Publisher's Synopsis
The author's aim is to present an alternative view to the technology-centred approach which dominates many of the endeavours in the field and to contrast it with a human-centred one. This human-centred approach emphasizes competence and skills as opposed to hardware, and underlines the social choices which are available, thus playing down the deterministic approach of many of the "technology" theorists. The chapters are designed to illustrate a European perspective on a humanistic application of the new manufacturing technology, which is socially acceptable and managerially viable.