• Item #UNCERTAIN_PROMISE
  • ISBN: 094525704x
  • ISBN13: 978-0945257042
  • Copyright 1989
  • 324 pp.
  • Price: $9.95


The Uncertain Promise

Value Conflicts in Technology Transfer

By Denis Goulet and Denis Goulet

Blurbs

A powerful and original book by one of the pioneers in the ethics of development. The author peels away the mystique surrounding modern technology to lay its basic dynamism and its dual nature as simultaneous bearer and destroyer of values. His concern is that societies - developed as well as less-developed- now allow "high" technology to subvert truly human needs.

It's message is as relevant today as when it was first published more than two decades ago - indeed more so as "high" technology has continued to advance in the rich countries and penetrate eveer more deeply the fabric of society in pooer developing countries.

What People are Saying...
An extremely useful book, very solid, both intellectually and scientifically.

— Jacques Ellul, author of The Technological Society

In The Uncertain Promise, Goulet once again exhibits that remarkable blend of qualities for which his writings are so admired: far-reaching analysis of contemporary scholarship, original field research, challenging insights, and a genuinely humanistic vision.

— Overseas Development Council, Washington, D.C

Seeing technology as both a 'bearer and destroyer of values', the author, a "philosopher of development", is mroe concerned with people's ability to control it and to know what they really want than with the questions more commonly asked in this field. Some provocative perceptions result.

— Foreign Affairs, New York

A powerful vision and some enlightening insights into the controversy surrounding the use of technology to serve human beings....Goulet has the unusual ability to question almost all tenable conclusions and conventional wisdon concerning development.

— Donald A. Swanson, Development Communication Report, Washington, D.C. .