Technology, Culture and Development: The Experience of the Soviet Model by James P. Scanlan

Author:James P. Scanlan [Scanlan, James P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, Urban, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781315487519
Google: C80YDQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 32207195
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

The Deluge

The challenge facing Western science establishments is how to conserve the cherished values enumerated at the end of the last section in the face of a changing environment. The problem facing the East Europeans is how to deal with the same set of external pressures and demands while, at the same time, somehow rebuilding many of the values they once held in common with other scientific communities, destroying the institutions of forty years in the process. The problem of transition in Eastern Europe is therefore twofold, involving a process of creative destruction on a scale unmatched elsewhere. It has greater urgency because the continued existence of many scientific establishments in the region may by no means be taken for granted.

The structure of the science and technology establishments of Eastern Europe will be familiar to students of Soviet R&D and needs no detailed elaboration here. A major defining element is the Academy of Sciences system. Fundamental research is performed in academy institutes and not in the universities, whose principal responsibility is teaching. Applied research, in turn, is largely conducted within the parallel system of ministerial R&D institutes organized by industry. This design assumes the presence of a well-informed central authority actively guiding research efforts to maximize the resources available to society. In practice, the result is more often considerable fragmentation of effort because of compartmentalization, so that even applied work quite often does not address the real needs of the clients.

Another characteristic was, of course, the political and ideological intrusion into personnel- and priority-allocation decisions present in all countries of Eastern Europe to varying degrees. This was reinforced by the nature of financial support of science and technology. Although principles of self-finance had entered into the R&D systems of several countries, for most practical purposes institute working funds were allocated from the central budget.

A further legacy of the past is the insufficiency of information available to practitioners, particularly at the applied end of the R&D spectrum. Lack of meaningful price information compounded by internal accounting systems not suited to the needs of institutes and enterprises and combined with contrived systems of incentives has led to poor technology choice and inefficient utilization of R&D resources. This aspect of the former system has been a greater factor in denying Eastern Europe the practical fruits of technology than was COCOM (the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Control).

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