Template:Wikipedia Defining Appropriate Technology is an ongoing personal process. Many groups take exception with the phrase 'Appropriate Technology', especially when the words 'appropriate' and 'technology' are taken and defined separately. That said, taken the words together as a single coined phrase, working definitions of Appropriate Technology allow us to analyze tools, processes and technologies based upon explicitly stated criteria or guidelines.
E.F. Schumacher
AT is technology with a human face.
"Economics as if people mattered" was the subtitle of "Small is Beautiful", Schumacher's seminal book
Voluntary simplicity advocates (aka neo-luddites)
Technology whose risk/cost/value tradeoff is compelling enough to justify continued use.
Anecdotal Definitions
- Traditional American Folk Saying
Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.
- unknown origin //(anybody knows?) please edit//
Estanislavo Ploskonka would start his AT presentations with that phrase Google "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without" http://www.43things.com/things/view/371013 and it says “oldl Yankee proverb"
- Doing what can be done with what we are, what we have, where we are
Virtual Zambia
A technology that complements the factor endowments of the country.
IISD Developing Ideas
A flexible and participatory approach to developing economically viable, regionally applicable and sustainable technology
From Parras de la Fuente Summer Program
Summer 2005
Appropriate Technology (AT) encompasses thoughts, tools, implementations and observations, dependant upon cultural, political, economic and geographic context. In addition, AT works with and mimics the flow of nature to improve over existing impacts.
AT includes adaptability, durability, and lifecycle analysis, while facilitating nonviolence and empowerment through community identified and locally maintainable/operable holistic approaches to meeting needs for present and future generations.
Summer 2006
Appropriate Technology is a analytical, iterative and cooperative approach to supporting health and happiness by:
- effectively leveraging local knowledge, materials, wealth and labor
- strengthening symbiotic relationships between individuals, communities and their environment
- employing biomimicry and cradle-to-cradle design
- encouraging transparency, equality and empowerment through education
- considering cultural, political and historical context
- effecting fun, sexy and functional solutions
to bolster local economy and workforce, reduce environmental impacts and improve current conditions for the future.
From Humboldt State University, Engr114, Spring 2006
The following 5 definitions come from student groups in Humboldt State University's Engineering 114, Whole Earth Engineering, course in Spring 2006.
Definition 1
Appropriate technology is not a product which can be purchased with a Visa card. There are no consumers of appropriate technologies, only participants. The benefits of appropriate technology can only be gained if folks are willing to invest time and energy to care about the technologies in their lives.
It is a process to meet the needs and support the health and livelihood of local and global communities within the capacity of the natural environment to support those needs sustainably.
Appropriate technologies must be available to all members of a community. This means these technologies should be affordable, and information and education for them must be available.
The process of adaptation to the needs of people and the realities of the natural world occurs in the original technology design process and in its ongoing operation. This means appropriate technology must be democratically controlled and be adjustable according to changing needs and conditions.
Definition 2
Appropriate technology is the combination of necessities, wants, desires and the moral conscience that allow us to achieve our goals most efficiently while best managing and using our resources so that we may be sustainable and conscientious in our actions.
Definition 3
Appropriate technology is any technology that, through a holistic perspective, promotes justice, equity, and reciprocity in an effort to ensure perpetual ecological health and prosperity. To accomplish these ends simple, local, and non-capital intensive techniques should be employed to foment community building as well as social, economic, political responsibility.
Definition 4
AT can only come from an appropriate process. Therefore, a definition of AT must be an appropriate process. This process is a holistic weighing of the effects, methods, modes and organization required to create and utilize a particular technology. The goal for the technology should be that it is sustainable, restorative and in balance with natural ecosystems.
Definition 5
AT whether physical or intangible, will eventually melt back into the earth. It is potentially a philosophy, a practice, and a lifestyle. It incorporates an awareness of geographic location, effects of process, and local resources. AT incorporates natural cycles. It is conscious consumption. It is a shift of priorities. It requires looking at the whole picture. It is working together as a community to achieve the greater good for the whole as opposed to the self.
Violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics aka What it is not
Subcategories
This category has the following 20 subcategories, out of 20 total.
A
C
- CCAT Building (23)
- Crafts (15)
P
- Passive solar (50)
S
- Swadeshi (4)
T
- Technology transfer (9)
V
W
- Waterpod (21)
Pages in category "Appropriate technology"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 531 total.
