Abstract
This thesis is an analysis of technology based development cooperation, and a story on how technology can include and/or exclude social groups in society, in this case people with disabilities. The focus is on wheelchair aid and provision of assistive devices in developing countries. The travels of a wheelchair and wheelchair technology from a Western country to a developing country are described and analyzed by using the concepts and dimensions of technography. The thesis treats the contextual embeddedness of a technology and the problems that may arise when the technology is transferred to a new environment with new actors to interact with. The main example is a wheelchair aid project called the Local Rehabilitation Workshop (LOREWO) in Oshakati, Namibia. LOREWO is run by and for people with disabilities by repairing, assembling and producing wheelchairs. In describing LOREWO the focus of the thesis is on co-production, exchange and accumulation of knowledge within the project. Later the thesis discusses what kind of opportunities the users experience in their reconfiguration with the wheelchair and what hindrances the wheelchair users face in the interaction between the user, the wheelchair and the surroundings.