1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Technology dynamics is broad and relatively new scientific field that has been developed in the framework of the postwar science and technology studies field.
For the last three decades, it has been argued that technology development is neither an autonomous process, determined by the "inherent progress" of human history, nor a process completely determined by external conditions like the prices of the resources that are needed to operate (develop) a technology, as it is theorized in neoclassical economic thinking.
In mainstream neoclassical economic thinking, technology is seen as an exogenous factor: at the moment a technology is required, the most appropriate version can be taken down from the shelf based on costs of labor, capital and eventually raw materials.
In that respect, it uses insights from retrospective studies to formulate hypotheses of a prospective nature on technology development of emerging technologies, besides formulating prescriptive policy recommendations.
Based on the analysis of the various perspectives, one can aim at developing interventions in the dynamics of a technology.