(previous page) (next page)A
- A Guide for the Perplexed
- A new model for enabling innovation in appropriate technology for sustainable development
- User:Afm237
- Air fresheners
- Air fresheners/ru
- Appropriate development
- Appropriate technology
- Appropriate technology advocates
- Appropriate technology advocates/tr
- Appropriate technology for refugees
- Appropriate technology for refugees/ko
- Appropriate technology graduate thesis literature review
- Appropriate technology graduate thesis literature review/th
- Appropriate technology open collaborations
- Appropriate technology resources for COVID-19 crisis
- Appropriate technology restricted collaborations
- Appropriate Technology Solar Powered Refrigerator
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/1000 to 3000 Capacity Brick Kiln
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Bibliography for the Solar Home Builder
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Chinese Biogas Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Cooking Place for Large-Sized Pots
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Design Manual for Water Wheels
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Manual of Building Construction
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Method for Cutting Bottles Light Bulbs and Fluorescent Tubes
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Series of Articles on the Use of Bamboo in Building Construction
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Sitting Handbook for Small Wind Energy Conversion Systems
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Solar Water Heater Workshop Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A State of the Art Survey of Solar Powered Irrigation Pumps Solar Cookers and Woodburning Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Survey of the possible Use of Windpower in Thailand and the Philippines
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/A Woodstove Compendium
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Adobe as a Socially Appropriate Technology for the Southwest (Solar-Adobe Sundwellings)
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Adventures with a Hand Lens
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Alternative Limbmaking
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/An Attached Solar Greenhouse
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Anaesthesia at the District Hospital
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/AntiPollution Lab
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Aspects of Irrigation with Windmills
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Basic Principles of Passive Solar Design
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Biogas and Waste Recycling
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Biogas Handbook
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Biogas Plants in Animal Husbandry
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Biogas Systems in India
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Biogas Technology in the Third World
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Bread Box Water Heater Plans
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Brickmaking in Developing Countries
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Bridging the Gap
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Brief Notes on the Design and Construction of Wood-burning Cook-stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Building with Earth
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Burning Issues
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Charcoal Making for Small Scale Enterprises
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Charcoal Production Using a Transportable Metal Kiln
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Comparing Simple Charcoal Production Technologies for the Caribbean
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Comparison of Alternative Design Wheelbarrows for Haulage in Civil Construction Tasks
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Comparison of Improved Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Compost Fertilizer and Biogas Production from Human and Farm Wastes in the People's Republic of China
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Considerations for the Use of Wind Power for Borehole Pumping
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Construction and Use of Simple Physics Apparatus
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Construction Manual for a Cretan Windmill
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Construction Manual for PU350 and PU500 Windmills
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Construction of Trail Suspended Bridges in Nepal
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Construction Reference Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Cook-stove Construction by the TerraCETA Method
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Cost Reduction Considerations in Small Hydropower Equipment
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Demystifying Evaluation
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Dermatological Preparations for the Tropics
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Design for a PedalDriven Power Unit for Transport and Machine Uses in Developing Countries
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Design of CrossFlow Turbine BYS-T3
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Design of CrossFlow Turbine BYS/T1
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Design of Small Water Storage and Erosion Control Dams
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Design of Small Water Turbines for Farms and Small Communities
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Designing a Test Procedure for Domestic Wood-burning Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Development and Production of School Science Equipment
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Directory of Manufacturers of Small Hydropower Equipment
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Disabled Village Children
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Doing Things Together
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Double Drum Sawdust Stove
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Electric Power from the Wind
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Elements of Solar Architecture for Tropical Regions
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Energy for Rural Development
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Energy for Rural Development (Supplement)
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Energy from the Wind
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Energy: The Solar Prospect
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Establishing a Refugee Camp Laboratory
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Farm Structures in Tropical Climates
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Food from Windmills
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Food or Fuel
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Foot Power
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/A Forest Tree Seed Directory
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/A Pocket Directory of Trees and Seeds in Kenya
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/An Overview of Possible Uses of Sawdust
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Barnacle Parp's Chain Saw Guide
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/China: Forestry Support for Agriculture
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Constructing and Operating a Small Solar Heated Lumber Dryer
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Crosscut Saw Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Environmentally Sound SmallScale Forestry Projects
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Firewood Crops
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Forest Farming
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Forestry Case Studies
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Forestry for Local Community Development
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Frame Saw Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Land Clearance
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Leucaena
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Make Your Own Precision Milled Lumber from Logs and Trees: Alaskan MKII
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Manual of Reforestation and Erosion Control for the Philippines
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Natural Durability and Preservation of One Hundred Tropical African Woods
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/People and Trees
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Planning for Agroforestry
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Savanna Afforestation in Africa
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Small and Medium Sawmills in Developing Countries
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/The Chainsaw and the Lumbermaker
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/The Propagation of Tropical Fruit Trees
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Timber Drying Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Tree Crops
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Forestry/Tree Planting in Africa South of the Sahara
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Freshwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in China
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/From Lorena to a Mountain of Fire
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/From the Field
