Introduction

The constantly changing circumstances of rural life in sub-Saharan Africa have brought with them both successes and failures.

The essays in this volume examine the various pressures and inducements to changing resource-use patterns faced by rural households, and explore the two-way causal relationship between technology and technological change on the one hand and other key elements of rural change - demographic, environmental, economic, social, and political - on the other.

Contemporary approaches to the introduction of technical innovations are examined, and new approaches are proposed.

Through case studies of particular communities, the wide-ranging impacts of past experiences are assessed, and the causes and consequences of indigenous initiatives are explored.