If there is a key word in the United States in the late 1980s, it is "competitiveness." It's a word that's used in many contexts to mean many things. In his new book The Technical Enterprise (Ballinger, 1986) Herbert Fusfeld discusses how social, economic and political pressures like the drive for competitiveness are at work in shaping the technical system today. In this adaptation from the book, he describes the practice of using export controls to keep technological advances from potential adv

Tradeoffs: Imperatives of Choice in a High-Tech World. Edward Wenk Jr. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1986. 272 pp. $19.95. There are many aspects of the interactions between technical advances and society. The average consumer is aware of the products and services available today. Corporations include technical change in strategic business planning, or are forced to adopt new strategies to accommodate it. The conduct of research and development is affected by economic and politi