Synopses & Reviews
This book is the result of a unique dialogue: a workshop that took place in the heart of Slovenia brought together academics and industrial scientists, engineers and social scientists to discuss and explore the strategic implications of technology management and assessment. The wide-ranging and intense discussions explored many key issues, such as those concerning the role of academia in supporting industrial practice (and vice versa), and the emerging research agenda in the assessment and management of manufacturing technology innovation. The distilled essence of the debate is presented here as a basis for a developing wisdom of technology: a technosophy. It is only through industrial-academic and interdisciplinary research and development that such a body of wisdom can emerge.
Synopsis
This volume contains the genuine proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Strategic Approaches to the Assessment and Management of Manufacturing Technology Innovation, Bled, Slovenia, June 3-5, 1997. The word 'genuine' is used as the content of this book has arisen from ideas and reflections which arose during and after the workshop itself. It contains no pre-prepared papers or articles. The workshop was designed to create a forum for dialogue and debate. The essence of that debate is contained here. We acknowledge the support of NATO in making this possible. Because of the peculiar nature of these proceedings, we acknowledge all workshop participants as co-authors of different parts of the book and we pay tribute to them all. The proceedings have taken a while to prepare, as the reflection process has been long and varied 1 Technosophy: Strategic Approaches to the Assessment and Management of Manufacturing Technology Innovation Paul Levy Mihael Junkar Location: Bled, Slovenia Date: June 3-5 1997 A 3-day workshop "Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes, It will vanish and the stars will shine again, Because, for all our power and weight and size, We are nothing more than children of your brain. " Rudyard Kipling 1. Introduction This is not a long book.
Table of Contents
Introduction. Discussion.
1. Assessing Technologies: A Scientific Perspective.
2. Assessing Technologies: An Economic-Strategic Perspective.
3. Assessing Technologies: A Practitioner's Perspective.
4. Developing Assessment into Technological Choice.
5. Overview of the Research Field: Current Opportunities for Collaboration.
6. Cases from the Field: Stories of Technology Management.
7. Open Space Conference.
8. Key Research Questions and Challenges.
9. Towards a Best Practice Agenda: Opportunities for Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration.
10. Developing an Agenda for Research - Some Research Proposals.
11. Glimpses of the Technosophic Toolkit.
12. Review and Conclusions. References.
Appendix: List of Participants.