Mastering the Machine Revisited

by Smillie, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781853395079
• ISBN10: 1853395072
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Practical Action Pub

Summary

'Mastering the Machine Revisted' is about the connection between poverty, aid and technology. It is about a search that has been going on, officially in the developing world for over forty years, and less officially in most countries since the beginning of time. It is a search driven today by more hard core poverty than has ever been known, and by a realization that the technologies applied to the problem have severe limitations. We have sent people safely to the moon but we cannot ensure that people will live safely on earth - safe from war, disease, and the crushing poverty that stifles ambition, hope and enterprise. The book is about development that gives meaning to people's lives, that is relevant to their resources and needs, and to the hopes they have for their countries and their children. It is about how appropriate technology fits into the larger picture of aid and development, and what it has accomplished in the fight against poverty. The book is about possibilities and limitations. It is about failure as well as success, arguing that too many aid failures have been ignored or hidden, condemning poor people to suffer the re-invention of too many wheels that never worked in the first place. From the beginning of time, technology has been a touchstone of growth and development. 'Mastering the Machine Revisted' is about a hybrid era, one somewhere between the Bronze Age and the Internet, between sail and jet engines; one in which quality has become confused with quantity, and means with ends. For the South, this is a time of immense technological opportunity and optimism. It is also a period of unimaginable poverty and hopelessness. And it is unlike any other period in history, for today, in addition to artisans and artists, farmers, machinists and dreamers, the direction of technology is influenced by bureaucrats, economists, faraway corporate planners, aid agencies and charities. Never before have so many non-technical people exerted so much influence on the advancement, retardation, and movement of technology. Mastering the Machine Revisted is about the interaction between these people, and between poverty, aid and technology. Mastering the Machine Revisited ' is about the connection between poverty, aid and technology. It is about a search that has been going on, officially in the developing world for over forty years, and less officially in most countries since the beginning of time. It is a search driven today by more hard core poverty than has ever been known, and by a realization that the technologies applied to the problem have severe limitations. We have sent people safely to the moon but we cannot ensure that people will live safely on earth - safe from war, disease and the crushing poverty that stifles ambition, hope and enterprise. The book is about development that gives meaning to people's lives, that is relevant to their resources and needs, and to the hopes they have for their countries and their children. It is about how appropriate technology fits into the larger picture of aid and development, and what it has accomplished in the fight against poverty. The book is about possibilities and limitations. It is about failure as well as success, arguing that too many aid failures have been ignored or hidden, condemning poor people to suffer the re-invention of too many wheels that never worked in the first place.

Table of Contents

Acronyms	vii
Preface to the New Edition	ix
Preface to the First Edition	xi
PART ONE: THE FAILURE TO LEARN FROM FAILURE
A tale of two worlds	3	(19)
Poverty in the South	22	(13)
The best of the West: thinking big	35	(13)
The third sector and the Third World	48	(21)
PART TWO: WHAT WE KNOW
Technology in history: lies and promises	69	(17)
Small is beautiful	86	(18)
Farmers, food and forests	104	(17)
Post-harvest technologies	121	(16)
Energy and power	137	(17)
The house that Jack built: construction materials	154	(17)
Light engineering and the very late starters	171	(18)
PART THREE: AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
Sustainability: myths and reality	189	(11)
Perspectives on women and technology	200	(14)
Employment and the informal sector: the economists lose control	214	(12)
Globalization, adjustment and all that	226	(20)
Mastering the machine	246	(16)
Notes	262	(17)
Bibliography	279	(3)
Index	282