The concept of Social Technology (ST) has been used—within academy and beyond—to mark the boundaries of a domain that is critical of the common positionings of technological determinism and scientific neutrality. The relationship between science, technology and society has resulted in a political agenda that aims to enhance local transformations, citizenship and social inclusion, by coordinating knowledge and practice, and to promote social emancipation. It is in this context, drawing from theoretical studies on science, technology and society, that the present work approached its subject. The research problem was defined in an analytical framework involving the nexus: “conservation unit; social technology; quality of life”, based on an experiment undertaken by the Sustainable Development Institute Mamirauá (IDSM). The aforementioned institute is an active protagonist in tackling technical-scientific problems such as inadequate drinking water and electricity in rural communities of Amazon floodplains. The main objective of the thesis is to analyze the diversity of effects and changes triggered by the IDSM in two riverside communities, located in the Sustainable Development Reserves Mamirauá and Amanã (Médio Solimões region), based on their access to other types of knowledge and technologies. The technologies were developed or reapplied by the IDSM with a technical-scientific perspective, aiming to promote quality of life among the local population as a component of sustainable use environmental conservation. The STs under analysis were water pumped from a river and household lighting, both using photovoltaic solar energy. To this end, the following aspects were considered: the social management—collective or individual—of a new technology proposed by a community; ways in which the aforementioned systems were appropriated; and the challenges and conflicts that interfered in their introduction and use. The methodological approach was designed by combining quantitative and qualitative research procedures, including bibliographic review, participant observation, ethnography and semi-structured interviews. Databases compiling demographic and socio-economic surveys of the Mamiraua and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves, from the years 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2011, were analyzed to identify changes in the families’ lives throughout those years. Qualitative research also allowed the participating families’ perceptions on such changes to be evidenced. The findings indicate that, beyond reaching technical success, a series of measures are required as pertains to the social organization and use of the technologies. In this respect, consideration of the following factors would allow the concept of social technology to be understood in a broader fashion: the degree of the families’ involvement in the process of implementing the ST—in installation and maintenance—; the creation of mechanisms to ensure the systems’ sustainability; the creation of an internal standard and the instatement of a maintenance fund to buy spare parts and repair damages to the equipment; continued training to ensure local technical knowledge, and; follow-up of service failures and interruptions, in addition to user satisfaction. Such mechanisms are necessary as social technologies inherently incorporate innovative forms of organization and participation of the population as concerns the use of available resources.
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