A new journal article entitled “Design Methodology for Appropriate Technology: Engineering as if People Mattered” has been officially published in Sustainability journal, volume 5, issue 8, pages 3382-3425. Sustainability is a Scopus-indexed journal, and tracked for the next release of Impact Factor from Thomson Reuters2. It is published by MDPI A.G., an international publisher headquartered in Switzerland. The article is published based on Open-Access scheme, meaning that it is publicly available for free download. Below are the full citation format and abstract.
Official Citation
Sianipar, C.P.M., Yudoko, G., Dowaki, K., Adhiutama, A. (2013). Design methodology for Appropriate Technology: Engineering as if people mattered. Sustainability, 5(8), 3382-3425.
Abstract
Since the emerging of its idea circa four decades ago, Appropriate Technology (AT) had been proven as a comprehensive solution in a limited condition. However, practitioners & academia have different opinions with engineers on how an AT must be designed. Researchers had noted the crucial factors in the issue as such, and they gave a notion of the urgency for a dedicated design methodology for AT. This study, therefore, aims to provide it. Such methodology is developed by incorporating AT characteristics, fundamental issues in community empowerment, and the principles of existing design methodologies. The methodology emphasizes combination between bottom-up and top-down design approaches. It means that an AT must be started purely from local conditions rather than given technical specifications, and be given back to local people to be seamlessly integrated into their routines. It also underlines the crucial importance of community involvement throughout design stages. By looking at previous design methodologies that were developed based on pure Engineering Problem Solving (EPS), this study delivers a fresh and comprehensive one that covers surrounding issues and concepts to produce an AT based on the real meaning of technological appropriateness.
Read the further details of
Design methodology for Appropriate Technology…
- Update 2013.09.22 — This paper is featured at the Engineering4Change website through an article titled “Communities move to the center of the design process in a newly proposed methodology.”
- Update 2014.07.31 — According to the newly released 2013 Journal Citation Reports® Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2014), the Impact Factor for Sustainability is 1.077.
