TRACK 6: How ICT Frame Development Goals

Track Chairs:

Raoni Rajão

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Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Henrique Cukierman

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Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Ivan Marques

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Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

In the last decades a growing number of scholars have challenged the deterministic assumptions behind the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in promoting development in the Global South, also known by the acronym IT4D. One of the keys points raised by this literature was the “provincialization” of Europe and North America, namely, the development of a perspective whereby the ideas, aspirations and values embedded in many development initiatives and technologies are considered as being specific to specific places and periods rather than being universal and ahistorical. Following this perspective, different authors have explored with increasing depth the ways in which Northern ideas and ICT artifacts clash with Southern social contexts and are reconfigured in new and unexpected ways (e.g. Avgerou and Walsham, 2001; Heeks, 2002; Puri, 2006; Sahay, 1998). More recently, some authors have also put the notion of “development” itself under focus, and challenged its apparent neutrality of development aims in the face of social diversity and continuously evolving historical contexts. In this new context it emerged that not only development (e.g. level of technological expertise, cultural proximity to the North) shape ICT but ICT is also an active actor in shaping what counts as development and how to achieve it (e.g. Avgerou, 2010; Hayes and Rajão, 2011; Thompson, 2008; Zheng, 2009).

This track intends to attract papers that continue to expand the intellectual frontiers of IT4D by proposing new theories to explore the ways in which ICT shape development goals. For this purpose, we invite authors to drawing upon not only the traditional areas related to IT4D, such as organization studies and information systems, such also relatively unchartered areas that could bring fresh insights on the relation between ICT and development. These areas may include post-colonial studies (e.g. Escobar, 1995), social studies of science and technology (e.g. Akrich, 1992) critical geography (e.g. Ó Tuathail, 1996) and history of technology (Medina, 2011).

The papers exploring the relation between ICT and development may be empirical or conceptual. The topics that we expect to develop in the context of this track include (but are not limited to):

• How ICT frame development goals and vice-versa;

• The ways in which “Northern” traces are erased from ICT artifacts as they travel South, and vice-versa;

• How ICT artifacts may evolve locally in ways that betray the expectations of its original designers;

• The political process whereby the difference between “foreign” and “national” ICT is accomplished;

• The proposal of new theoretical frameworks to analyze ICT and development.

For paper format and submission guidelines please refer to the main conference website: https://ifipwg94.org/ifip-wg94-conference

References:

Akrich, M., 1992. The de-scription of technical objects, In: Bijker, W., Law, J. (Eds.), Shaping Technology. MIT Press, Cambridge: MA, pp. 205-224.

Avgerou, C., 2010. Discourses on ICT and development. Information Technologies and International Development. 6: 1-18.

Avgerou, C., Walsham, G., 2001. Information technology in context: studies from the perspective of developing countries. Ashgate Publishing Company, Hampshire, England.

Escobar, A., 1995. Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

Hayes, N., Rajão, R., 2011. Competing institutional logics and sustainable development: the case of geographic information systems in Brazil’s Amazon region. Journal of Information Technology for Development. 17: 4-23.

Heeks, R., 2002. Information systems and developing countries: failure, success, and local improvisations. The Information Society. 18: 101-112.

Medina, E., 2011. Cybernetic revolutionaries: technology and politics in Allende's Chile MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Ó Tuathail, G., 1996. Critical geopolitics: the politics of writing global space. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

Puri, S.K., 2006. Technological frames of stakeholders shaping the SDI implementation: A case study from India. Information Technology for Development. 12: 311-331.

Sahay, S., 1998. Implementing GIS technology in India: some issues of time and space. Accounting, Management and Information Technologies. 8: 147-188.

Thompson, M., 2008. ICT and development studies: towards development 2.0. Journal of International Development. 20: 821-835.

Zheng, Y., 2009. Different spaces for e-development: what can we learn from the capability approach? Information Technology for Development. 15: 66-82.