Science and Technology in a Developing World

block possible Soviet expansion by mobilizing European "democracies", the policy soon extended to some developing countries in Asia and Latin America. In response, the USSR gradually initiated development programs for newly independent nations in Asia and Africa. In this context, super power rivalry operated in the South to (i) expand spheres of influence and control; (ii) guard Southern nations from the influence and incursions launched by the opposed camp; (iii) stimulate indigenous development. With few exceptions, Southern nations provided little input to the definition and execution of North-South dynamics during this period. In the case of Africa and to some extent Asia, the acquisition of independence was so recent and often sudden that there was little time to reflect on the kind of policies and measures needed to build bal anced relations with the former mother country. In Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine had long insured that the region was a virtual captive of the US. Aid for development was contingent on conformity to US political and economic interests. The cognitive component of South-North dealings strongly reflected the two above mentioned dispositions. The relative lack of political experience in the South. and the dearth of an organized and sizable intellectual/academic community, meant that there were few cognitive and human resources for undertaking careful study and analysis of the conditions and needs of develop ment from a Southern perspective (influential exceptions existed though, such as Raul Prebisch in Latin America or Ghandi in India).

Texte du rabat

block possible Soviet expansion by mobilizing European "democracies", the policy soon extended to some developing countries in Asia and Latin America. In response, the USSR gradually initiated development programs for newly independent nations in Asia and Africa. In this context, super power rivalry operated in the South to (i) expand spheres of influence and control; (ii) guard Southern nations from the influence and incursions launched by the opposed camp; (iii) stimulate indigenous development. With few exceptions, Southern nations provided little input to the definition and execution of North-South dynamics during this period. In the case of Africa and to some extent Asia, the acquisition of independence was so recent and often sudden that there was little time to reflect on the kind of policies and measures needed to build bal anced relations with the former mother country. In Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine had long insured that the region was a virtual captive of the US. Aid for development was contingent on conformity to US political and economic interests. The cognitive component of South-North dealings strongly reflected the two above mentioned dispositions. The relative lack of political experience in the South. and the dearth of an organized and sizable intellectual/academic community, meant that there were few cognitive and human resources for undertaking careful study and analysis of the conditions and needs of develop ment from a Southern perspective (influential exceptions existed though, such as Raul Prebisch in Latin America or Ghandi in India).

Contenu
Introduction: Science, Technology and Society Studies and Development Perspectives in South-North Transactions.- Is Modern Science an Ethno-science? Rethinking Epistemological Assumptions.- The Rhetoric of Progress: Crisis Avoidance in Science and Technology Policy for Development Discourse.- French Ethnocentricity. The Epistemological Circumstances of the Third World Concept.- Science and French Colonial Policy. Creation of the ORSTOM: from the Popular Front to the Liberation via Vichy, 19361943.- Science for the South/Science for the North. The Great Divide? ORSTOM versus CNRS.- Research and Policy for Development in the Netherlands: A Radical Turn to the South?.- Information Aid and Forms of Belgian Post Colonial Science.- Value Structures in International Development Research Management: The Case of a Canadian R&D Funding Agency.- Science for the South in the South. Exploring theRole of Local Leadership as a Catalyst of Scientific Development.- Prometheus and Hermes.- Entrepreneurial Science in Mexico as a Development Strategy. The Decline of Import Substitution Policy and the Rise of Academic-Industry Relations.- Science, Technology and Counter Hegemony: Some Reflections on the Contemporary Science Movements in India.