Technology dynamics

Technology dynamics is broad and relatively new scientific field that has been developed in the framework of the postwar science and technology studies field. It studies the process of technological change. Under the field of Technology Dynamics the process of technological change is explained by taking into account influences from 'internal factors' as well as from 'external factors'. Internal factors relate technological change to unsolved technical problems and the established modes of solving technological problems and external factors relate it to various (changing) characteristics of the social environment, in which a particular technology is embedded. Technology dynamics is broad and relatively new scientific field that has been developed in the framework of the postwar science and technology studies field. It studies the process of technological change. Under the field of Technology Dynamics the process of technological change is explained by taking into account influences from 'internal factors' as well as from 'external factors'. Internal factors relate technological change to unsolved technical problems and the established modes of solving technological problems and external factors relate it to various (changing) characteristics of the social environment, in which a particular technology is embedded. For the last three decades, it has been argued that technology development is neither an autonomous process, determined by the 'inherent progress' of human history, nor a process completely determined by external conditions like the prices of the resources that are needed to operate (develop) a technology, as it is theorized in neoclassical economic thinking. In mainstream neoclassical economic thinking, technology is seen as an exogenous factor: at the moment a technology is required, the most appropriate version can be taken down from the shelf based on costs of labor, capital and eventually raw materials.