Conceptualizing Technological Change: Theoretical and Empirical ExplorationsTechnological change has been rightfully identified as the single most important factor for improving material well-being. Yet, despite its centrality in our lives, we seem to know very little about technology and how it develops and changes, both spatially and temporally. In this original and thoughtful book, Govindan Parayil draws together current scholarship from disciplines ranging from history to economics to sociology as he develops a cohesive theory of technological change. Drawing on a detailed case study of the Green Revolution in Indian agriculture, Parayil convincingly argues that technological change is contingent upon the social-historical process of knowledge change. Thus, he explores the policy implications of analyzing technological change as a problem-solving activity. An innovative contribution to the literature on technological change, this ambitious book will also be valuable for those interested in such practical applications as understanding the process of technology transfer. |
Contents
Chapter One Introduction | 1 |
Chapter Two Historical Models | 21 |
Chapter Three Sociological Models | 47 |
Chapter Four Economic Models | 71 |
Chapter Five NeoSchumpeterian Evolutionary Models | 95 |
Chapter Six Technological Change as Problem Solving | 115 |
Chapter Seven Contingency and Practical Reflexivity | 135 |
Chapter Eight Competing Models and Their Explanatory Power | 153 |
Toward a Syncretic Theory of Technological Change | 171 |
189 | |
205 | |
About the Author | |
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Common terms and phrases
According agents agricultural research analysis analyzed argues artifacts Basalla Bijker Callon Cambridge University Press capital chapter claim concept contingent cumulative synthesis Dosi dynamics electric Elster empirical engineers evolutionary evolved explaining technological change factors fluorescent lamps Green Revolution heuristic historians history of technology Hughes human HYVs India Induced Innovation industrial institutional intellectual internal invention John Karl Popper knowledge change logical change Marx method Michel Callon model of technological modern Nathan Rosenberg neoclassical economics neoclassical economists nological change peasant-farmers phenomenon political Popper problem process of technological production function QWERTY reverse salients Robert Fox Robert Solow Ruttan Sahal Schumpeter Schumpeter's science and technology scientific change seeds social change Social Construction society sociology Sociotechnical Change Solow solving tech Technical Change techno technological innovation technological knowledge technological paradigm technological system Technology and Culture technology as knowledge technology transfer theoretical tion Trevor Pinch varieties Wiebe Wiebe Bijker York