Choosing Big Technologies

by John Krige

Choosing Big Technologies, which first appeared as a special issue of the journal History and Technology, brings together a series of studies drawing comparisions between the decision-making processes leading to the choice of big technologies in the public sector. The contributions stem from a symposium of the same title held in 1991 at the European University Institute, and cover different domains of technology - space, high-energy physics, aerospace and nuclear physics - over a wide geographical and political spectrum.
This volume throws important light on the arguments and motivations of the interested groups - scientists, engineers, industrialists, bureaucrats, politicians - who can bring big technological projects into being and who sustain them. Key considerations, such as the determination to compete, the attraction of technical challenge, the need to preserve acquired expertise and experience, the hope of commercial benefits, and the pursuit of national independence and national prestige are explored in this stimulating collection of essays.

244 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 1993

About the author

John Krige is Kranzberg Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Sociology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe and the coeditor of Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, both published by the MIT Press.