Technological Autonomy Research Articles

State Institutions, Ideology, and Autonomous Technological Development: Computers and Nuclear Energy in Argentina and Brazil

This article will examine the efforts made by Argentina and Brazil to attain a measure of technological autonomy in the fields of computers and nuclear energy. Grieco's study of the Indian computer industry and separate studies of the Brazilian computer industry by Evans and Adler have shown the inadequacy of the arguments raised by the dependency literature, namely, that in areas of highly sophisticated technology, owned mainly by multinational corporations, the developing country will fail in any attempt to achieve domestic technological development.

The Power of Ideology: The Quest for Technological Autonomy in Argentina and Brazil

The Power of Ideology: The Quest for Technological Autonomy in Argentina and Brazil

Science policy in the Arab world

The paper gives an overview of recent trends in the development of policies and technology in the Arab world. It describes the problems that Arab policy-makers must address in order to set the Arab world on the road to scientific and technological self-reliance, with special emphasis on the shortcomings of the Arab education system and the problem of the brain drain. It also discusses the development of Arab policies on science and technology in the context of the need to democratize Arab society as a prerequisite to real advancement. And finally it surveys the efforts that Arab policy-makers have made in recent years to formulate coherent inter-Arab policies on science and technology. Arab national policy on science and technology for development must be formulated in accordance with the concepts of international co-operation and take full advantage of the vehicles for co-operation that exist today.

Ideological “guerrillas” and the quest for technological autonomy: Brazil's domestic computer industry

Brazil's domestic computer industry, developed during the past decade, has excluded multinational giants such as IBM from Brazil's growing micro- and minicomputer markets. Changes in computer technology and in markets, as well as in domestic economic and political conditions, helped facilitate Brazil's progress toward technological independence. But primary support for the project came from technocratic and military elites who were determined for ideological reasons to reduce Brazil's computer dependency and to challenge the dominance of multinationals. Ideologically motivated technocrats used their positions in state bureaucracies to convince policy makers of the industry's viability and to set up institutions that would defend the autonomy model and turn a sectoral policy into a national policy. Brazil still depends on foreign software and microelectronics; however, bargaining theory correctly asserts that even dependency in sophisticated technological sectors can be partially overcome. Bargaining theories must not overlook the importance of cognitive and institutional processes, which can make the difference between taking action to reduce dependency or doing nothing.

Technology Policy and Development: A Third World Perspective.

For the developing countries to take advantage of the accumulated and growing body of scientific and technological information, they must develop competence in choosing technology through an institutionalized technology policy. Third World experiences in developing and implementing technology policies are documented and analyzed in this volume. Issues such as the values shaping technology, selection of appropriate technology, technology transfer, technological self-reliance, planning, and development control are discussed in detail. Ideas for future policy development are evaluated.

Alternative technology and quality of life: An exploratory survey of British Columbia smallholders

During the last decade there has occurred a significant demographic shift in North American society as rural areas become repopulated by urban-to-rural migration. Part of this migratory flow is the smallholding movement, families and individuals practicing near subsistence agriculture on small parcels of land. Central to the ideology of smallholding are the notions of simple living and technological self-reliance through the use of alternative technology (solar water heaters, windmills, greenhouses, etc.). In order to gain insight into the actual practice of smallholding, interviews with a small population of smallholders in southeastern British Columbia and southern Alberta were conducted. The data from the interviews are presented in terms of the correlations of a selected number of quality of life indicators with technical skill, technological use, attitudinal and demographic/structural factors. In general, commitment to the ideals of the smallholding movement were found to be positively correlated with quality of life and use of alternative technology, indicating that the smallholders may be a group where ideological commitment has a more consistent positive correlation with behavior and sentiments than have structural or material factors.

Technological self-reliance for Latin America: the OAS contribution

Making technology autonomous from the influence of investors and proprietors in developed countries has emerged as one of the core themes in the doctrine of dependence. Technology is not only machinery; it is “a major resource for creating new wealth; it is an instrument allowing its owners to exercise social control in various forms; it decisively affects modes of decision making.…” It is seen as the key to achieving “integral development,” free from the abuses associated with the past patterns of technology transfer which were largely mediated by multinational corportions: excessive foreign exchange costs, rise in unnecessary imports, production of luxury goods, neglect of employment objectives, stagnation of the agricultural sector, excessive urbanization, insufficient use of local professionals, environmental degradation, and lack of sensitivity to local cultures. In Marxist versions of dependence-thinking the older pattern of technology transfer strengthened the enclave economy and its comprador bourgeoisie, rather than aiding the development of a national bourgeoisie and of a modern working class.

Science, Technology, Autonomy, and Dependence: A Framework for International Debate

In the past 30 years, the role of science and technology in the international system has changed markedly. Science and technology have emerged as primary instruments of power and social control, with the major industrialized countries, especially the superpowers, relying more and more on science and technology as a means of maintaining their dominance in that system. Notwithstanding beachheads of technological competence and scientific excellence in the Third World, the technological gap between the North and the South has widened during this period because of the near-monopoly that a few industrialized countries have acquired on the generation and productive use of new technology based on modern science. Development strategies, relying on importation of capital-intensive, socially inappropriate, environmentally destructive Western technologies, cannot but lead to a massive global equity crisis in the 1980s. These technologies have been at the heart of the accelerating de-industrialization of the Third World by the First and Second Worlds on a scale far beyond what occurred in historical colonialism. The critical need is to focus the debate, at the forthcoming world conferences dealing with science, technology and development, on these underlying issues, leading to the formulation of concrete action proposals at the national and international levels which will effectively promote the technological autonomy of the Third World. While we cannot be certain that greater autonomy will lead to greater equity, few Southern countries can go very far in meeting the minimum material needs of most, not to speak all, of their people without a greatly strengthened autonomous capacity for creating, acquiring, adapting and using technology to solve their own urgent economic and social problems.

Licensing and technology dependence in the Andean group

This paper explores the extent to which licensing promotes technology transfer and future technological self-reliance in 47 metalworking and 43 chemical firms located in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The analysis proceeds in three steps. First, a set of factors which, it has been suggested, influence the choice of licensing as opposed to other means of acquiring technology were examined. Second, the relationship between licensing and future ‘technology dependency’ was explored statistically. Finally, an effort was made to explain these findings in terms of a ‘technological dependence syndrome’ in which opportunities for ‘learning by doing’ are consistently missed.

Technological self-reliance and cooperation among Third World countries

This essay deals with the role of international cooperation among Third World countries for the purpose of furthering self-reliant development. It focuses on the role of science and technology and examines the content of the concept of self-reliance in relation to technology, the changing pattern of international relations and the possible strategies for cooperation among underdeveloped countries. The paper ends with a proposal for action at the institutional level.

Self-reliance 1: Notes on technological self-reliance and cooperation among Third World countries

Self-reliance 1: Notes on technological self-reliance and cooperation among Third World countries