A scale pathway which leads to technologies which bypass ‘giantism’
thus avoiding ‘thinking big’ and offshore capitalization. Caveats
swarm in, for of course not all ‘big’ projects are ‘bad’, nor is the
participation of multinationals always harmful. This is where the
utility of ‘recipient’ as well as ‘donor’ Cost Benefit Analysis, and
Impact Abatement Assessment (chapter 4) are relevant and useful.
The pursuit of subsidiarity pathways opts for local funding, local
enskilling, local management, and local patents;avoidingexternal
dependency, external profit-taking, external tax evasion, and the
payment of external patent rights: and the external recruitment of
personnel – although the immigrant inflow of outside expertise is
often desirable and beneficial, most obviously so in the staffing of
universities. Here also it is important to recognize and educate
children as the role-modellers and stakeholders of the future, from
which the current batch of adult decision-takers will in the course
of time be duly retired.
Incremental pathway applications engage technologies and skills
which are a progression from proven techniques. An example is
fish-farming born of family fishing experience; another is furniture-
making as an outgrowth of sawmilling.
The selective use of high-tech pathways which circumvent bottlenecks
in contra-indication, on occasion, to the point above. Thus the con-
trolled use of helicopter bulk transportation, waste management,
toxin capture, and the engagement of other high-tech yet low-
impact facilities can be of impressive utility. Every application for
circumventing soft solutions should undergo Risk Impact Assess-
ment.
Engagement of ecological pathways which seek out benign techno-
logical applications (as with the use of a proven ‘biological control’
in agriculture) and the selection of options which avoid ecologically
faulty technologies, especially those which leave behind synthetic
residues and non-degradable toxins.
