Technology Transfer?To whom? From Where?
So at the moment I am sitting in my little concrete bachelor flat in Aarhus, Denmark and the weather is slowly but surely getting colder. There is a month left until my departure to South Africa and I am slowly getting ready to leave the country. At the moment I am writing on the theoretical part of my thesis and hope to have this part more or less done before I leave. Still to go is to have my contacts in South Africa reconfirmed.
My theoretical part of the thesis, as it looks at the moment, is pretty much based on the STS (Science Technology Society) approach naturally with a great deal based on Latour and Leigh-Star (Other references are to be included, such as Ihde and maybe Haraway – phenomenology and the discussions on Situated Knowledges). I would like to have a fairly strong basis in the STS theories and from there clearly state my methods for carrying out my field work. This is sort of home base for me, however looking at my thesis in a larger perspective there are some discussions I would like to include where I do not feel too much at home. As previously written here on this website my thesis is working with ICT in developing countries; my blanks are as follows: When looking at the use of ICT as a means of development I would like to introduce the concept of Technology Transfer (Don Ihde writes about this from a phenomenological perspective in his Post Phenomenology?) and focus on the impacts of transfer of technology from one context to another. Fair enough, but this ‘context’ is a nice word that often can be used without a closer definition. When is one context different from another? When is there a difference is it when we in a somewhat constructed way are speaking about ‘different cultures’? Would the term Technology Transfer only be applicable when technology is being transferred from one culture to another (significantly different) culture or would it be applicable if I would have been writing my thesis in Denmark? These are blanks that I hopefully get to fill in when I get to South Africa and I am getting more familiar with the field I am working in.
My theoretical part of the thesis, as it looks at the moment, is pretty much based on the STS (Science Technology Society) approach naturally with a great deal based on Latour and Leigh-Star (Other references are to be included, such as Ihde and maybe Haraway – phenomenology and the discussions on Situated Knowledges). I would like to have a fairly strong basis in the STS theories and from there clearly state my methods for carrying out my field work. This is sort of home base for me, however looking at my thesis in a larger perspective there are some discussions I would like to include where I do not feel too much at home. As previously written here on this website my thesis is working with ICT in developing countries; my blanks are as follows: When looking at the use of ICT as a means of development I would like to introduce the concept of Technology Transfer (Don Ihde writes about this from a phenomenological perspective in his Post Phenomenology?) and focus on the impacts of transfer of technology from one context to another. Fair enough, but this ‘context’ is a nice word that often can be used without a closer definition. When is one context different from another? When is there a difference is it when we in a somewhat constructed way are speaking about ‘different cultures’? Would the term Technology Transfer only be applicable when technology is being transferred from one culture to another (significantly different) culture or would it be applicable if I would have been writing my thesis in Denmark? These are blanks that I hopefully get to fill in when I get to South Africa and I am getting more familiar with the field I am working in.
