A Measurement of Technological Change: An Ecological Perspective

Despite the centrality of technology for macro-societal theories, and the ecological perspective in particular, little systematic operationalization exists. This paper examines Frisbie and Clarke's multivariate index of technology at the societal level in a diachronic framework. We show that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social forces 1984-03, Vol.62 (3), p.750-766
Main Authors: Frisbie, W. Parker, Krivo, Lauren J., Kaufman, Robert L., Clarke, Clifford J., Myers, David E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appropriate technology
Change
Change/Changes
Ecological engineering
Energy consumption
Environmental technology
Human ecology
Index/Indexes/Indexing (see also Scale, Test)
Measure/Measures/Measuring/ Measurement
Measurement
Population ecology
Social evolution
Standard deviation
Technological change
Technology
Technology/Technological/ Technologically
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Summary:Despite the centrality of technology for macro-societal theories, and the ecological perspective in particular, little systematic operationalization exists. This paper examines Frisbie and Clarke's multivariate index of technology at the societal level in a diachronic framework. We show that the index remains reliable and internally consistent over the 1950–70 period. We then decompose change into several components: changes of mean, changes of dispersion, and positional change. This analysis suggests that: (1) a trend toward higher levels of technology exists, (2) the technological rank order has been maintained while differences between nations have increased, as ecological and evolutionary theory predicts, and (3) the pace of technological change, in terms of both mean and dispersion, has quickened since 1960.
ISSN:0037-7732
1534-7605
DOI:10.1093/sf/62.3.750