Low Tech

Research

Vasilis Kostakis:

"Researchers have begun exploring alternative approaches. Tanguy, Carrière, and Laforest (Citation2023) demonstrate that low-tech solutions provide more than simplified technologies; they represent a holistic vision for sustainability that integrates technical, social, and organizational dimensions. Their analysis shows that while resource efficiency and material reuse remain important, small-scale, localized technical appropriation – rendering technology understandable and usable by individuals and communities – emerges as the most frequently cited principle in both literature and practice. This focus on social accessibility and socio-cultural embeddedness fundamentally distinguishes low-tech solutions from mainstream CE approaches. Low-tech principles such as “context-dependency” and “collective networks” emphasize tailoring solutions to local environmental, cultural, and social conditions, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach (Tanguy, Carrière, and Laforest Citation2023). By reconnecting human activities with their direct natural and socio-cultural environments, low-tech approaches may reduce resource consumption while considering local ecosystem capacities, promoting technical sovereignty, and organizing solutions through decentralized, community-driven networks (Tanguy, Carrière, and Laforest Citation2023).

We thus understand “low-tech approaches” not merely as simplified technologies but as holistic socio-technical arrangements that integrate technical, social, and organizational dimensions (Alexander and Yacoumis Citation2018). These approaches emphasize three core “low-tech principles”: technical appropriation that makes technology understandable and modifiable by users; context-dependency that adapts solutions to local environmental and cultural conditions; and reduced external dependency that promotes local technical sovereignty and resilience."

(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2025.2546166#d1e148)