Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T10:30:35.412Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why Science and Technology Require Political Guidance to Sustain Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Neil E. Harrison
Neil E. Harrison*
Affiliation:
University of Wyoming, USA
Get access

Abstract

It is commonly hoped that technological innovation will sustain development and obviate the need for extensive socioeconomic change. Historically, free markets have increased the quantity of technological innovation, which has in turn enhanced economic growth. This article shows that market selection probably will not produce the technological innovation required to sustain development. Social structures and habitual practices also inhibit technological change, and market choices of technology could prevent ecologically efficient technological innovations. Only political direction of science and technology will optimize the contribution of technology to sustainable development. However, there is no theory or experience to act as a guide to policymaking. In addition, in the medium to long term, technology is indeterminate, selected by local process perturbations. This article suggests some policy directions for science and technology and argues that models borrowed from the life sciences may permit more effective government direction of the technology system.

Type
Achieving Sustainable Development
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , September 1998 , pp. 179 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon. (1993). “When the State Picks Winners.” The Economist 326 (January 9): 13–14.Google Scholar
Anon. (1994a). “No Bubbling Brook.” The Economist 332 (September 10):75–76.Google Scholar
Anon. (1994b). “Something Gained.” The Economist 333 (October 29):91–95.Google Scholar
Anon. (1995a). “Of Strategies, Subsidies and Spillovers.” The Economist 334 (March 18):78.Google Scholar
Anon. (1995b). “Paying for Research.” The Economist 335 (June 3):13.Google Scholar
Arrow, K. J. (1962). “Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention.” In Universities-National Bureau Committee of Economic Research (ed.), The Rate and Direction of inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Arthur, W.B. (1988). “Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms in Economics.” In Anderson, P.W., Arrow, K.J., and Pines, D. (eds.), The Economy as an Evolving Complex System: The Proceedings of the Evolutionary Paths of the Global Economy Workshop, held September, 1987 in Santa Fe New Mexico. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Arthur, W.B. (1989). “Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-in by Historical Events.” The Economic Journal 99:116–31.Google Scholar
Arthur, W.B. (1990). “Positive Feedbacks in the Economy.” Scientific American 262 (2):92–99.Google Scholar
Bennett, M. and James, P. (1998). The Green Bottom Line: Environmental Accounting for Management. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.Google Scholar
Bennett, M., James, P., and Klinkers, L., eds. (1998). “Special Issue.” Greener Management International, no. 21 (Spring).Google Scholar
Bernal, J.D. (1989). “After Twenty-Five Years: A Reprint of the 1964 paper by J.D. Bernal.” Science and Public Policy 16:143–51.Google Scholar
Bozeman, B. and Link, A.N. (1984). “Tax Incentives for R&D: A Critical Evaluation.” Research Policy 13:21–31.Google Scholar
Brown, M.B., Canzier, W., Fischer, F., and Knic, A. (1995). “Technological Innovation through Environmental Policy: California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Regulation.” Public Productivity and Management Review 19:77–93.Google Scholar
Bush, V. (1946). Endless Horizons. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Clark, N. (1990). “Development Policy, Technology Assessment and the New Technologies.” Futures 22:913–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, G.H. (1993). “Facilitating Sustainable Development: Role of Engineer.” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 119:225–29.Google Scholar
Cottell, M.N.T. (1993). “Facilitating Sustainable Development: Is Our Approach Correct?” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 119:220–24.Google Scholar
Daly, H.E. (1991). Steady-State Economics. Second edition. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Daly, H.E. and Townsend, K.N., eds. (1993). Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics. Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
David, P.A. (1975). Technical Choice Innovation and Economic Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
David, P.A. (1985). “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY.” The American Economic Review 75:332–37.Google Scholar
Devall, B. and Sessions, G. (1985). Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith.Google Scholar
Dosi, G. (1982). “Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change.” Research Policy 11:147–62.Google Scholar
Elster, J. (1983). Explaining Technical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, C. (1979). “The Determinants of Innovation: Market Demand, Technology, and the Response to Social Problems.” Futures. 11:206–15.Google Scholar
Freeman, C. (1992). The Economics of Hope: Essays on Technical Change, Economic Growth, and the Environment London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Furth, H.P. (1995). “Fusion.” Scientific American 273 (3):174–77.Google Scholar
Galbraith, J.K. (1976). The Affluent Society. Third edition. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Galbraith, J.K. (1978). The New Industrial State. Third, revised edition. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1975). “Energy and Economic Myths.” Southern Economic Journal 41:347–81.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. (1988). Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gunn, A. and Vesilind, P.A. (1986). Environmental Ethics for Engineers. Chelsea, MI: Lewis Publishers.Google Scholar
Hawley, A.H. (1986). Human Ecology: A Theoretical Essay. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hill, C.T. (1979). “Technological Innovation: Agent for Growth and Change.” In Hill, C.T. and Utterback, J.M. (eds.), Technological Innovation for a Dynamic Economy. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Kauffman, S. (1995). At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lederman, L.L. (1994). “A Comparative Analysis of Civilian Technology Strategies among Some Nations: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.” Policy Studies Journal 22:279–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lélé, S.M. (1991). “Sustainable Development: A Critical Review.” World Development 19 (6):607–21.Google Scholar
