Govindan Parayil

Mapping technological trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution from modernization to globalization

Abstract The dynamics of technology development along the technological trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution could be explicated by the social morphologies of modernization and globalization. The Green Revolution was shaped by the exigencies of modernization, while the Gene Revolution is being shaped by the imperatives of neo-liberal economic globalization. Innovation, development, and diffusion of technologies followed different trajectories in these two realms because of being part of different innovation systems. Considerations of private gain and profit in the form of high returns to shareholders of agro-biotech corporations of global reach, largely, determine the dynamics of technological innovation in the Gene Revolution. Technology transfer and local adaptive work in the Green Revolution was carried out in the international public domain with the objective of developing research capacity in post-colonial Third World agriculture to increase food production to avert hunger-led political insurrection during the Cold War. Differentiating these two trajectories is important not only due to the normative implications inherent in comparing the impacts of these two “revolutions”, but also due to the important lessons we learn about how different contexts of innovation in the same technology cluster could evolve into contrasting research policy regimes.

The "Kerala model" of development: development and sustainability in the Third World.

The Indian state of Kerala with a population of 29 million has made the transition to a society with low infant mortality rate, low population growth, and a low crude death rate in less than 30 years. The average life expectancy for women is 74 years (vs. 60 years for India as a whole) and 71 years for men (vs. 59 years for India), the infant mortality rate is 16.5/1000 live births (vs. 91/1000 for India), and literacy is almost universal. The population growth rate fell from 44/1000 in the 1950s to 18/1000 in 1991. By 1985 the population growth rate had stabilized to a demographic replacement level net reproduction rate. Keralas female/male ratio is 1.04:1 as opposed to the Indian average of 0.93:1 and Chinas 0.94:1. All this was achieved without coercion by democratically elected state governments. In the late 1970s Kerala ranked number one in 15 out of 21 Indian states with respect to selected infrastructural and basic services. This development came about despite a low per capita income. In 1991-92 the state of Punjab, with more than twice the per capita income of Kerala, had 33 PQLI (Physical Quality of Life Index) points less than Kerala. In addition, the HDI (Human Development Index) of Kerala was more than twice the national average. The HDI was 0.925 for the US in 1994 vs. 0.775 for Kerala, where the per capita income was one-hundredth of the US per capita income. This progress was accomplished by the elimination of absentee landlords and the return of the land to the tiller; and large amounts of funds spent on education, health care, infrastructure, agricultural credits, and housing. Staples were made available to the poor at subsidized prices. The Kerala model may be taken as an early prototype of sustainable development because of improvements in the quality of life, environmental stability, social and economic equality, and the decline in political strife.

Technological knowledge and technological change

Abstract Interest in technological change stems from our belief that it is responsible for inducing lasting social and economic changes. One important aspect of technological change that is often overlooked in the literature on the history of technology in general and technological change in particular is its cognitive aspect. This is because of the apparently tacit nature of technological knowledge. It is argued that instead of putting primary emphasis on change in the physical artifacts of this phenomenon, models and theories of technological change should take into consideration how the knowledge content of technology itself changes. Hence, technological change should be conceptualized and modeled within the framework of an evolutionary epistemology of technological knowledge.

Pasture-led to logging-led deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: The dynamics of socio-environmental change

Abstract Developments in the past two decades reveal that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has become a complex process involving a multiplicity of agents and means of change. Along with large-scale clearing of forests for cattle ranches and swidden agriculture (practiced by displaced peasants and indigent immigrants), logging-led clearing has become the major threat to the forests of Amazonia. The complexity of this environmental change is analyzed by pointing out the deficiencies of neo-Malthusian population dynamics and the ‘tragedy of the commons’ theories. A new theory of socio-ecological dynamics of environmental change, proposed by Peter Taylor and Raul Gracia-Barrios, has been proposed as an alternative, and, finally, some possible solutions to prevent deforestation have been proposed.

