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dc.contributor.authorChambers, Robert
dc.date.accessioned2011-02-23T12:58:38Z
dc.date.available2011-02-23T12:58:38Z
dc.date.issued1981
dc.identifier.citationChambers, R. (1981) 'The socioeconomics of prospective technologies: people and priorities' in Socioeconomic Constraints to Development of Semi–Arid Tropical Agriculture, pp86–92. Andhra Pradesh: ICRISAT 1981en_GB
dc.identifier.urihttps://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/180
dc.description.abstractThis paper is concerned with the decisions and processes that generate mechanical, biological, and chemical technologies that have an impact on life in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). The author makes these assumptions: that such technologies, separately or combined, influence social relations and the distribution of benefits within societies; that in much of the SAT, rural populations are increasing and will continue to do so for decades to come; and that there is room for maneuver in setting research and development priorities and in decisions taken during the research and development (R & D) process. The central issue is how to optimize decisions and action that affect and are part of R & D. It is contended that modes of thought, values, and criteria need to be re-examined. In much of the literature of agricultural development, including agr i cul - tural economics, people are treated as resources rather than users of resources — a s means rather than ends. And thinking about research priorities often starts with a crop or a farm system or a mechanical technology rather than with the poorer people in a rural environment and their interests and future. The author suggests that decision-making and research might be improved through expanding environment-specific research, conducting more of it in collaboration with rural people, developing cost-effective methods for rural appraisal, changing professional reward systems, enabling profes - sionals to become individually more multidisciplinary, and learning from the true multidisciplinarians, the rural people themselves.en_GB
dc.language.isoenen_GB
dc.publisherInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi–Arid Tropicsen_GB
dc.rightshttp://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/80
dc.subjectAgricultureen_GB
dc.subjectScience and Societyen_GB
dc.titleThe socioeconomics of prospective technologies: people and prioritiesen_GB
dc.typeBook chapteren_GB


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  • The Robert Chambers Archive [415]
    A complete bibliography of Robert Chambers spanning four decades of research on participatory development.

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