Appropriate and
Inappropriate Technology
15CHAPTER
15-1
‘HARD’ AND ‘SOFT TECHNOLOGIES
Appropriate technology is a fashionable way to say “doing things in low-cost,
effective ways that local people can manage and control.”
Development workers often use the term appropriate technology to refer to
practical, simple THINGS—such as tools, instruments, or machines—that people can
make, use, and repair themselves using local resources.
But appropriate technology also refers to METHODS—ways of doing, learning, and
problem solving that are adapted to people’s needs, customs, and abilities.
The technology of THINGS is called ‘hard’; technology of
METHODS is called ‘soft’. Ideas are more flexible than bricks
(if both are appropriate).
TWO KINDS OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
METHODS
THINGS
Story telling-an appropriate way of teaching,
especially where people have little formal
education and story telling is a tradition.
Mud stoves that use less firewood-
appropriate where trees and wood are
scarce, but only if people will make
and use them.