Technological capability in the third world

This book reflects the new interest in the 1980s in the process of Third. World technological change. While formerly research in the area of Third World technology focused largely on issues related to the trans fer and choice of technology from abroad, more recently attempts have been made to understand how imported technology is assimilated and changed to suit local circumstances, and how technological improvements of various kinds are brought about. These new concerns are highlighted from the point of view of development economics and education in the first two papers in Section II by Fransman and King. These two papers serve the dual purpose of introducing many of the new research interests, while at the same time highlighting some of the areas of debate and agreement in a number of contributions in the present book. The remaining papers in Section II provide an overview of many of the issues, of both a theoretical and policy kind, which emerge in the examination of technological capacity in the Third World.
In Section III the discussion of technological change is located within the context of an examination of the international economy. Here the major contention relates to the extent to which changes in the world economy help or hinder accumulation and technological change in various Third World countries. Case-study material relates to the implications of microelectronics applications occurring at the world technology frontier. The relationship between learning and work organisation on the one hand, and technological capability on the other, is examined in Section IV, while Section V is devoted to a number of case studies drawn from countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.