Intermediate technology is infrastructural capital that is at least an order of magnitude more expensive than that prevalent in a developing nation but also at least an order of magnitude less expensive than that prevalent in a developed nation offering aid. For instance, if a typical workplace costs $1 to equip with primitive tools, but a competitive modern industrial approach would require a workplace costing $1000, then the 'intermediate technologies' are those that cost $10-$100 per workplace. The term was popularized by E. F. Schumacher and his colleagues working on early human development theory in the 1960s. It was explained in depth in his book "Small is Beautiful", which offered a sharp critique of then-prevalent approaches to development aid.
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Appropriate technology is technology that is most appropriate to the environment and culture it is intended to support.
A related term, intermediatetechnology, refers specifically to tools that cost more or are more sophisticated or complex than those currently in use in a developing nation but still much less costly, or less inaccessible, than those tools that would be used in a developed nation.
Appropriate technologies for delivering water include the hippo water roller, which allows more water to be carried, with less effort; rainwater harvesting (which requires an appropriate method of storage, especially in areas with significant dry seasons); and fog collection, suitable for areas which experience fog even when there is little rain.
His theories of development have been summed up for many in catch phrases like "intermediate size," and "intermediatetechnology." He was a trustee of Scott Bader Commonwealth and in 1970 the president of the Soil Association.
To impose Intermediate Size on a national economy Schumacher suggested superimposing on large-area states a cantonal structure of modest size so that vast industrial concentration (with all this entails in imbalance, ineptitude, and diseconomies of scale) becomes not only unnecessary but also impractical and inefficient.
IntermediateTechnology would be a byproduct of the cantonal structure.
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