Nanotech's Role in Development and Poverty Alleviation
26 December 2007, 13:10
Categories: responsible-nanotechnology
Nanotechnologies promise to be the foundation of the next industrial revolution. What role can they play in abating poverty and inequity in the world? This question has been raised by various authors and institutions since the year 2000, when nanotechnology came to be the focus of government research programs, primarily in the developed world but also in countries in the process of development.
In a new article titled The Role of Nanotechnologies in Development and Poverty Alleviation: A Matter of Controversy, Noela Invernizzi, Guillermo Foladori and Donald Maclurcan review the positions taken by the principle institutions that addressed that question in the period 2000-2006. They identify two main positions. One gives importance to the technical advantages that nanotechnologies can offer to resolve key development themes, such as potable water, cheap and pollutant-free energy, and the diagnoses and treatment of health matters. The other position analyzes nanotechnologies within the framework of social, economic and political forces in which they originate and are developed.
Posted by: The Editors
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