Some remarks on small scale industries and transport: the problematic of technology in relation to basic needs strategy

Abstract

The paper elaborates the small scale industries for a policy designed to satisfy basic needs, will be as one of the elements in an overall strategy to break down the mechanisms of the existing social and economic order and their capacity and usefulness as an element of a development alternative : a self reliant development strategy. Some of the important potential advantages of small scale industries is the lower amount of capital necessary to start thus reducing the need to seek outside capital ; a simpler technology which can be designed, built and serviced in the country and if under popular control, the possibility of obtaining capital accumulation in the locality which will be reused to expand the communities development activities. However, small scale industries will be one element in an inter-related structure which will also include large scale industries in certain specific fields as well as craft and cottage industries, and domestic production. As to the type of technology which will be used in such small scale industries, it will quite obviously in nearly all cases be less complex than that employed in large scale industries. However, it is not as a stopgap while awaiting better times, but as a more rapid way of accumulating capital which will be retained locally, and specifically by the producers themselves. This means a type of technology and a scale of enterprise which is also more readily managed and controlled ty the producers (and the consumers - or at least representatives of the consumers).