Introduction: Technology Transfer in Global Perspectives – Issues for the Twenty-first Century

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Sibley Butler ◽  
David V. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Technology Transfer ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Twenty First Century

Transfer or Translation? Rethinking Traveling Technologies from the Global South

2022 ◽  
pp. 016224392110722
Author(s):  
Miao Lu ◽  
Jack Linchuan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Global South ◽  
First Century ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
New Space ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Human Actors

Technology flows are becoming increasingly diverse in the twenty-first century, calling for an update of concepts and frameworks. Reflecting on the inherent tensions of technology transfer, including its technocratic dreams, insensitivity to technological materiality, and narrow focus on certain human actors, we propose technology translation as a complementary conceptual framework to understand traveling technologies. Taking a socio-technical approach, technology translation views artifacts as socially shaped with distributed agency, which makes technology flows unstable and unpredictable. In so doing, we develop a typology to explain five technology flow scenarios, shedding new light on the mechanisms of technology traveling by foregrounding the role of translators. Last, we discuss the politics of translation and elaborate how technology translation opens new space to engage with the complexity and uncertainty of technology flows, especially in the Global South.

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