63.
There are three uses for which the Research Reports are well fitted. The first of these is, of course, specific Reports will fall within the sub-disciplinary specializations of various students of African culture and society and can be useful as additional data. The second use is in the classroom; the length and degree of complexity of most of the Reports make them ideal as a basis for student oral presentations in advanced undergraduate or graduate level courses in African culture. Students will find sufficient material upon which to base a 15-30 minute seminar report and the frequent lack of interpretative or discussion sections in most Reports will provide the instructor the opportunity to force the students to carry out this task also as a part of the pedagogical process. The third use of the Reports is as a source of case studies or illustrative material for instructor's lectures. I have employed Bondestam's report on dangers in the interpretation of African statistics, Frantz on pastoral societies, and Esh and Rosenblum on tourism in developing countries in my own courses and been pleased with the results. The high degree of specificity of the data can complement nicely a more general discussion of the same topic.
A Critique of "Appropriate" Technology for Underdeveloped Countries. By M. R. Bhagavan. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report No. 48.
Inter-relations Between Technological Choices and Industrial Strategies in Third World Countries. By M. R. Bhagavan. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report No. 49.
Industrial Planning and Development in Mozambique, Some Preliminary Considerations. By Jens Erik Torp. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report. No. 50.
Review by A. Wade Smith, University of South Carolina.
These Research Reports are delightfully instructive, critical, and yet somewhat uneven. While the condensation of several complex issues allows a single volume to treat a range of important issues, the result is a report containing dense and extensive treatment of some topics while lightly passing off others.
Bhagavan's Critique of Appropriate Technology for Underdeveloped Countries takes considerable effort to define and describe "aptech" (appropriate technology), and to contrast aptech and "modtech" (modern technology). While instructive in both the economic and social relations resulting from the struggle of aptech vs modtech, Bhagavan expends considerable effort in pointing fingers at the politics both influencing and resulting from the choice of techniques involved in technological development. This is distracting, and uses space that would be more valuable in outlining those considerations that determine which alternative is the more realistic.