Section: Critique of the Current Global Development Narrative | Alternative and Appropriate Technologies

Section outline

- Select activity Lecture 10: Thursday September 15
  
  Lecture 10: Thursday September 15
- Select activity The Role of Economics and Buddhist Economics
  
  The Role of Economics and Buddhist Economics File
  
  Ref/URL: Chapters 3 and 4 from E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, Harper & Row, 1973.
  
  Unauthorized(?) electronic versions here and here.
- Select activity Editorial (optional): Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten
  
  Editorial (optional): Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten Page
- Select activity Notes on Schumacher Chs. 3 and 4
  
  Notes on Schumacher Chs. 3 and 4 File
- Select activity What Others are Saying about Autonomous Technology
  
  What Others are Saying about Autonomous Technology Page
- Select activity Lecture 11: Tuesday September 20
  
  Lecture 11: Tuesday September 20
- Select activity Conventional Wisdom – The Current Development Narrative and Why It Doesn’t Work
  
  Conventional Wisdom – The Current Development Narrative and Why It Doesn’t Work File
  
  URL/Ref: Section 1 (Chapters 2-4) from Practical Action, Wellbeing, Technology Justice, and Sustainable Development, 2012 (Unpublished/communicated to Marcel Castro, November 2012).
  
  Related (optional): http://practicalaction.org/technology-justice, http://policy.practicalaction.org/policy-themes/technology-justice
  
  Study Questions:
  
  What is the relationship between economic growth and happiness?
  
  What are some of the quality of life indicators presented?
  
  What measure appears to be well-correlated with quality of life problems?
  
  Which is the more critical limit on growth, exhaustion of resources or environmental/ecological damage?
  
  What is problematic about the way scientific research is often funded?
  
  What did Schumacher say that exemplifies the concept of non-neutrality of technology?