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Global Technological Change

From Hard Technology to Soft Technology - Second Edition

This updated second edition of Global Technological Change reconsiders how we make and use technology in the twenty-first century. With human-centered "soft technology" driving machine-based "hard technology" in ever more complex ways, Zhouying Jin provides an understanding of the human dimension of technological advancement. Through a theoretical framework that incorporates elements of both Eastern and Western philosophy, she offers insight into the dynamic between the two as it relates to a variety of technological innovation. More relevant than ever, Global Technological Change continues to challenge assumptions about technology and the gap between the developed and developing countries in the twenty-first century.


366 pages | 7 x 9 | © 2011

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Reviews

“Jin’s new book, Global Technological Change, is a powerful reconceptualization of technological options and innovation management, which can help steer societies in assessing technologies for the twenty-first century. As Jin correctly points out, in emerging knowledge societies, the ’soft’ technologies are drivers of the ’hard’ technologies. . . . This book is a major intellectual advance that can help clarify human choices for decades to come.”

Hazel Henderson, US Office of Technology Assessment

“This volume indicates that the complex problems we are facing in the twenty-first century can only be solved by a balance between ‘yin-yang’ environment, between hard technology (machine-centered) and soft technology (human-centered). This concept is invaluable as it conveys a new perspective of the assumptions about the relationships between technological innovation, institutional innovations, and the gap between the developed and developing countries at the turn of the new millennium.”

Karamjit S. Gill, AI and Society: Journal of Human Centered Systems

Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition by Theodore Gordon
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1: What is Technology?
Chapter 2: Historical Antecedents of Soft Technology
Chapter 3: Soft Technology and Technological Competitiveness
Chapter 4: Soft Technology and Innovation
Chapter 5: Soft Industries
Chapter 6: Soft Technology and the Fourth Generation of Technology Foresight
Postscript: The Principles for Development in the Twenty-first Century—Harmony, Balance, and Coexistence

About the Author
Bibliography

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