ABSTRACT
The integrated framework has confirmed the earlier analysis of the implausible criticisms by indicating how the normative concerns of the Appropriate Technology movement might be adequately addressed without having to neglect considerations of technical efficiency, economic viability, physical practicability or intellectual-cum-cultural sophistication. This chapter examines whether the integrated framework provides a way of assessing the grounds for hope that the applicability of Appropriate Technology may be enhanced sufficiently to overcome the constraints to its successful diffusion. Many of the socio-political criticisms canvassed were based upon the imputation that Appropriate Technology embodies a crude doctrine of technological determinism. The political criticisms may be understood as a reflection of the limitations of dominant political theory as much as a reflection of the actual obstacles encountered by Appropriate Technology. To point to the existence of Autonomous Technology is not to deny the socio-political determination of technology-practice or to suggest that individual technologies may be generated entirely independently of human decision.