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Fuel Alcohol Production
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Fuel from Farms
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Fuel Gas from Cow Dung
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Gaviotas tropical windmill
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Gemini Synchronous Inverter Systems
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/General Surgery at the District Hospital
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Guidebook to Constructing Inexpensive Science Teaching Equipment
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Guidelines on Evaluating the Fuel Consumption of Improved Cookstoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Harnessing Water Power for Home Energy
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Helping People in Poor Countries Develop FuelSaving Cookstoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Hints on the Development of Small WaterPower
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Homegrown Sundwellings
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Homemade 6Volt WindElectric Plants
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Horizontal Axis Fast Running Wind Turbines for Developing Countries
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Hot Water (Morgan, Morgan, Taylor and Taylor)
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Build a "Cretan Sail" Windpump for Use in LowSpeed Wind Conditions
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Build a House Using Self-Help Housing Techniques
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Build an Oil Barrel Stove
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Construct a Cheap Wind Machine for Pumping Water
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Look After a Refrigerator
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/How to Make Tools
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Hydro-power
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Independence Through Mobility
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Independent Energy
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Industrial Archaeology of Watermills and Waterpower
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Lab Tests of Fired Clay Stoves the Economics of Improved Stoves and Steady State Heat Loss from Massive Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Laboratory and Field Testing of Monolithic Mud Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Less Smoky Rooms
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Local Experience with MicroHydro Technology
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Lorena Owner-Built Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Development of Small Water Power Sites
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Passive Solar Greenhouses
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Physiotherapy Aids
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Science Teaching Equipment
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Wind Speed Indicator. Brace Research Institute
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Low Cost Windmill for Developing Nations
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Making Aquatic Weeds Useful
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manege: Animal-Driven Power Gear
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manual for the Design of a Simple Mechanical Water-Hydraulic Speed Governor
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manual of Rural Wood Preservation
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manual para la Construccion de la CETARam
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manual para la Construccion de la CETARam/es
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Manual para la Construccion de la CETARam/pt
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Matching of Wind Rotors to Low Power Electrical Generators
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Micro - Hydropower Schemes in Pakistan
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Micro Hydro electric power
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Micro Pelton Turbines
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/MicroHydro Power: Reviewing an Old Concept
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/MicroHydro: Civil Engineering Aspects
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Microhydropower Handbook Volume 233
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/MicroHydropower Sourcebook
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Mill Drawings
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Mini Hydro Power Stations
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Mini Hydro Power Stations/ja
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Model Boilers and Boilermaking
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Model Stationary and Marine Steam Engines
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Modern Stoves for All
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/More With Less
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Mud Brick Roofs
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Mud Mud
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Multi-Purpose Power Unit with Horizontal Water Turbine: Basic Information
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/MultiPurpose Power Unit with Horizontal Water Turbine: Operation and Maintenance Manual
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/MultiPurpose Power Unit with Horizontal Water Turbine: Operation and Maintenance Manual/pt
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Nepal: Private Sector Approach to Implementing MicroHydropower Schemes
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/New Himalayan Water Wheel
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/New Nepali Cooking Stoves
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/New UNESCO Source Book for Science Teaching
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Nuevas Tecnicas de Construccion con Bambu
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/On Watermills in Central Crete
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/One Pot Two Pot...Jackpot
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Optimization and Characteristics of a Sailwing Windmill Rotor
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Overshot and Current Water Wheels
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Painting Inside and Out
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Pedal Power: In Work Leisure and Transportation
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Pelton Micro-Hydro Prototype Design
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Performance Test of a Savonius Rotor
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Personal Transport for Disabled People
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Perspectives on Non formal Adult Learning
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Philippine Medicinal Plants in Common Use
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Piston Water Pump
- Appropriate Technology Sourcebook/Plastic Sheeting for Emergency Shelter and Other Purposes
Media in category "Appropriate technology"
The following 33 files are in this category, out of 33 total.
-
2012 case for OSAT.pdf 1,239 × 1,752, 9 pages; 306 KB
-
Growyourschoolr1.png 562 × 400; 608 KB
-
Growyourschoolr3.png 552 × 418; 608 KB
-
Growyourschoolr4.png 568 × 416; 513 KB
-
Gys-adminplanstrucdet.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 292 KB
-
Gys-classplanstruc01.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 329 KB
-
Gys-classplanstruc02.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 425 KB
-
Gys-comlibplanstrucdet.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 324 KB
-
Gys-crosslonga12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 282 KB
-
Gys-crosslongab2v2.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 344 KB
-
Gys-crosslongb12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 353 KB
-
Gys-crosssections.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 513 KB
-
Gys-detailsplan1.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 459 KB
-
Gys-detailsplan2.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 392 KB
-
Gys-floorplana12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 212 KB
-
Gys-floorplanb12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 264 KB
-
Gys-floorplanb12v2.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 261 KB
-
Gys-floorplanlvl1.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 1.24 MB
-
Gys-floorplanlvl2.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 885 KB
-
Gys-floorplanroof.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 602 KB
-
Gys-frontbackelevationb.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 228 KB
-
Gys-longsections.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 695 KB
-
Gys-masterfinish.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 863 KB
-
Gys-masterfinisha12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 405 KB
-
Gys-masterfinishb12.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 443 KB
-
Gys-masterfinishb12v2.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 439 KB
-
Gys-masterstruct.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 510 KB
-
Gys-restairsbplanstrucdet.pdf 1,650 × 2,550; 455 KB
-
Gys-sideelevationb.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 232 KB
-
Gys-terrace1.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 287 KB
-
Gys-topographicprofile.pdf 3,508 × 4,966; 189 KB
-
Klara Hernandez.jpg 2,400 × 1,602; 2.6 MB
-
Klara.jpg 600 × 800; 98 KB