Appropriate technology for grassroots innovation in developing countries for sustainable development: The case of Laos

Abstract

Appropriate technology for sustainable development in developing countries should consider comprehensive societal aspects of the target area and, at the same time, ensure target areas are capable of sustainable transformation. However, appropriate technology has mainly been approached from the engineering or technological aspects, thus becoming a short-term or one-time technology transfer or, despite the social science approach, it has no definite theoretical background. For successful and sustainable appropriate technology activities, appropriate technology should be approached theoretically. Therefore, this study applies the theory of grassroots innovation to appropriate technology, examines how the concepts of grassroots innovation based on local community units can relate to appropriate technology activities in developing countries, and analyzes a case of appropriate technology activity to show that future appropriate technology activities should involve grassroots innovation. The results show that the principles of grassroots innovation underlie successful appropriate technology projects. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.