is known as
intermediate technology.
 The goal of Appropriate Technology (AT) is to
increase the standard of living for the developing
world without condescension, complication, or
environmental damage.
Example of IT
Example of IT

Pedal powered Commercial

maize sheller mill
Labour based technology

 Technology that applies a labour/equipment mix that

gives priority to labour, supplementing it with
appropriate equipment where necessary for reasons
of quality or cost.
Advantages of LBT

 Creation of more employment (mostly unskilled)

 Environment friendly
 Increased use of local resources stimulates the local
economy.
Labour intensive technology

 Labor-intensive -
Requiring a large expenditure of labor but not much
capital; "cottage industries are labor intensive"
 Technology that require a great deal of labor relative to
capital.
 High labor cost relative to capital
 Restaurants,hotels, agriculture that cannot make use of
machinery.
Labour Intensive technology
Shifts in employment due to technological
advancement

 Employment is shifting from blue collar industries to high tech industries in

technologically advanced economies by replacing manual labour with machineries and
advance equipment.
 It is believed that technology has eliminated the need for many manual labour jobs
because new equipment can provide effective replacement.
 With the development of technology western country has moved towards a service and
white collar economy.
 At past there was labour market or muscle power market but nowadays there is digital
market or machinery market.
 We can feel like in every job there is criteria of education because we have entered into
technological era.
 Role of technology to unmask old social
problems, society’s control of technology

 Social problem are those which prevents society to perform at optimum

level.
 Some of the social problem are
 Poverty
 Superstition
 Poverty
 Rapid population growth
 Gender discrimination
 Cast discrimination
 Lack of guidance to youngster
Impact of technology on culture, tradition
and social values

 Social isolation
 Virtual global family
 Degrading the direct social interaction
 Breaking the tradition of joint family
 Technology has changed the spiritual behaviour beliefs to the
business opportunities
 Ways of life and value has been changing in context of dress habit
,speaking style taste choice preference ideas values recreational
activity and so on.
 factories equipped with new and highly-productive system has
replaced old handmade products, the exchange of letters among
friends is so hard to be seen as we have had emails and social
network instead, new video games has superseded the old-physical
ones. Many old traditionally cultural things have long gone as a result
of modern technology.
 For instance we used to play deusi-vailo to entertain but we have
now YouTube and may fun park to entertain us so need to play deusi
vailo
Technology is irreversible

 Technological development is continuous

 Technology will continue to evolve
 Impact of technology is irreversible too
Agricultural Age
Agricultural Age

 Dawn of civilization
 Focused on farming;
 People were concerned about having a shelter and
food readily available to them
 Transformation of human society brought about by
inventions such as the plow, the wheel, etc.
Plow
 Agricultural Age

 The invention of the plow affected this age the most because it
accentuated the change to the industrial age
 The plow allowed large-scale agricultural production possible
-which in turn produced a larger food surplus,
-In turn freeing up people for other types of work
Industrial Age
 Industrial Age

 The Industrial Age is a period of history that encompasses the

changes in economic and social organization that began in Great
Britain and later in other countries
 characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-
driven machines such as the power loom and the steam engine,
and by the concentration of industry in large establishments
 Mass production in factories first started.
 The quality of human life has increased dramatically during the
Industrial Age.
Industrial age

 It also included the change from wood and other bio-

fuels to coal.
 Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial
Revolution.
 Important technological developments=> (Textiles,
Steam power, Iron making)
Powered loom Steam engine
Information Society
 Information Age

 A period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional

industry that the industrial revolution brought through
industrialization, to an economy based on information
computerization.
 Also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New
Media Age.
 Exact date of beginning is unknown
 However, the year 1956 and 1957 hold significance benchmark of
beginning of information society.
 Information Age

 In 1956 white color workers in USA outnumbered blue color workers

(most of them worked with information rather than producing goods)
 1957: Russian launched Sputnik introduced an era of global satellite
communication.
 Workers engaged with creation, processing and distribution of
information as:Programmers, teachers, engineers, system analyst,
accountants, lawyers, stock brokers, insurance people, scientists,
technicians, bureaucrats and so on.
 Within goods manufacturing industries, many workers hold information
jobs.
 Information society

 An information society is a society where the creation,

distribution, use, integration and manipulation of information is a
significant economic, political, and cultural activity.
 The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage
internationally, through using information technology (IT) in a
creative and productive way.
 The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few but
information in the hand of many.
 Key characteristics of Information Society

 Up-to-date
 Not always reliable
 Widely available
 Depend on information; can’t live without it
 The government (and school) budgets spends more and more money on technology
and maintenance
 Information is wealth like capital
 Scientific research expanded many folds: many journal papers, technical literatures.
 Robot doing skilled and unskilled jobs.
 Easy access to more information due to internet
Information as power and wealth