There is evidence to suggest that a good number of scientists working on energy do recognise, perhaps increasingly, that social factors play a crucial role in any successful development and diffusion of new wood/charcoal stoves. Consequently, is there is one major stumbling block to the development and diffusion of new stoves, it is likely to be not so much the failure to acknowledge the significance of socio-economic factors in the endeavour, as the apparent inability to bridge the gap between theory and practice. In this paper – a revised version of a paper presented at a Wood Energy Workshop held in Nairobi, October 1982 – some suggestions are made on how the said gap can be bridged sufficiently to make a difference in both the substance and style of prototype development. In addition, the theoretical underpinnings of technology development and diffusion are briefly discussed. Fig., ref., sum. (also in French p. 189).
