X-ray Eyes to Probe Public Policy in the Technology Sector

Quebec City, QC - For those in Canada, the US, Finland, Australia, Sweden and other post-industrial nations who thought that all is and would continue to be well in Technology Zion, there could be a shake-up on the way. Canadian-Finnish publisher SPACEPOL Editeurs Universitaires Academic Publishers is soon to release the first of two academic titles dealing with the subject of Public Technology Policy and the need for developing objective and systematic evaluation tools for public policy makers. As literally billions of dollars are channeled into research, implementation and diffusion of various technologies many other sectors of the economy and society are losing support.

Administrative Scientist Gunnar K. A. Njålsson, author of the upcoming title "Technological Revolution as Political coup d'etat : Developing an Objective and Systematic Science of Public Technology Policy Analysis" and expert in the field is convinced that the new book is not simply an analysis of the state of affairs in Finland, Sweden or any particular country; but rather it aims to discuss, organise and re-organise the current ideas and methods relating to the way policy makers view technological innovation and development. While the second of these two books is to focus more on implementing the ideas and methods of the first, the first title is sure to be of benefit to those policy makers who have previously been too shy or intimidated to second-guess or question the ideas of their economist or engineer colleagues.

"In Canada, Finland, Sweden and a host of other countries there is a situation where enormous amounts of societal resources and prestige are being re-channeled almost to a single aspect of the economy and production activities. This is serious enough to warrant revisiting current assumptions and methods used in decision-making and has serious enough implications to warrant a better public discussion" says the author. Njalsson calls on public policy makers to educate themselves in the subject matter far better than has been the case to date and to begin to think more independently, basing their ideas on sound methods and logic precisely as they would do when involved in discussing and deciding other issues.

When asked about the origins of the rather provocative title of the upcoming book, Gunnar K. A. Njålsson responds, "There is nothing that points to any form of techological 'revolution' and a great deal that would tend to point to the re-organisation and increased power of two particular elites- technocrats and econocrats- since the 1980's". According to Njålsson, the main idea of the book is that Public Technology Policy and theories of technological development ought to be more of a science and less of a literary guessing game. If this were to be the case, the current technology hype would not have the same distracting effect on public policy makers as has been the case and is the case today.

Administrative Scientist Gunnar K. A. Njålsson is particularly concerned with the extent to which the current technology hype may be distorting the ability of public policy experts to plan for the future needs of the labour market. This is particularly evident in connection with so-called designated occupation lists used by countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even Germany in connection with their immigration programmes.

"This is particularly problematic when one notes that unemployment increased in the IT and even other technological fields subsequent to the deflation of the last technology bubble, the immediate result of faulty reasoning and an inability to cut through the technology hype. Today these same economies are making the same mistaken and ill-founded conjectures about the future of their economies. This is not merely the result of incompetent policy-making and active lobbying on the part of certain sectors; it is also partly the fault of the academic community who have neglected the need for more systematic and scientific approaches in this field" Njålsson laments.

"Technological Revolution as Political coup d'etat : Developing an Objective and Systematic Science of Public Technology Policy Analysis" will aim to correct some of the current disorders of the field and provide what ought to be the beginning of a better methodology for examining the nature of and interests behind various technology projects. The title will be released near the end of October 2005 and is available from several larger distributors including Coutts Library Services Ltd. More information is available at:

http://www.spacepol.com/TechPolicy.pdf


SPACEPOL Editeurs Universitaires Academic Publishers Co is a Canadian-Finnish publishing and consulting house for the fields of Space Law and Public Technology Policy. Originally founded in 1998 as the first cybernetwork to unite gifted researchers in these fields, SPACEPOL is today a producer of content, including SPACEPOL Research Network Newswire (SPNW), an accredited and award-winning academic newswire service for the fields of Space Law and Public Technology Policy.

Directlink to the newswire service is available at:

http://www.spacepol.com/rss/feeds/Index.xml

The publisher's site can be visited at:

http://www.spacepol.ca