Rethinking positive and negative impacts of ‘ICT for development’ through the holistic lens of the sustainable development goals

ABSTRACT

The field of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) is driven by the conviction that ICTs can be used to improve peoples’ lives. Yet, it often faces criticism related to the negative effects that are associated with ICTs. Instead of viewing these as arguments against ICT4D, this article presents an integrated approach to incorporating them in our conceptualization of ICT4D impact. For this purpose, we envision a framework that is grounded in the interrelated set of Sustainable Development Goals, which make the complex interdependencies between different development goals explicit. By mapping the potentially harmful impact of ICTs within this network of goals, this framework provides a point of reference for holistically conceptualizing ICTs’ negative impact through the lens of policy coherence. Based on this framework, this article discusses, how to conceptualize ICT4D impact, taking into account the multidimensional implications for the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development.     

Conceptualising the link between information systems and resilience: A developing country field study

Resilience—the ability of systems to cope with external shocks and trends—is a topic of increasing interest to research and practice. That growing interest is reflected within information systems (IS), but a structured review of IS literature shows a number of knowledge gaps around the conceptual and empirical application of resilience. This paper investigates what the subdiscipline of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) can contribute; finding that it offers the IS discipline fresh insights that can be built into a new framework of resilience, and an arena within which this new framework can appropriately be field tested. Application of the resilience framework was undertaken through interviews and a survey in an urban community in Costa Rica; benchmarking both community resilience and “e‐resilience” (understood here as the contribution of ICTs to community resilience), and developing from these a set of action priorities. The paper reflects on what can be learned generally from this conceptualisation and operationalisation of resilience. It also reflects on what ICTs contribute to resilience in developing countries and on what this ICT4D‐based research specifically contributes to the identified IS knowledge gaps. This includes identification of a future research agenda on information systems and resilience.     

Taking technology to the field: hardware challenges in developing countries

A great deal has been written about the various socio-political, economic, and cultural reasons that information and communications technologies (ICTs) fail to achieve the potential they represent. Far less attention has been paid to the technology itself, and the role that the hardware plays in the success or failure of ICT4D. Along these lines, we find a disconnect between much of the scholarly ICT4D research and many of the needs and concerns of practitioners and intended beneficiaries. Using interviews and surveys, this article asks ICT4D practitioners and end-users about the technology and hardware needs and challenges they face in the field. These practitioners consistently suggest that electricity is the most important hardware-related concern, followed closely by cost, robustness/ruggedness, and ease of maintenance/repair. We argue for the inclusion of hardware and technology considerations in the planning and implementation of ICT4D projects. Failure to address these concerns may account for the underperformance of many technologies in the development context.     

Blogging for ICT4D: reflecting and engaging with peers to build development discourse

Information and Communication Technology‐enabled Development (ICT4D) discourse relies upon the idea that ICTs can foster development in particular by encouraging wider participation in development initiatives. In this paper, we question how the blogging practices of development professionals shape such ICT4D discourse. Through a combination of interviews and analyses of blog contents, we examine two major purposes of blogging: reflecting upon development practices and engaging with a self‐selected audience. Our analyses reveal that these two purposes were interwoven in ways that contributed to making bloggers' ICT4D discourse innovative but oriented towards a small community of peers rather than a larger audience. Through blogging, development professionals refined their expertise on ICT4D. As they did so, they also generated a personal speaker's corner that primarily attracted like‐minded peers rather than promoting larger participation in ICT4D discourse. This research contributes to the emerging literature on social media practices by showing how blogging practices enable the formation of what a discourse is about, and by highlighting differences between perceived and actual levels of interactions between bloggers and their audience. The paper also adds to the ICT and development literatures by revealing that blogging practices can deepen ICT4D discourse, but that they do not necessarily enhance participation in development. Such insight is crucial for development professionals to develop realistic expectations of blogging for ICT4D.     

Building theory in ICT4D evaluation: a comprehensive approach to assessing outcome and impact*

ABSTRACT

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) act as tools for social change and development; however, there is still limited empirical evidence that demonstrates this. An outcome and impact assessment based on a comprehensive (holistic) evaluation is deemed appropriate at a time when many ICT4D programs fail to effectively demonstrate their impact toward rural development and how that impact came about. The purpose of this research is to identify the components for an outcome and impact assessment framework that is based on a comprehensive approach to evaluation. The authors applied a theoretical approach using Weicks theorizing process to develop the framework. The theoretical approach analyzed existing outcome and impact assessment frameworks from different fields beyond ICT4D. The output of this research proposed five key outcome and impact themes, which are informed by preceding domains of evaluation, essential for the assessment of ICT4D programs. These themes include Strategic Value, Most Significant Change, Empowerment, Livelihoods and Sustainability.     

