Technology and Sustainable Economic

DevelopmentNov 15, 2002

Outline

• Introductions• Motivation + Objectives• Format• Themes + Topics• Living laboratory

• Today’s presentation proper

Introducing Ourselves

• Alastair Iles– Postdoctoral research fellow at Society & Environment;

Energy and Resources Group, UCB– Ph.D in environmental policy, Harvard, ‘00– Research interests in policy, science, politics

• Matthew Kam– 2nd-yr Ph.D. student in EECS with primary interest in Human-

Centered Computing– B.A. Economics, B.S. EECS, UCB ’01– B.A. thesis was his first shot at development microeconomics

Motivation

• Have not encountered similar opportunity at UCB for cross-disciplinary engagement on this topic

• Technical design often isolated from social factors

Motivation

• But new research suggests:– Successful use of technology depends on

tacit work practices developed for specific contexts

– Decentralized technology may be more effective than centralized ones

– Others?

Objectives

• Dual-track initiative– Technology track: How do we design

technology for sustainable development?– Social track: What are the broader social,

business and political contexts influencing the success of these designs?

Objectives

• Forum for interested UCB students to– Get acquainted– Keep up with related developments– Incubate alternative visions to advance

sustainable development in both developing and developed countries using technology

– Others? (do a poll here)

Intended Participants

• All interested folks are welcome!

• Not restricted to Ph.D. students(we also have an undergraduate, exchange student, recent UCB graduates, and postdoc)

• Not restricted to EECS, ERG or SIMS(would benefit from MBA, public policy, public health, other science/engineering and social sciences inputs)

Tentative Format

• Weekly 1-hour meetings

• Format:– Presentation by volunteer (15 min)– Break-out discussions (15 min)– Combined discussion (20 min)

• Format to be reviewed by everyone in last session of Fall ’02 (Dec 13)

Broad Themes

• Technology– Participatory design– Decentralized systems

• Sustainable development– Economic, sociopolitical viability– Distributive effects of technology deployment

• To review collectively after Fall ’02

Specific Topics

• Rotate among participants’ areas of interest / specialization

• Topics:– EECS (albeit with SIMS / HCI / STS flavor)– Green technology– Economics– Others? (do a poll here)

• Tentative plan: Fix topics for each session in advance, students (or volunteer presenter) in respective areas agree on reading(s)

Living Laboratory

• Intimate, long-term exposure to the design, use and evolution of technology promotes deeper appreciation and understanding

• To observe CHSP regulations• Findings to be shared (and debated) among

participants• Collectively work towards an interpretation, i.e.

the “lessons learnt”

Living Laboratory

• First shot: Livenotes– Collaborative note-taking application– Handheld wireless tablets– E.g. of a decentralized, interactive

technology

• Call for volunteers (approx. 3)

Any questions before we proceed with presentation of today’s readings?

• What works?What doesn’t?

• We’ll collectively review the reading group’s organization in last session of Fall ’02 (Dec 13)

Today’s readings

• Two chapters from the Worldwide Wildlife Fund report on IT/sustainability, July 2002:

- Zambrano: intergovernmental funding and strategies for promoting technology

- Wijkman & Afifi: what technology can do (today’s focus)

• Written by government bureaucrats.• Focused on information technology (IT).• Just a starting point for discussion...

Beginning Caveats...

• What does “technology” cover? IT is just one of the technologies that could support sustainable development; technology designed for other purposes may be applied to environmental purposes.

• What does sustainable development mean?The readings take it for granted that we know what SD is.

Wijkman & Afifi (1)

• Argues: - IT will transform society without physical work or materials

- IT can help developing countries “leapfrog” over pollution and reduce energy intensity

- UNDP Report 2001 shows that IT can help promote economic growth

- however: there is a “digital divide” that exacerbates poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment...

Wijkman & Afifi (2)

• Argues:

- the equity of the IT changes depends on human capital

- “Those best placed to identify their tech. needs are the different stakeholders themselves.”

- deliberate policy-making by governments is central.

- the international community/market has been very slow to invest in IT in developing countries: the UN is disappointing.

Wijkman & Afifi (3)

• Examples of IT Uses:

- farmers using the web or cell phones to check going prices for their produce

- Village Knowledge Centers (South India)

- Grameen Bank Pay Phones (Bangladesh)

- Reproductive Health On-line (Uganda)

- cyber kiosks run by village entrepreneurs (India)

•

Wijkman & Afifi (4)

• Questions:

- Is “information” really separate from physical work and systems? Isn’t human capital needed to adapt IT to local social settings?

- To what degree are “leapfrogging” and “climbing ladders” really effective?

- Is there an excessive focus on web-based approaches, as contrasted to other IT technologies? The “put-everything-online” syndrome.

Wijkman & Afifi (5)

More questions:- Isn’t this approach like “e-government” and not participatory or grassroots?

- Where are the communities whose needs are supposedly being addressed?

- There is no mention of the energy needed to support the IT: how will this energy be provided?