Private Goods Forms of Appropriate Technology

Source of table: Legal Theory Lexicon

This is the third in a series on Appropriate Technology. The prior postings were:

• Appropriate Technology as a Public Good
• High Technology as Appropriate Technology

In this posting I will recognize that some appropriate technologies are embodied in commercial goods and services, and can be provided via market mechanisms.

There are a couple of good examples from communications technology.

1. The Transistor Radio: the battery operated transistor radio was widely disseminated to poor people in poor nations soon after it was introduced in developed nations. It was inexpensive and battery operated, as well as rugged and attractive. It met a need for information and a desire for entertainment at an affordable price.
2. Cell phones are being rapidly disseminated in poor nations, and means are being found to utilize the mobile phone technology to make telephone service available to the very poor.

In both cases the technology was invented and first commercialized for more affluent consumers in developed nations, and then transferred to developing nations. In both cases it is important to see the actual device as part of a technological system, and thus to recognize that other innovations complementary to the original device are increasing its value or cost effectiveness.

Comparably, consider antibiotics. Again, from the development of penicillin production technology for military application in World War II, antibiotics quickly entered into the commercial market, and with a lag was disseminated very widely in developing nations. The technological knowledge, from the point of view of the patient, was embodied in the drugs themselves, and the pharmaceutical industry was able to market them widely in developing nations.