Epistemic and Technological Determinism in Development Aid

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5338136
AutoresJan Cherlet (Ghent University, autor correspondente)
Ano2014
Volume39
Fascículo6
Páginas773-794
Data de publicação2014-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243913516806
OpenAlexW2093075597
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas23
Referências citadas27

Since the turn of the millennium, the major development agencies have been promoting "knowledge for development," "ICT for development," or the "knowledge economy" as new paradigms to prompt development in less-developed countries. These paradigms display an unconditional trust in the power of Western technology and scientific knowledge to trigger development-they taste of epistemic and technological determinism. This article probes, by means of a genealogy, how and when development cooperation began adhering to epistemic and technological determinism, and which forms this adhesion has taken over time. The genealogy shows, first, that knowledge and technology have always been integrally part of the very "development" idea since this idea was shaped during enlightenment. Second, while the genealogy reveals that epistemic and technological determinism were embedded in the development idea from the very beginning, it also illustrates that the determinism has always been challenged by critical voices

Determinism · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Sociology · Technological determinism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · International Development and Aid · Mathematics · Philosophy