Technology Transfer and Some Repercussions in Kenya
Loading...
Date
1997-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
The present work does not pretend to exhaust all the implications, advantages and
disadvantages that the transference of technology implies, especially for the countries of the
Third World. This work is just a modest attempt to illustrate some of the repercussions that
such transference has caused to the different social dimensions focusing briefly on the Kenya
reality. The first chapter presents the process that technology has experienced along history. It
is just a fast view that embraces a short definition, the relation between science and technology
and some of its historical steps. This historical overview ends up with a short assessment on the
destructive effects that technology in its modem development brought to the I and II World
War.
The social control generated by technological elites is mentioned in this first chapter as
hindrance to the access of the minorities to power that derives from technological acquisition.
With this social repercussion, some cultural values have been affected tremendously by
Western values that have not taken into consideration local values, neither the philosophical and
mystical dimension of some cultural settlements. These repercussions are briefly explained in
this section.
A fashionable term in nowadays is the fighting for Social Justice. Some lines are
dedicated to the analysis of this reality that has been touched also by the transference of modern
technology Social Justice has been treated as a crucial element for the equilibrium in the access
of the minorities to the fruits that come from the progress and from the modernisation of social
structures
It is considered as well the fact that if technology transfer is maker of job opportunities,
it could also by means of automation contribute to labour displacement. The last part of this
chapter presents the definition, applicability and advantages of what is called Appropriate
Technology. Since Appropriate Technology pretends to respect existent technology and local
values here it is treated as an eventual way or factor of development for the Third World
countries. The second and third chapter wants to land on some concrete situations where this
technology transfer was adopted. Some samples of the Kenyan reality have been taken to
illustrate the mechanisms most used for such transference and the fear of risking of some local
companies before the sometimes very heavy conditions that trasnationals companies imposed
over their recipients. For countries with scarce technological recourses and very little capital,
the most suitable way for their technological and economical development may be the
adaptation and actualisation of the modern technology coming from abroad to the already
existent technology. This adaptation is presented as an important factor for the design of local
manufacture that in the long run would help to the growth of the local industry. Such
technology adaptation can be perceived more clearly in the so called Informal Sector. The Jua
Kali phenomenon is growing rapidly. Its capacity of adapting and duplicating foreign technology
to the local cond,it ions give this sector the potential to be a major contributor to the economic
development arid technological advancement of Kenya .The technology used by artisans in this
sector is eit ler upgraded traditional technology or intermediate technology. In this last section a
general gl Ince at the situation of the informal sector will drive our attention by means of some
concret examples to the repercussions and the challenge that technology transfer has meant for
those who claimed to belong to the Jua Kali groups These instances present not only an
indi ;erious creation but in some cases adaptation, which testifies both to the inventiveness of the
local people and to their capacity for developing technology.
Description
Keywords
Science and Technology, Early Technology, The Industrial Revolution, Reassessments of Technology, Technology and Social Control, Technology Bearer and Destroyer of Values, Technology Transfer and Social Justice, Technology Transfer and Social Justice, Appropriate Technology, Technology Transfer in Kenya, Mechanism for Technology Transfer, Adaptation of Technology Transfer, Work With Jua Kali, Developing the Jua Kali Sector