From Technology Transfer to Intercultural Development

Book excerpt: The idea for this book has been born in a dialogue between the authors of In Search of an Integrative Vision for Technology (2006) and a group of scholars and practitioners from South Africa whose research and development activities focuses on problems of traditional African society and culture. Although there existed awareness in the writing of the earlier book that the search for normativity for our technological society should encompass the different cultural spheres of the world, no attention has been paid to the problem of interculturality. Focussing on the development of technology in the ?developed societies? the emphasis was laid on finding a basis for ?interdisciplinarity?, bridging the gaps between the sciences and humanities as well as between theory and practice. According to the vision that has been elaborated on in the above book, not the autonomous dynamics of technology as a free-flying projectile should determine the future of our global world, but guidance has to be provided by a normative perspective on technology for the ?common good? of all people and cultures. Following further this line of research the current book aims to address explicitly the ?intercultural? dimension of technology in our globalising world.