Soft Tech/Hard Tech, Hi Tech/Lo Tech: A Social Movement Analysis of Appropriate Technology*

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Abstract

Much of the contemporary debate over technology is explicitly and implicitly focused on the question of whether certain technological styles are appropriate or inappropriate. The framing of the debate in this way is due to an active social movement that advocates appropriate technology (AT). The movement is growing from urgent concerns with the undesirable “hard” equity, environmental/resource, and quality of life impacts of modern industrial technologies, both in developing and developed countries. The major features of the AT movement and its social sources are examined. Then the emerging hi techs are characterized and analyzed in terms of the major impacts of concern in the AT movement.