Technology and Underdevelopment

314 Pages·1977·30.708 MB·English

by  Frances Stewart (auth.)

TECHNOLOGY AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Technology and Underdevelopment
FRANCES STEWART
©Frances Stewart 1977
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1977
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1977 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York
Dublin Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras
ISBN 978-1-349-02916-7 ISBN 978-1-349-02914-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-02914-3
This book is sold subject
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To Michael
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction xi
The Technological Choice
2 The Employment Problem - a Conceptual Discussion 32
3 Inappropriate Technology 58
4 Appropriate Technology 95
5 Technological Dependence 114
6 Capital Goods in Developing Countries 141
7 Trade and Technology 157
8 The Choice of Technique: Empirical Studies 185
9 The Choice of Technique - Maize Grinding in Kenya 208
10 Cement Block Manufacture in Kenya 239
11 Some Conclusions 274
Bibliographical References 280
Index 295
vii
Preface
While working on the topics discussed in this book I have received help
and support from various sources. The Rockefeller Foundation pro
vided some financial assistance for the surveys (Chapter 9 and 10) in
Kenya in 1969. The Ministry of Overseas Development supported the
research for three years, 1969-72. I am grateful to the O.D.M. for this
and for their approval of publication in this form. I have received
extremely useful research assistance at different times from Gareth
Jenkins, Jill Rubery and Jeffrey James. I am particularly grateful to
Jeffrey for his assiduous help over the past few months. Numerous
people have commented on various papers, which, in revised form, have
become chapters in this book. I should particularly like to mention
Charles Cooper (for comments on Chapter 5), G. K. Helleiner and
participants at the Uppsala Conference in September 1974 (Chapter 7),
and Ajit Bhalla (Chapter 10). For encouragement and stimulus I am
above all indebted to Paul Streeten. Finally, as always, Michael
Stewart's sceptical wit provided both challenge and support.
Three of the chapters are versions (with many minor and some major
amendments) of papers that have been published elsewhere: Chapter 6
appeared in Employment, Income Distribution and Development Strat
egy: Essays in Honour of H. W. Singer, ed. A. Cairncross and M. Puri
(Macmillan, 1976); Chapter 7 is based on an essay in G. K. Helleiner
(ed.), A World Divided (Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Chap
ter 10 appeared in A. Bhalla (ed.), Technology and Employment in
Industry: A Case Study Approach (Geneva: I.L.O., 1975).
Some of the discussion in the first part of this book has its origin in
two earlier papers: 'The Choice of Technique in Developing Countries',
Journal of Development Studies, October 1972, and 'Technology and
Employment in LDCs', World Development, March 1974.
F.S.
May 1976
ix
Introduction
The majority of people in third world countries are very poor. Yet these
countries possess -in abundant supply-the most important factor of
production-manpower. The widespread poverty goes hand in hand
with misuse of this critical resource - much labour is idle for much of
the time, while when in use labour productivity is very low. The tech
nology used, broadly identified with the methods of production in use,
must then be at the heart of any analysis of questions of poverty and
development in the third world. The third world gets almost all its
technology from the advanced countries :1 it is technologically depend
ent on the advanced countries where most of the search for new tech
nology takes place.
The main aim of this book is to explore the impact of technology on
development - and in particular to consider the connections between
poverty and maldistribution of income in poor countries, and their
condition of technological dependence.
The technology available determines the boundaries of what it is
possible for a country to do. An economy may, of course, fail fully to
exploit all the possibilities open to it: it can operate inside these outer
boundaries, but it cannot step outside them. Over time the technology
available alters, and so consequently do the boundaries it sets.
For the most part, economists have tended to make two assumptions
about technology: first, that it is to be regarded as a parameter of the
system, as far as economics is concerned - determined by scientists and
technologists independently of economic facts. Consequently, the task
of economists is to make the best of a bad job - i.e. to see how the best
decisions may be made, within the boundaries set by technological
possibilities. Secondly, that technical change is neutral-with respect to
class and country and factor use - so that the boundaries represented by
technological knowledge, which change over time in response to new
scientific and technical developments, do so in a neutral way: any
distortions in development patterns resulting from the use of tech
nology must then be attributed to misuse rather than the nature of
technology itself. 2
This view of technology is inconsistent with the facts of economic
development in poor countries. It is apparent there that the technology
xi
xii Technology and Underdevelopment
adopted is distorting the pattern of development, favouring a particular
lop-sided pattern of growth, creating employment problems and skewed