ICT4D research: a call for a strong critical approach

ABSTRACT

ICT for development ( ICT4D) research seeks to examine the social and economic changes in developing countries brought about by the deployment and use of ICT. This intent of ICT4D research parallels that of the critical research paradigm in IS, since both focus on transformation and change. The overall goals of this paper are to( 1)understand the extent of critical research in ICT4Dand ( 2)propose an approach, the“strong critical” approach, to conduct critical research in ICT4D. The proposed approach is based on the writings of two social theorists, Arturo Escobar and Gayatri Spivak, and consists of four concepts– the nature of the post-colonial state, provenience or local history of the ICT phenomena, the influence of the Washington Consensusand the issues of representation and subjectivity of subaltern subjects. A review of ICT4D papers showed that only about 20% follow the critical research approach. In-depth reviews ofeight papers that follow the critical approach showed that the“strong critical” lens can enable a deeper and richer analysis. The main contribution of this paper is in addressing a gap in the ICT4D literature about theorizing in the context of developing countries. The paper also reveals, through in-depth reviews, the value of the strong critical approach.     

Factors contributing to adoption and use of information and communication technologies within research collaborations in Kenya

Use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support research work is becoming increasingly common. This study set out to establish how ICTs are being used to support collaborative research in Kenya, and identify factors within the ICT ecosystem that contribute to their adoption and use. A mixed methods research design, involving 248 academic scientists in 4 disciplines across 4 major Kenyan universities, was employed. We find little diversity in forms of ICTs used to support collaborative research within the studied population. Several factors affect adoption and use practices, including availability and access to ICT resources, nature of the work, national and institutional ICT and research environments and the social cultural practices of researchers. We explain our findings using Venkatesh et al.’s Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model, which identifies four main constructs that affect adoption of technology such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and social influence.     

How ICT4D Research Fails the Poor

Research can improve development policies and practices and funders increasingly require evidence of such socioeconomic impact from their investments. This article questions whether information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research conforms to the requirements for achieving socioeconomic impact. We report on a literature review of the impact of research in international development and a survey of ICT4D researchers who assessed the extent to which they follow practices for achieving socioeconomic impact. The findings suggest that while ICT4D researchers are interested in influencing both practice and policy, they are less inclined toward the activities that would make this happen, especially engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience. Their institutions do not provide incentives for researchers to adopt these practices. ICT4D researchers and their institutions should engage more closely with the users of their research through more and better communications with the public, especially through the use of information and communication technologies.     

ICT Research in Africa: Need for a Strategic Developmental Focus

This paper argues the need to expand the research agenda on the use of ICT in African countries to include a stronger strategic developmental focus than is evident in much of the literature to date. Four strategic dimensions are identified, where ICT arguably has potential as a significant enabler for transformational development in Africa: institutional infrastructure; governance, accountability, and civil society; service production and economic activity; and access to global markets and resources. A representative set of literature on IS in Africa is classified along these dimensions, but an explicit focus on development is found to be lacking in most of this work. The four dimensions are then discussed in turn to describe their importance in the African context, to discuss some pathfinding research examples to date and to identify some directions for future research. The paper concludes with a call for IS researchers working on Africa to become involved in debate on national and international policy from an ICT perspective and to engage with other research communities in doing this, notably with those concerned with the field of African development.     

Managing perceived communication failures with affordances of ICTs

Affordances of information communication technology (ICT) are often thought to influence communicators’ usage of a communication technology. This is not surprising since ICTs vary on different dimensions; some ICTs may impose constraints while others afford certain resources. Despite the widespread usage of ICTs in the workplace, we are still not clear about how affordances of ICTs support communicators during ICT-supported interaction. This exploratory study aims to understand the relationship between affordances of ICTs and perceived communication failures (i.e. low, moderate, high). Data for this research was collected from a leading global IT consulting company. We found strong association between affordances of ICT and perceived communication failures. In particular, we found that textual and audio affordances were used to manage high perceived communication failures. Additionally, we were able to identify the core and tangential affordances of ICTs that were useful to help organization communicators enhance their communication competence and reduce potential communication failures.     