Levins, R. and Lewontin, R. (1985). The Dialectical Biologist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, J.J. (1990). Why We Need a National Energy Policy. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Mansfield, E. (1968). The Economics of Technological Change. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Mansfield, E. (1982). “Tax Policy and Innovation.” Science 215 (March 12): 1365–71.Google Scholar
Mansfield, E. (1991). “Social Returns from R&D: Findings, Methods and Limitations.” Research Technology Management 34 (6):24–27.Google Scholar
Martin, M.C.J. (1994). Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology-Based Firms. New York: J. Wiley.Google Scholar
Moore, C. and Miller, A. (1994). Green Gold: Japan, Germany, the United States, and the Race for Environmental Technology. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Morehouse, W. (1971). Science in India. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Mowery, D. and Rosenberg, N. (1979). “The Influence of Market Demand upon Innovation: A Critical Review of Some Recent Empirical Studies.” Research Policy 8:102–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nayar, B.R. (1983). India's Quest for Technological Independence: The Results of Policy. New Delhi: Lancers.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.R. (1990). “Capitalism as an Engine of Progress.” Research Policy 19:193–214.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. R. (1995). “Recent Theorizing About Economic Change.” Journal of Economic Literature 33:48–90.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.R., Winter, S.G., and Schuette, H. (1976). “Technical Change in an Evolutionary Model.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 40:90–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, D.F. (1984). Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
O'Connor, M. (1994). “On The Misadventures of Capitalist Nature.” In O'Connor, M. (ed.), Is Capitalism Sustainable: Political Economy and Politics of Ecology. New York: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
OECD (1991). Technology in a Changing World. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Oshima, K. (1984). “Technological Innovation and Industrial Research in Japan.” Research Policy 13:287–301.Google Scholar
Pacey, A. (1983). The Culture of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W. and Turner, R.K. (1990). Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Price, D. deS. (1983). “The Science/Technology Relationship, The Craft of Experimental Science, and Policy for the Improvement of High Technology Innovation.” Research Policy 13:3–20.Google Scholar
Repetto, R. (1992). “Environmental Taxes and U.S. Competitiveness.” Columbia Journal of World Business (Fall and Winter): 128–34.Google Scholar
Rolston, H. III (1988). Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in The Natural World. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N. (1994). “How the Developed Countries Became Rich.” Daedalus 123 (4):127–40.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N. (1995). “Why Technology Forecasts Fail.” The Futurist 29 (4):16–21.Google Scholar
Rothwell, R. and Dodgson, M. (1992). “European Technology Policy Evolution: Convergence towards SMEs and Regional Technology Transfer.” Technovation 12:223–38.Google Scholar
Rothwell, R. and Zegveld, W. (1985). Reindustrialization and Technology. Harlow, UK: Longman.Google Scholar
Rumelt, R.P., Schendel, D.E., and Teece, D.J., eds. (1994). Fundamental Issues in Strategy: A Research Agenda. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Sahal, D. (1981). Patterns of Technological Innovation. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Salter, W. (1960). Productivity and Technical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schlossberger, E. (1993). The Ethical Engineer. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Schmookler, A.B. (1993). Fool's Gold: The Fate of Values in a World of Goods. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco.Google Scholar
Schmookler, J. (1966). Inventions and Economic Growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. (1928). “The Instability of Capitalism.” Economic Journal:361–86.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. (1939). Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process. 2 Volumes. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Simon, J.L. (1998). The Ultimate Resource 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Singer, S.F. (1992). “Sustainable Development vs. Global Environment: Resolving the Conflict.” Columbia Journal of World Business:154–62.Google Scholar
Smith, M.R. (1985). Military Enterprises and Technological Change. Boston: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1957). “Technical Progress and Productivity Change.” Review of Economics and Statistics 39:312–20.Google Scholar
Speth, J.G. (1989). “The Environment: The Greening of Technology.” Development: Journal of SID 2/3:30–36.Google Scholar
Stone, C.D. (1993). The Gnat Is Older than Man: Global Environment and Human Agenda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurow, L.C. (1986). “The Economic Case against Star Wars.” Technology Review 89 (2):11–15.Google Scholar
Tidd, J., Bessant, J., and Pavitt, K. (1997). Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Waldrop, M.M. (1992). Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Walsh, V. (1984). “Invention and Innovation in the Chemical Industry: Demand-Pull or Discovery Path?” Research Policy 13:211–34.Google Scholar
Webre, P. and Bodde, D. (1986). “High Technology's Stake in Tax Reform.” Technology Review 87 (5):26–34.Google Scholar
Weinberg, A.M. (1986). “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?” In Teich, A.H. (ed.), Technology and the Future. Fourth edition. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Wells, L.T. Jr. (1984). “Economic Man and Engineering Man.” In Stobaugh, R. and Wells, L.T. Jr. (eds.), Technology Crossing Borders. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, R.W., Ashton, P.K., and Egan, T.P. (1980). Innovation Competition, and Government Policy in the Semiconductor Industry. Boston: Charles River Associates.Google Scholar
Winner, L. (1986). The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar