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TRACK 14: Social Media and Development
Track Chairs
Brian Nicholson
University of Manchester
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Anita Greenhill
University of Manchester
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Yanuar Nugroho
University of Manchester
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Track Description
This stream invites contributions on Social Media and Development with an emphasis on societal change and poverty alleviation. Social Media refers to a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Mobile and fixed line web-based social media offer potential in developing countries to empower individuals and groups by supporting such applications as citizen reporting, crowd sourcing and education. Social media may contribute to poverty alleviation by facilitating sharing of resources (time, expertise, support); information (job opportunities, benefits advice, influence) ; opportunities for capacity-building (to develop skills or start an enterprise); and enables collective action and influence (improving a local area, social campaigning, ensuring a voice in local affairs). It can also reduce corruption and increase institutional transparency, thus improving the effectiveness of state poverty reduction initiatives (Afridi 2011, Bertot et al., 2010).
Papers in this stream will contribute to debates on :
"development 2.0" (Thompson, 2008), "open development" (Smith et al., 2011)
investigations of the informational, capacity-building and enabling role of social media for poverty alleviation building on Heeks (2010) and Madon and Sahay, (2002) for example.
social media for political activism building on Ameripour et al., (2010).
The impacts and the broader notion of new ICT-enabled development models are still debated and this stream will contribute to this discourse. Papers and panel proposals may include (but are not confined to) :
Examples and best practices: How are social media being used in development? How may these applications be analysed and theorised? This may include empirical cases theorised appropriately and methods for supporting and studying social media in development. Examples may include social media and disaster relief, reducing corruption in developing countries; or use of particular social media (e.g. Twitter, Blogs, Facebook etc.) in particular countries for political activism (eg. Indonesia).
Social issues of digital development: social practices of online life, for example dealing with disparate communities, social organising for pleasure or survival; issues of access and digital divide. Privacy, intellectual property, protection of young people.
Development and Empowerment equalities and inequalities, the slowing down and speeding up of experience and life in the digitised social media environment. Topics may include how beneficiaries of power are redistributed, if any, in course of technological exchange. Does the fall of regimes in the so called Arab Spring for example provide examples of enlivened radicalism and empowered populations resulting from social media? or is this explanation reflective of a naive technological determinism? Studies that support or critique utopian / dystopian perspectives on social media effects are welcomed.
Reflexivity between the studies of Social Media and Development: analysis of how discourses around social media affect use of technology and how discourses of social media affect the study of development for example the role of language, ethnicity, technological shortfalls, ethics; ways in which methodological approaches in each field can inform each other. Links between social media in the developing world and development, for example the potential of social media for Open Development.
We welcome panel discussion proposals, work in progress and full research papers to explore the theme of this stream.
For paper format and submission guidelines please refer to the main conference website.
Indicative Sources:
Afridi, A., (2011). Social networks: their role in addressing poverty. Report. Joseph Rowntree Foundation Programme Paper on Poverty and Ethnicity. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Ameripour, A. Nicholson, B, Newman, M (2010) Conviviality of internet social networks: an exploratory study of internet campaigns in Iran. Journal of Information Technology. 25(2): p244-257
Bertot, J.C., Jaeger, P.T., Grimes, J.M., (2010). Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E‐government and social media as openness and anti‐corruption tools for societies. Government Information Quarterly 27(2010), 264‐271.
Ekine, S (2009) SMS Uprising: mobile phone activism in Africa, Fahamu/ Pambazuka, Oxford.
Garrett, R. K. (2006). Protest in an Information Society: A Review of Literature on Social Movements and New ICTs. Information, Communication and Society, 9(2), 202-224
Greenhill A. & Fletcher, G (2009), Blog/shop: its authentic so don’t worry Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, 7(1), pp 39-53
Heeks, R., (2010). Conceptualising ICTs, Enterprise and Poverty Alleviation. Report. Geneva: UNCTAD.
Kaplan,A Haenlein,M (2010) Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media, Business Horizons, 53,(1) 59-68,
Madon, S., Sahay, S., (2002). An information‐based model of NGO mediation for the empowerment of slum dwellers in Bangalore. The Information Society 18(1), 13‐19.
Morozov, E. (2011) The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World. Allen Lane, London
Nugroho, Y. (2011) ‘Opening the black box: The adoption of innovations in the voluntary sector –The case of Indonesian civil society organisations’, Research Policy, 40(5):761-777
Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
Smith, M.L., Elder, L., & Emdon, H. (2011) Open Development: A new theory for ICT4D. Information Technology and International Development, 7(1), iii-ix.
Thompson, M., (2008). ICT and development studies: Towards development 2.0. Journal of International Development 20, 821‐835.
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Track 14: Social Media and Development