Conceptualizing development in information and communication technology for development (ICT4D)

ABSTRACT

ICT4D research is faced with the challenge of rapidly changing technologies and increasingly complex social dynamics and development processes. We argue that ICT4D research requires a more acute sense of where our research is situated within a broader picture of development, e.g. with a better understanding of development processes, their ideological nature, the power structures and driving forces, and the mechanisms through which ICTs may be embedded in and shape these processes. Such a reflexivity is crucial not least in justifying our claims of contribution, but also in understanding the implications and potential impact of our research and practice. This editorial seeks to explore key conceptual components in ICT4D and their relationships, including dimensions of development, perspectives of development, conceptions of artefacts, and theory of change. A tentative conceptual schema is presented that connects these conceptual components.     

A holistic perspective on the theoretical foundations for ICT4D research

ABSTRACT

While many theories have guided research Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), we are yet to construct a clear and coherent narrative that would help us answer the question of how ICT fosters development in underdeveloped communities. In this paper, we argue that one of the main reasons for this is that our holistic understanding of ICT4D is seldom grounded in theories to understand the core areas that define the field, namely, ICT, Development, and, ‘4’ which are the transformative processes that link the two. Through a brief literature review, we list theories that have informed ICT4D research in each of these areas. We present examples of theories, namely, Capability Approach, Affordances, and Actor-Network Theory together with Social Capital and illustrate how we have used them in our research. Building on this holistic perspective on theoretical foundation, we propose five agendas for ICT4D research.     

Are we Building a Better World with ICTs? Empirically Examining this Question in the Domain of Public Health in India

As social scientists engaged in Information Technologies for Development (IT4D), a question we need to necessarily engage with is “are we building a better world with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)?” This question, first posed by Professor Geoff Walsham in the IS field, was the topic of my plenary discussion at the IFIP 9.4 meeting in Jamaica 2014, and had now been further developed to this “view from practice” paper for this journal. A first step in this paper has been the reformulation of the question which Professor Walsham raised: “What distortions and obstacles are created by the historical, material, and institutional conditions, and how these shape our efforts of ICTs creating a better world?” This reformulation is done to bring in more explicitly the political dimension into the question, and to nuance the technological deterministic argument implied in the question of technology (always) creating a better world. Taking an empirical example of an ICT intervention from the public health sector in India, deliberately chosen to emphasize distortions typically seen is similar Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) projects, the analysis focuses on understanding the conditions of distortions, why they occur, and what can be done differently to contribute to our notion of a better world.     

ICT for socio-economic development: A citizens’ perspective

There is a widespread belief that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play a significant role in the socio-economic development of a developing country. ICT has the potential to affect many aspects of economic and societal activities such as GDP growth, employment, productivity, poverty alleviation, quality of life, education, and healthcare. While the literature provides a myriad of definitions and elements of socio-economic development, the focus tends to be on theoretical conceptualizations from various disciplines and impacts from isolated individual projects. In particular, the impact of ICT on socio-economic development has not been carefully examined from the viewpoint of the ultimate stakeholder, the citizens of a country, who are the final consumers of the technology. This study fills this gap by focusing on the citizens’ view in describing ICT-driven socio-economic development in a developing country. A theoretical framework influenced by the “capabilities approach” was developed to guide this research, and the interpretive stance was used to conduct the study. More specifically, the narrative research method, which is seldom used in IS research but is appropriate for this study, was used. Narratives allow deeper and profound insights into social representations and participants' beliefs about the role of ICT in socio-economic development. Using this methodology, a model of the impact dimensions of socio-economic development is presented.     

Unveiling the modernity bias: a critical examination of the politics of ICT4D

The issue of politics in information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) research is rarely debated, yet one of the key instrumental freedoms proposed by Sen [(1999). Development as freedom. New York: First Anchor Books] in his seminal book on development is political liberty for individuals. We argue that ICT4D initiatives are predominantly informed by a modernist philosophy, which in their effort to bring some material progress risk granting technological tools a major role. This view assumes that ICT4D users are merely passive recipients of the benefits of technology. Moreover, it implies that development can only be brought by those in a more developed, powerful position. This in itself is a political viewpoint, and thus politics is embedded in the design of ICT4D projects. Building on Sen's (1999) capability framework, we discuss how far ICT4D projects are able to assist political liberty of the alleged beneficiaries, given that political liberties are constrained by wider institutional factors. We conclude by making a call for researchers to more critically examine the structure and intention of ICT4D projects.     

