Liberation and Technology

“The most fundamental difference between
‘developing’ and ‘developed’ societies is technology, in a broad yet
specific sense”; so states the author of this important study,
Liberation and Technology: Development possibilities in pursuing
technological autonomy. The ways in which technology is developed,
institutionalized, animated and celebrated, form the core of
‘development’ (human, economic, environmental, etc.) and ultimately
civilization itself. But ‘techno-spheres’ are not only technical. They
are also social, political, and ideological. For societies and countries
that have long been kept from realizing their own prosperity and
dignity, development is also liberation.

The main treatise of this
book is that each developing society ought to seek to achieve
technological autonomy in its quest for positive transformations and
prosperity for its people. Technological autonomy is about attaining a
high level of self-determination in planning and managing technological
affairs. Attaining endogenous capacity to guide and execute decisions on
production and innovation; creating and transferring key technological
products and services; steering relevant foreign and local investment as
well as trade; setting own priorities of development free from external
manipulation; are goals that must be central to such planning efforts.
With evidence and argument, and in plain language, this book suggests a
novel way of thinking about development, through envisioning and
building better techno-social systems.

For these reasons this book
is a welcome addition to the body of ideas informing practitioners and
theorists in the field of development—political leaders, economists,
sociologists, engineers, technologists, scientists, scholars, planners
and activists who are involved in relevant development processes and
liberation struggles.