Anthropotechnology: Reframing Technology Transfer as a Human Encounter

This chapter explores anthropotechnology as a framework for understanding technology transfer, with a focus on the Airbus–CTRM collaboration in Malaysia. It argues that technology transfer is never a neutral, purely technical process, but always mediated by cultural assumptions, practices and negotiations. Drawing on the insights of Alain Wisner and subsequent developments in ergonomics and anthropology, the chapter highlights how cultural brokers facilitated the adaptation of European aerospace technologies into Malaysian contexts. Through the case study of VR training and composite manufacturing, it illustrates the tensions and creative adaptations that arise when imported systems meet local practices. The chapter concludes by framing technology transfer as a cultural encounter, in which hybridity rather than replication becomes the marker of success.