Vernacular Science and Appropriate Technology

There are multiple histories to the idea of a Vernacular science, an appropriate technology or the challenge of appropriating technology. In many cases, such histories are in dialogue with corporate technology transfer and its failures. Technology transfer is itself a very complex field, and in the contemporary period is less likely to be focused on transfer to foreign countries as it is with transfer from university or research lab to industry generally. One starting point is this Technology Transfer "Quick Guide". An excellent overview is Barry Bozeman “Technology Transfer and Public Policy”  (citation). JONATHAN D. HAGOOD ” Why Does Technology Transfer Fail? Two Technology Transfer Projects from Peronist Argentina” in Comparative Technology Transfer and Society 4(1) (April 2006):73–98. An historical study of technology transfer to Argentina; failures include “First, one historical context in particular, Argentina’s policy of import-substitution industrialization, clearly contributed to the short-term failure of these projects. Second, the reliance of the national innovation system on state-sponsored research and development made implementation of technical success unachievable. Finally, the lack of knowledge transfer from the German scientists, engineers, and technicians involved with these projects to Argentine personnel ensured the long-term failure of the transfer of this technology.” Vernacular Science Issues

Ron Eglash, ed. Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power 2004 University of Minnesota Press

Katherine Pandora, ” Knowledge Held in Common: Tales of Luther Burbank and Science in the American Vernacular” Isis 92(3):484–516, 2001 Ron Eglash on appropriating technology hybridity – what happens when traditional culture and main stream culture fuse together? Nice example of hybridity is the film “trobriand cricket” – lots more along this line in the cultural studies lit of course.