Kerala's experience of development and change

Abstract Scholars have variously described the development experience of the Indian state of Kerala as a “model” or a “paradox” or an “enigma” and posited different meanings and significance to its developmental trajectory. Rather than following the usual one-dimensional accounting of Keralas achievements and shortcomings, we present a historically informed social and political analysis to reveal the meaning and significance of the “Kerala model” of development. This article, thus, critically appraises Keralas development experience since decolonization to show how the discourse on development and the discursive practices of the dominant actors involved in governance of Kerala diverge in recent years, especially after the second round of economic liberalizations at the national level in 1991, which coincidently corresponds to the beginning of the newest phase of economic globalization. Old lessons are reviewed based on the notion of replicability of the “Kerala model” and new lessons are analyzed within the contexts of sustainability and economic globalization.

Technological change as a problem-solving activity

Abstract Technological change interests analysts of all persuasions because of the well-founded belief that it is responsible for lasting social changes and economic development. Using the Green Revolution in Indian agriculture as the empirical basis, it is argued that the technological change inherent in the Green Revolution could be best understood as a problem-solving activity. The actions undertaken by the various actors involved in the Green Revolution were a clear response to a specific problem that was recognized, and for which a specific plan of action was implemented. It is hoped that technological change as problem solving could be a powerful heuristic for strategic technological planning.

Schumpeter on Invention, Innovation and Technological Change

The resurgence of neo-Schumpeterian theories and models of technological innovation and development1 is an enduring sign of the historical significance of Joseph A. Schumpeters theoretical works on the dynamics of economic change as a result of long-term technological change.

Introduction: Information Capitalism

The far-reaching social, economic and political changes due to recent advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) in tandem with the globalisation of trade, investment, production and consumption have heralded the rise of ‘information capitalism’, or ‘knowledge capitalism’. Information capitalism is referred to as the economic logic of post-industrialism that posits a rupture in the articulation of industrial capitalism, which was based on social labour, industrial capital, manufacturing and bulk production. Information or knowledge capitalism is not a continuation of industrial capitalism by other means. Also, it is not merely a form of hyper-industrialism or post-Fordist flexible production arrangement. It indicates a rupture of industrial capitalism and the evolution of an entirely new economic dynamics. The morphing of industrialism into informational capitalism occurred with a fundamental change in the meaning and significance attributed to knowledge as well as the changing relationship between capital, labour and knowledge. Economic changes do not take place in a political-economic vacuum. The newly evolving informational economy is a reflection of the social and political changes taking place in the world at large due to various factors, most notably the globalisation of businesses and the increasing global integration of local and national economies and markets.

Sustainable Development: The Fallacy of a Normatively-Neutral Development Paradigm

Although the concept of ‘sustainable development’ or SD has been welcomed as a new idea to resolve the immense environmental and developmental problems in the world, it has become apparent that the concept has nothing new to offer to the victims of environmental degradation and poverty. The sustainable development thesis, as it is being promoted now, is based on the premise that environmental problems and poverty can be attenuated and eventually solved by being treated as mere technical problems which then can be ultimately reduced to an environmental management problem. As long as the developmentalist ideology of mere economic growth, which is framed within neoclassical economics, is not challenged and transformed, SD cannot address the problems of environmental degradation and poverty. SD needs to be framed in an alternative discourse for analysing the ecological crisis in order to address the issues of economic injustice and inequality. It will be argued that reducing economic inequality and social injustice, which are the underlying causes for ecological injustice, will render environmental problems more tractable and eventually avoidable.

Technology as Knowledge An Empirical Affirmation

Using the Green Revolution in Indian agriculture as the empirical basis, this article argues for the epistemic significance of technology as a form of knowledge. The concept of technology as knowledge evolved out of the interactive model of the relationship between science and technology. The Green Revolution is generally referred to as the change in agricultural practice experienced in parts of the Third World in recent decades as a result of the introduction of mainly the high-yielding varieties of seeds (HYVs). Using this empirical example, the article proposes that technological change may be conceptualized within an epistemological framework of technological knowledge.