Denis Goulet

Chinese edition, in Mandarin. (Beijing, Academy of Social Science, 2004).

Will technology deliver on its promise to bring development to the Third World? Is modern technology truly the key to successful development? Can technologies be transferred from one cultural setting to another in ways that are more beneficial than destructive? And how do policies for becoming technologically “modern” relate to broader development goals in diverse nations? These questions lie at the heart of this book by Denis Goulet, which was first published in English in 1977, then revised in 1989 (New York, New Horizons Press). In it, Goulet peels away the mystique surrounding modern technology to lay bare its basic dynamism and its dual nature as simultaneous bearer and destroyer of values. His concern is that societies - developed as well as less-developed - not allow “high technology to subvert truly human ends. For the author, today’s essential problem “is not technology itself but the successful management of it, which requires wisdom and clarity as to the kind of society desired and the ways in which technology can help construct it.”

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