Description

Appropriate technology (AT) involves an attempt to tailor the scale and complexity of a technology to the job it needs to do. AT has been proposed by some of its advocates as an answer to many of the social and economic problems created by large-scale, centralized technology in both the industrialized countries and the Third World. Through greater diversity and decentralization, they argue, it is possible to achieve a “technology mix” that makes more effective use of limited capital and is better adapted to, and less disruptive of, the social and natural environment. Largescale approaches may be necessary for some tasks, but for others it is possible to scale down existing technology or, in some cases, to replace it with more traditional methods that have been improved on through the application of advanced materials, designs, or techniques. Ideally, AT emphasizes resource efficiency, environmental soundness, community control, and labor rather than capital intensiveness.