Technological Development in the Developing Countries

Abstract

The current process of technological transfer with limited adaptation from the developed to the less developed countries is questioned. The most important features of the economic environment of the less developed countries—the levels of per capita output and consumption, the availability of capital per worker, and the rising trends in unemployment—are reviewed. The implications are sketched for the development of a technology appropriate to the developing context, appropriate in the capital intensity of its production techniques and in the design of its products. The man-machine system focus of human factors researchers is seen as potentially very productive in these questions.