The Economies of Small Appropriate Technology in a Changing World

This book describes the origins and character of the global Appropriate Technology movement, identifying its three major components - the environmental, the social and the economic. The author discusses appropriate technologies in the bread, brick, cement and sugar industries in Africa and Asia. The reasons for the increasing attractiveness of small-scale production in the industrially advanced countries are described, and the author aims to show how this approach can open the way to more human-centred patterns of development throughout the globe. The final chapters discuss the limited role played by markets in the development and diffusion of these appropriate technologies, and consider both the nature of suitable governmental policies and assess the likelihood of their emergence.