Regulation may inhibit or stimulate technological change. The relationship depends on the technology of regulation - the design and instrument choice of regulatory policy. This essay examines the history of economic and social regulations over the last three decades, the explanatory power of theories of regulatory politics, the choice of regulatory instruments, the assessment of regulatory impacts, and the influence of each of these on the innovation and diffusion of technology (and of regulation). It concludes with recommendations for the future of regulation and technology.
The report gives a description of industrial and public R&D in Germany and its aims and structure. It presents the R&D promotion instruments and innovation services (technology transfer, consultancy and information). Conclusions for the promotion of industrial innovation in Slovenia are drawn and further steps of the advisory project of the FhG-ISI and UFA-IB are suggested.
In some countries in Europe, Foresight, as a organised process or collective consultation on plausible future developments, has been recently used as a main framework for science and technology policy co-ordination; although in Spain, even though the government is a central player in the national innovation system (NIS) and in the research and technological development (RTD) activities, neither a highly systematic or formalised use of technology foresight has occurred and remains a marginal aspect or a minor dimension for its national RTD policy planning. However, this does not indicate that in Spain, foresight has been ignored. On the contrary, foresight and evaluation for Spanish S&T were considered very important for the government action in S&T policy planning in mid-1980s and an administrative locus in government for both activities were institutionalised; but Foresight in Spain had not gained the centrality in S&T policy planning as it appears to have happened in other countries, and had been keep as a tool for producing information (reports) on the future developments at sectoral level. Under the umbrella of Prospectiva Tecnológica, a word that in Spanish has strong proximity with French concept Prospective[1] associated to planning activities, we can identify many different types of activities carried out in a very discontinues way. Also, the understanding of Prospectiva has been much more associated to the idea of producing information on the future trends and tendencies, scientific or technological, than to the idea of developing a systematic process of interaction between innovation actors to help their co-ordination in the context of national innovation systems. In this pages we will try to describe the first attempts to bring foresight into the policy agenda contextualized within the formulation of the Spanish RTD policy. We will also discuss how the forms foresight taken have been punctual and discontinuous, and how they have not matured into a process of considering the future in a systematic manner as a part of a collective action. We will try to elaborate on the variables that could explain why in Spain, Foresight as a tool has not shaped S&T co-ordination policy (in addition to its effects on legitimisation), as in some other countries. ; This paper is part of a TSER project, "Foresight as tool for managing the innovation and the flows of knowledge", funded by the EU.
One of the key features of our economies consists of the coexistence of different technologies supplying similar products and services. Also, we often observe that an "old" technology is improved when a new one, doing basically the same things, appears. Behind this process of improvement of the old technology almost always lies an intentional research activity carried out by the owner of the old technology, whose aim is to delay as much as possible the loss of its market share. We focus our attention on this competition process and we supply a formal model capable of describing the delay of the overtaking of the new technology over the old one.
Our condition with respect to digital literacy is analogous to the condition of pre-literate peoples whose un-written beliefs descend through mythology and folk tales. Like children to whom all things are new, it appears that we are only now learning to read (and write) the Internet and hypermedia in as fundamental a way as we learned to read (and write) writing, perspective or the movies. That is, the Internet is one of those watershed technologies that has had the power to make children of us once again. As Beetham (Beetham et all 2001) argues, the debate must move beyond simple behaviourist-bad : constructivist-good positions. For Boyle (1997 p. 45), "A central challenge for these approaches is to incorporate expert guidance without undermining the creative initiative of the learner." But, the very suitability of learning technology to managerialism is cause for at least interested concern and suggests that theory might be useful for those striving within the "tense new reality" of the "democratic academy"
Paper presented at the 2nd meeting of the Casa de Mateus Conference: "Technology Consulting and Transfer of Technology: practical experiences from Germany", Vila Real, October 1987.
Is procreation a biological act or an essentially human act? I believe that this is a fundamental question to be addressed when evaluating human reproductive technology. All the more so because assisted reproductive techniques can so easily shift from the therapeutic to the manipulative. The distinction between therapy and experimentation pure and simple lies at the very core of any analysis of this particular area of study in order to safeguard the integrity of the "person" which is the subject of treatment. I do not only refer here to the patient in the broad sense of the term, but to all parties involved in the reproductive process as well as the human life from inception. ; N/A
A synthesis of neo-Schumpeterian evolutionary, sociological, and historical coevolution ary models could be used for constructive technology assessment, aimed at the active management of the process of technological change. This article proposes a synthetic quasi-evolutionary model, in which variation and selection are neither independent nor coincidental processes. Variation and selection are linked by actors, resulting in the actor role labeled technological nexus. On the basis of the quasi-evolutionary approach, three constructive technology assessment strategies are proposed: stimulating alternative variations, changing the selection environment, and creating or utilizing technological nexus. The usefulness of these concepts is demonstrated for the case of clean technolo gies. Ultimately, a conscious application of these strategies could result in a new actor role for government as a creative social regulator of technological change.
A synthesis of neo-Schumpeterian evolutionary, sociological, and historical coevolution ary models could be used for constructive technology assessment, aimed at the active management of the process of technological change. This article proposes a synthetic quasi-evolutionary model, in which variation and selection are neither independent nor coincidental processes. Variation and selection are linked by actors, resulting in the actor role labeled technological nexus. On the basis of the quasi-evolutionary approach, three constructive technology assessment strategies are proposed: stimulating alternative variations, changing the selection environment, and creating or utilizing technological nexus. The usefulness of these concepts is demonstrated for the case of clean technolo gies. Ultimately, a conscious application of these strategies could result in a new actor role for government as a creative social regulator of technological change.
Description based on: Jan. 1979; title from cover. ; "Prepared for DOE under contract no. W-7405-Eng-48." ; "UCRL." ; Some issues have title: Energy & technology review. ; Some no. issued in combined form. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Vols. for June 1980-19 issued by: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Technical Information Dept.
Economically and politically, cassava is considered less important than rice, soybean and maize. Government's investment in the infrastructure and institutions for cassava extension and technology transfer is far less than those for the three major food crops. The infrastructure for varietal dissemination is relatively better than that for other components of technology. Due to the lack of such infrastructure and institutions, non-conventional ways of technology transfer take place and play a major role. The role of private companies in delivering planting material of newly released varieties is quite significant. The same role for transferring cassava flour processing technology has not happened due to socio-economic barriers. Despite the obligatory role of the Directorate General of Food Crop Agriculture to verify and disseminate the production technology, farmers can get the benefit of accessing directly to the source of technology by participating in the large-scale on-farm research, development research, and research-extension linkage activities. Corrections in the institutional set-up and mechanisms of technology transfer will be the appropriate way to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the technology transfer process. The establishment of knowledge centers or fora at the provincial or district levels, where farmers, researchers and extensionists work integratedly to formulate location-specific technologies, is viable and compatible with the current integration of Agricultural Information Centers into the Agency for Agricultural Research and Development
This publication is a comprehensive report on the government allocations and expenditure and performance of S&T in the public sector. The report is published annually. The science and technology activities covered include research and development, training, education and information; technology transfer and technical services (including information and advice)
