The concept of “inadequacy of technology” may be, on the one hand, an enlightening assessment of the technological condition of underdevelopment and, on the other hand, a helpful “focusing device” for an agenda on innovation systems at the periphery. Furtado’s approach on inadequacy of technology may uncover the social roots of the well know “low-growth trap” of less-developed economies. Celso Furtado explains how inadequacy of technology is related to the polarization “modernization-marginalization” that characterizes economies with immature systems of innovation, as the Brazilian economy. This concept also highlights how difficult it is to overcome the complex interplay among unequal income distribution, localized and blocked technical progress and unsustainable economic growth. To overcome the technological inadequacy a dual institutional building seems to be necessary: the innovation systems might co-evolve with welfare systems.

Celso Furtado destaca-se entre os representantes do pensamento econômico latino-americano e é, indubitavelmente, um dos pilares intelectuais do desenvolvimentismo brasileiro. Observa-se na atualidade a apropriação da imagem e de fragmentos do pensamento furtadeano por intelectuais contrários ao projeto desenvolvimentista, mentores de novos paradigmas de desenvolvimento econômico-social que se tornaram hegemônicos nos anos 1990. Esta comunicação tem por objetivo analisar parte desta produção recente através da interpretação de Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira sobre a obra e a trajetória histórica de Furtado, publicada em forma de ensaio intitulado “Método e Paixão em Celso Furtado” (BRESSER-PEREIRA, 2001, pp. 19-43).

O livro, publicado no final de 2001 pela Editora 34, traz, além da apresentação, 14 textos que exploram diferentes facetas da elaboração intelectual e da participação política daquele que foi, seguramente, o cientista social brasileiro mais influente no século XX.

In the second half of the twentieth century no intellectual contributed more than him for the understanding of Brazil. He was committed to its development, frustrated with its incapacity to achieve it, and always acute in analyzing the economic and political challenges that the country successively faced. In order to demonstrate these ideas, the paper presents a broad review of Furtado’s work.