Abstract
The concept of technology adoption (along with its companions, diffusion and scaling) is commonly used to design development interventions, to frame impact evaluations and to inform decision-making about new investments in development-oriented agricultural research. However, adoption simplifies and mischaracterises what happens during processes of technological change. In all but the very simplest cases, it is likely to be inadequate to capture the complex reconfiguration of social and technical components of a technological practice or system. We review the insights of a large and expanding literature, from various disciplines, which has deepened understanding of technological change as an intricate and complex sociotechnical reconfiguration, situated in time and space. We explain the problems arising from the inappropriate use of adoption as a framing concept and propose an alternative conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating technological change. The new approach breaks down technology change programmes into four aspects: propositions, encounters, dispositions and responses. We begin to sketch out how this new framework could be operationalised.
Highlights
Developing and spreading new technology is widely considered to be essential for increasing the productivity, sustainability and resilience of small-scale farming systems in the global South (InterAcademy Council, 2004; InterAcademy Partnership, 2018; McIntyre et al, 2009)
In the context of small-scale farming systems, how should agricultural development professionals conceive of technological change and how can it be most meaningfully and effectively documented, measured and evaluated? Understanding the processes of technological change and assessing their outcomes are first-order challenges to the people and organisations involved in development-oriented agricultural research
Using these as a resource, we propose an alternative conceptual framework, which can help to improve the design and targeting of technological change in development-oriented agricultural research
Summary
Developing and spreading new technology is widely considered to be essential for increasing the productivity, sustainability and resilience of small-scale farming systems in the global South (InterAcademy Council, 2004; InterAcademy Partnership, 2018; McIntyre et al, 2009). Understanding the processes of technological change and assessing their outcomes are first-order challenges to the people and organisations involved in development-oriented agricultural research. We review a diverse body of literature that has introduced more sophisticated frameworks for understanding technology and technological change. Using these as a resource, we propose an alternative conceptual framework, which can help to improve the design and targeting of technological change in development-oriented agricultural research. The conceptual framework that we introduce in this article has four aspects: propositions, encounters, dispositions and responses These can be used to think about and examine a technological change process, while paying due attention to the agency of the actors involved in the process. We suggest how this framework could be developed so that it is useful to those designing, funding, implementing and evaluating development-oriented agricultural research
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