For the last 40 years, we have seen a tremendous effort in the development of various appropriate technologies for every type of imaginable application.  Volumes have been written, projects have been implemented and documented, success stories abound in Third World development literature.  Yet despite all of this, the Appropriate Technology movement has failed to achieve widespread integration of these technologies into sustainable resource management systems.  Furthermore, the movement has failed to cross the chasm with appropriate technology.  According to Moore (1991), the chasm has been crossed when the chain of adoption goes beyond innovators and first time adopters, and reaches a critical mass at which widespread adoption converts a novel idea into a commonly accepted technology. 

The list of successful appropriate technologies is dizzying in its scope:  solar ovens, windmills for electric and mechanical power, food dehydrators, animal traction implements, hydraulic pumps, composting latrines, water harvesting devices, and biogas converters, to name but a few.  Such an impressive list begs answers to some of the most fundamental questions that the movement now faces:  Where are these technologies?  Why have they not reached a critical mass and moved beyond the innovators and early adopters into the main stream?  And inevitably: What will it take to cross the chasm?

This document attempts to present a methodological approach within a social and cultural context in which some of these important questions can be addressed. 

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