The idea behind this assessment is to get you to articulate in words, what you have learned throughout this unit so far. Using the sheet below, select a topic to speak about for 2-3 minutes and show how much you know.
Lesson 3
Technology and inequalities in wellbeing
Technology is a very broad term used to describe a range of different tools, machinery, techniques and systems to solve a problem or achieve a goal. From the times of earliest human societies, people have strived to find new and better ways of growing food, accessing water, treating medical problems and improving sanitation. All of these technological developments were designed to improve wellbeing. Over the last 200 years, there have been many significant advances in technology that have fundamentally changed the way we live and work. These advances have had enormous impacts on societies.
These revolutions, however, were concentrated in Europe and the United States and their impacts were greatest in the parts of the world now known as the developed world. The people of Europe may have been living with the benefits of these revolutions for generations but in many Asian and African countries, they are still using farming methods not seen on Europe’s farms for hundreds of years.
Case study: Differences in dairy farming technology
Differences in the availability and use of technology between the developed world and the developing world can be seen clearly in these examples of dairy farming in Laos and New Zealand.
The woman shown in Source 4.33 is a farmer in Laos. She is bringing her herd of four cows to a small shed leaning against her house. She will spend the next hour or so milking the cows by hand into a bucket. This will provide enough milk for her family to be able to make their evening and morning meals. The cows will stay in the shed overnight and be milked in the early morning. During the day they will be able to wander across the countryside but will be accompanied by one of the children of the family whose daily task is to make sure the cows are fed, keeping the child out of school. Their droppings will be collected and used for fertiliser, fuel for the cooking fire or mixed with straw and used for mud bricks. On some days, the larger cow will be used to plough the family rice field, pulling a plough through the mud.
The farm in Source 4.34 is also a dairy farm. The family ride motorbikes to herd the cows into a mechanised milking shed. Suction cups are attached to the cows’ udders and the milk is pumped into large storage tanks ready for collection by a refrigerated milk tanker later in the day. Because the milking is mechanised, the farmer and one other worker are able to milk 1200 cows twice a day, producing much more milk than the farmer and his family can consume. The milk is sold to the local dairy factory where it is treated and used to supply the needs of the people in towns and cities throughout the South Island of New Zealand.
Information and communications technology (ICT) and wellbeing
Technology is always moving forward. We are currently experiencing a kind of information revolution in which the growth and spread of ideas and knowledge is occurring much more rapidly than at any time in the past. To a large degree this is being fuelled by advances in information and communications technologies (ICT).
ICT has the potential to improve the wellbeing of people throughout the world. Already, the information revolution has made it easier for businesses on opposite sides of the world to work with each other. It has also allowed Western companies to access cheaper labour in developing countries by outsourcing jobs overseas. The outsourcing of jobs in call centres and IT services, for example, has provided new employment opportunities and increased wellbeing in countries such as India and the Philippines. The spread and influence of the information revolution throughout the world, though, remains uneven (Source 4.35).