British Technology and European Industrialization Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Map showing location of firms
- 1 Technology and European growth
- 2 The historiography of European industrialization
- 3 Britain and Norway, 1800–1845: two transitions
- 4 Acquisition of technologies by the Norwegian textile firms
- 5 Flows of technological information
- 6 British textile engineering and the Norwegian textile industry
- 7 British agents of Norwegian enterprises
- 8 British workers and the transfer of technology to Norway
- 9 Interrelations among Norwegian firms
- 10 The European dimension
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - British workers and the transfer of technology to Norway
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Map showing location of firms
- 1 Technology and European growth
- 2 The historiography of European industrialization
- 3 Britain and Norway, 1800–1845: two transitions
- 4 Acquisition of technologies by the Norwegian textile firms
- 5 Flows of technological information
- 6 British textile engineering and the Norwegian textile industry
- 7 British agents of Norwegian enterprises
- 8 British workers and the transfer of technology to Norway
- 9 Interrelations among Norwegian firms
- 10 The European dimension
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
A ‘technologyr’ is a complex amalgam of knowledge, skills and devices. Even where technology is defined in terms of information or knowledge, this knowledge resides, to some extent, in people and the skills they possess. Both the definition and the role of a skill pose difficulties for economic and historical writing, where the notion of skill is frequently used in ad hoc ways. While this is not the place for a full discussion of the concept of skill, some points should be made about it since the focus of this chapter is on the problem of skilled labour supply and its role in the technological development of the Norwegian textile industry.
Skills have a number of characteristics. The most important for our purposes here have been described by Nelson and Winter as follows:
In the first place skills are programmatic, in that they involve a sequence of steps with each successive step triggered by and following closely on the completion of the preceding one. Second, the knowledge that underlies a skilful performance is in large measure tacit knowledge, in the sense that the performer is not fully aware of the details of the performance and finds it difficult or impossible to articulate a full account of those details. Third, the exercise of a skill often involves the making of numerous ‘choices’ – but to a considerable extent the options are selected automatically and without awareness that a choice is being made.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Technology and European IndustrializationThe Norwegian Textile Industry in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, pp. 108 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989