All rights reservedSanyal, BishCardoso, Cauam Ferreira2024-08-232024-08-232016978-85-7785-551-1https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/1914Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southSmall-scale technological solutions to poverty alleviation have become increasingly popular in the 21st Century. Markets are flooded with “appropriate technologies” (AT), such as cook stoves, solar lanterns, and even inexpensive cellphones and computers, as they promise to address the basic needs of the poor for a price they can afford. Despite the growing popularity of these gadgets within the international development community, most recognize that some are more effective than others. To date, development planners have not yet found a systematic way to identify “what works” and “why”, thereby compromising their ability to design more effective interventions based on this improved knowledge. Better methodologies are necessary, but insufficient for the creation of a comprehensive and effective technology evaluation framework. It is also paramount to understand the causes of success or failure of prior AT efforts, so past errors are not repeated, flawed assumptions dismissed, and newer solutions emerge capable of improving the quality of life among the poorest in a sustainable way. Indeed, the use of the notion of appropriate technologies in development planning as is not new. The AT model became prominent in the 1970s through the work of the economist Fritz Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful (1973). He promoted a development planning approach based on small-scale, low-cost, labor-intensive, context specific, and environmentally friendly technologies focused on benefitting populations living in poverty.EnglishopenAccessconferenceObject1570-1572