Research on information systems in developing countries: Current landscape and future prospects

The current landscape of the information systems research literature concerned with developing countries is surveyed by examining a range of research articles published from 2000 onward. These are discussed in terms of the key challenges addressed, including the role of technology, and the methodological and theoretical approaches used. Prospects for future research are discussed, based on a conceptual view as to how to study information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries, to classify existing work, identify gaps, and suggest future opportunities. The authors contribute to the important debate on how ICTs in general, and information systems research in particular, can make a positive difference in the developing countries. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ICT adoption in Cameroon SME: application of Bass diffusion model*

ABSTRACT

In almost all low-income countries, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a primary engine for the country’s economic development. While many information and communications technology (ICT) diffusion studies exist, only few focus on low-income countries and even fewer employ Bass-based analysis to examine ICT diffusion in these countries. This study applies the Bass diffusion model to understand SME adoption of ICT in Cameroon, a low-income country. The Bass model was employed because of its predictive capacity. We find that diffusion of ICT among SMEs in the context of a low-income economy is largely driven by forces of imitation rather than forces of innovation. Contributing to practice, this study finds that SMEs with greater sizes, multiple plants, and whose owners have higher education have a greater tendency to adopt ICT early. The theoretical contribution of the paper is applying the well-recognized Bass model from marketing to the IT/IS field and applying it within a low-income country environment by evaluating diffusion of ICTs among SMEs in Cameroon.     

From public policy to family practices: researching the everyday realities of families' technology use at home

Informed by ‘critical’ approaches to ‘educational technology’, this paper aims to move away from presenting a ‘could’ and ‘should’ explanation of children learning with technology to a more nuanced, context‐rich analyses of how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used by technologically privileged families at home. Here, a critical approach means locating the findings within a framework, which not only includes reference to the policies and politics of educational technology, but also takes account of uneven, contested, and contradictory uses of ICT in everyday family life. To achieve this, the paper presents accounts of technology use in situ from eight case families. The data reveal that although ICTs were purchased for their perceived educational potential, how parents and children approached and used them in the home for learning was entwined with many other dimensions of social life. The findings suggest that there is a need to move beyond one‐dimensional debates, such as access to ICT ensures use, to more nuanced accounts that focus on the ‘messy’ realities of ICTs usage ‘as it happens’ in the home. In sum, more explicit empirically based information on ICT practices in the home need to be made available for policymakers and families.     

Analyzing conflict and its management within ICT4D partnerships: an institutional logics perspective

ABSTRACT

Promotion and presence of partnerships have been growing within information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). Yet – despite limited analytical literature on this topic – it is clear that the reality of ICT4D partnerships often undershoots the potential, with frequent reports of failure, particularly arising from conflict between partners. This paper addresses calls for more and better-conceptualized research into ICT4D partnerships, with a specific focus on understanding the roots and management of conflict in such partnerships. We use qualitative field data from a Malaysian IT “impact sourcing” public–private partnership case study, viewed through the lens of institutional logics and conflict management strategies. Analysis of three vignettes from the negotiation of the initiative shows one partner always used a competitive approach to conflict management. This led issues to remain unresolved and led the partnership arrangement to steadily loosen. The outcome was always domination of private logic over public logic. As a result, and lacking an overt advocate, welfare goals of the partnership were somewhat sidelined. Our paper contributes by showing (a) how institutional logics helps explain the outcome of ICT4D partnerships, and (b) how the conflict management strategies framework helps explain the practice of conflicting institutional logics in such partnerships.     

The practice of ICT-enabled development

ABSTRACT

While information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) research examines the diverse range of topics, settings, and technologies, there has been a lack of attention on theorizing the process of information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled development. This paper draws on Bourdieu’s practice theory to provide a framework for doing so. This framework captures the multi-level, generative, and processual nature of ICT-enabled development, and illustrates that ICT-enabled development is an ongoing activity that is recreated, reinforced, and restricted by the interaction between the dispositions of the stakeholders involved and changes in the various forms of capital that are valued in a community. The utility of the framework is illustrated by using practice theory to re-analyze three ICT4D initiatives from the literature.