income distribution, and failing to make use of poor countries' natural
and human resources.
The facts of economic development in poor countries are thus in
conflict with the theoretical treatment of technology in much of econ
omics. In considering the impact of technology on development one is
also unavoidably drawn into examination of the theoretical treatment.
This examination, and attempts to formulate alternative approaches,
form a second theme to the book. The two themes - the substantive
(i.e. consideration of how technology is affecting development patterns),
and the theoretical (i.e. consideration of the adequacy of the treatment
of these matters in economic theory)-are intertwined and discussed
simultaneously throughout the book.
Chapter I considers the nature of technological choice: the historical
determinants of the total technology available at any time, and the
determinants of the choice made from within the total available, here
described as the selection mechanisms. The normal assumptions of
neutral and exogenous technical change are challenged both by the
facts of technological development, as highlighted by poor countries'
experience, and by consideration of the historical conditions of tech
nological development. Chapter I presents a critique of conventional
theory, and suggests a more general model of technological choice.
The question of the use - or rather mal-use and lack of use - of
manpower is fundamental to analysis of development problems.
Chapter 2 reviews recent approaches to the definition, nature and origin
of employment problems in poor countries, and considers how the
analysis relates to questions of technology. Chapter 2 also presents a
dynamic view of employment problems, showing how in many countries
trends over time soon dwarf any analysis of employment problems
based on static measures.
Chapter 3 describes the characteristics of technology emanating from
the advanced countries, in the light of the earlier discussion of the
determinants of technological change. It looks at how the character
istics of that technology are influenced by the ecot;~.omic and social
conditions in advanced countries, and shows how these characteristics
have distorting effects on development in poor countries, where econ
omic and social conditions differ. The result, it is argued, is that the
technology third world countries get from rich countries is inap
propriate.
Chapter 4 discusses the nature of appropriate technology - its defining
characteristics, and the obstacles which inhibit the pursuit of an appro
priate technology strategy. These obstacles include lack of scientific and
technical research, the difficulties - technically and economically - of
introducing an appropriate technology into a system based on the use
Introduction xiii
of inappropriate technology and obstacles created by the political
economy of technological choice.
Chapter 5 takes the concept of technological dependence as its central
theme. It discusses the nature, extent and consequences of technological
dependence, the way in which technological dependence relates to the
more general treatment of the dependent status of poor countries, and
considers alternative strategies for reducing technological dependence.
In one sense, as already emphasised, the whole of the book is concerned
with the question of technological dependence of poor countries on rich
countries. Chapter 5 tries to draw together and consider arguments
particularly related to dependence, but it does not itself present a
complete picture of technological dependence, which must be considered
in the light of the book as a whole.
Chapter 6 looks at the role of capital goods industries in poor
countries, first in relation to the theories advanced to justify the build-up
of heavy industry in Russia and India, and secondly in the light of the
technology argument.
Chapter 7 considers the role of international trade, with particular
emphasis on the direction of trade as between rich and poor nations
(North/South trade), and within groupings of nations of similar income
(North/North and South/South). The chapter includes discussion of
different theories of trade, and institutional changes that might be
conducive to an improved orientation of trade patterns.
These chapters (2-7) are chiefly concerned with macro-aspects of
technology and underdevelopment. But the macro-picture is formed by
many micro-decisions. The next three chapters of the book focus on the
micro-decisions.
Chapter 8 is divided into two parts: the first half looks at the sort
of problem encountered in micro-studies of choice of technique. The
second half reviews the results of recent studies, attempting to fit the
studies into the general framework of technological choice presented in
Chapter I, and to shed some light on the critical question of the existence
and efficiency of alternative appropriate technology.
Chapter 9 describes a case study of choice of technique in maize
grinding in Kenya.
Chapter 10 reports on a case study of cement-block manufacture in
Kenya.
Finally, Chapter II briefly draws together some conclusions.
NOTES
I. The various terms to describe rich and poor countries, such as advanced and less
developed, developed and underdeveloped, North and South, as normally used, have
particular connotations, related to the economic/political views of the user. The
terms are used more or less interchangeably in this book. It is hoped that they
will be regarded purely as proper names: description and views are explicit in the
text and not to be derived from nomenclature.