ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some common misunderstandings about the meaning of technological change. It demonstrates the impracticability and the self-defeating character of the proposition that for the sake of the evolution of the most suitable technology that is based on the specific factor endowment of a less developed economy, all modern and imported technology should be completely banished and the country should be kept in total technological isolation. The chapter gives a brief history of technological change in human society and thereby unfolds its actual meaning and implications. It also discusses the causes of technological change, and critically examines the Marxian approach. The chapter shows the inevitability of the global diffusion of new technology. It critically examines Priyatosh Maitra's thesis that the failure of developmental efforts of many Third World countries is due to the importation of the latest technology. Priyatosh Maitra maintains that industrialization can take place through an industrial revolution or in the absence of an industrial revolution.
