Barriers to Appropriate Technology Growth in Sustainable Development

Zelenika, Ivana; Pearce, Joshua M.

doi:10.5539/jsd.v4n6p12

Cited by 42 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Free and Open-Source Hardware good. Due to this tremendous success of FOSS development, the concept has spread to areas such as education [13,14], appropriate technology for sustainable development (called open-source appropriate technology) [15][16][17][18], science [19], nanotechnology [20][21][22] and medicine [23,24]. Both academic and nonacademic scientists are accustomed to this line of thinking as both historical knowledge sharing and the Internet enabled new era of networked science have demonstrated the enormous power of working together [25][26][27].…”

Section: What Is Open Source?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science

Pearce

2014

Open-Source Lab

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Section: What Is Open Source?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science

Pearce

2014

Open-Source Lab

Self Cite

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“…As such, the understanding of such technology is directed towards the poor and developing countries although the technology's application may be very well suited also for developed countries. Zelenika and Pearce [13] agree and see this as a significant barrier to widespread implementation since appropriate technologies can be seen as holding back modernization and infringing on competitiveness by denying developing regions the same technology as in developed regions. UNEP-IETC in Japan has been most active worldwide on developing guidance and training materials for technology assessments.…”

Section: Technical Assessment Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Assessment Methods Can Support Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries—A Critical Review

2014

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Abstract:Selecting actions for improvement of solid waste management in low and middle income countries and understanding how a specific decision choice will fit and impact on a local context is key to identifying sustainable solutions. Assessment of the choice (be it technical or managerial) and assessment of the local enabling or disabling conditions are both important steps in the decision making process. Various assessment tools and methods are currently available to support decision-making in solid waste management. Assessment can be used to identify weaknesses or strengths of existing systems in a structured way and hereby highlight factors of success and failure. Assessment methods can also evaluate and compare different possible choices as in project scenarios. This overview describes established and innovative assessment methods serving both these purposes. A range of assessment tools are often designed to assess a specific sustainability domain (technical, environmental and health, economic and financial, social and institutional, organizational aspects), others attempt to provide a more holistic picture by integrating different sustainability domains into the same tool. This paper reviews a number of methods describing and discussing each of them, and referring to their use in low and middle-income countries if published in scientific literature. The overview concludes that in low-and middle-income countries the use of comprehensive assessment methods is yet very limited. We hypothesize that most formal methods of assessment are OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 546 still too complex and generally overburden the weak local capacities intended for their usage. The few applications identified, were conducted by academia for scientific purposes. Lack of resources to collect the vast data required for some assessment methods is a further restriction to their practical application. Future development is suggested to improve user friendliness of existing tools or to simplify certain approaches and develop more appropriate methods. A user-oriented focus in the development of assessment tools would enhance their application, provide sound data for informed decision making and foster a dialogue between technicians and policy makers in low-and middle-income countries.

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“…As local conditions vary, so the definition of a technology's "appropriateness" varies. In essence, any definition of AT that discounts local input is inadequate [ [34]. Indeed, Murphy et al (2009) argue that since "appropriateness" varies by context, it cannot be precisely defined.…”

Section: Motivation: Defining and Evaluating Appropriate Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Assessment of Appropriate Technology

Bauer¹,

Brown²

2014

Procedia Engineering

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Economist Dr. E.F. Schumacher posited the concept of "Intermediate Technology" in his 1973 book Small is Beautiful, catalyzing the explosion of the appropriate technology (AT) movement. But how does one gauge the "appropriateness" of a technology? Quantitative assessment of AT can benefit sustainable community development (SCD) practitioners by way of decision-support and risk mitigation. The following research constructs a generalizable metric for quantitative assessment of AT, and develops a systematic process for its deployment. Forty-nine independent, emergent indicators of appropriateness were identified from a literature meta-analysis. The most prevalent indicators were as follows: community input, affordability, autonomy, transferability, community control, scalability, local availability of raw materials, and adaptability. Using these, a quantitative assessment tool was developed, called the Appropriate Technology Assessment Tool (ATAT). ATAT employs multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods to rank AT alternatives. In this way, inputs are aggregated using a weightedsum method, giving the composite Appropriateness Index, ( ). Using VBA coding, the author built ATAT via a simple form populated by the identified indicators. The form automates all necessary calculations, facilitating empirically rigorous quantitative assessment of AT by non-technical SCD workers. AT is only as appropriate as beneficiaries deem. A participatory research approach requires community stakeholders to rank preferred criteria for AT, and rate alternatives against the chosen criteria. This approach makes the tool customizable to local conditions. Using the Mini-Delphi Method, stakeholder opinions translate to ATAT inputs. A local case in the Westwood neighborhood of Denver, Colorado is examined to test ATAT efficacy and process viability. Prior to this research, University of Colorado graduate students partnered with local 501(c)3 Revision International to reduce winter heating costs in Westwood using a solar furnace that locals dubbed "EZ Heat". ATAT quantified the appropriateness of EZ Heat as = 4.2. This score lends empirical support to the AT's a priori deterministic selection. ATAT is designed to be free and accessible via Internet, and the author is investigating the potential of a mobile application. SCD and other community development practitioners often work in remote areas, and a mobile ATAT application will make the tool more useful.

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Barriers to Appropriate Technology Growth in Sustainable Development

Cited by 42 publications

References 24 publications

Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science

Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science

How Assessment Methods Can Support Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries—A Critical Review

Quantitative Assessment of Appropriate Technology

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