| Abstract from DBPedia | Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and locally autonomous. It was originally articulated as intermediate technology by the economist Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his work Small Is Beautiful. Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people-centered. Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar lamps and streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source principles, which have led to open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet. OSAT has been proposed as a new model of enabling innovation for sustainable development. Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to technology transfer of more capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries. However, appropriate technology movements can be found in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the appropriate technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and focuses mainly on environmental and sustainability issues. Today the idea is multifaceted; in some contexts, appropriate technology can be described as the simplest level of technology that can achieve the intended purpose, whereas in others, it can refer to engineering that takes adequate consideration of social and environmental ramifications. The facets are connected through robustness and sustainable living.適正技術(てきせいぎじゅつ、英: appropriate technology)とは、その社会の与えられた環境、条件、ニーズに最も有効である技術、その技術の選択に対する考え方のことである。特に、国際協力の分野では、途上国への技術移転を実施する際に、当該技術が途上国の経済や技術環境などの諸条件と合致した技術やその技術の選択を指す。第二次世界大戦の終結から冷戦の期間に、先進国から途上国へ活発に技術移転が行われたが、その成果が社会全体に波及せず、経済格差の是正も進展しなかった。また先進国と途上国の経済格差も縮小することなくむしろ拡大した。このような多額の資金が必要となる近代技術の開発途上国への移転が失敗してきたという認識から、「途上国の発展や貧困を解消するためにどのような技術が必要か」という問題意識のもとで議論されている事柄である。ただし適正技術の定義は論者によって異なり、また時代の変遷に応じて変化し、確立した厳密な定義は存在していない。 一般に適正技術の概念を最初に提示したのは、イギリスの経済学者のエルンスト・フリードリッヒ・シューマッハーとされ、1960年代半ばに提示した「中間技術」がその嚆矢とされる。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Appropriate_technology) |
