Sharing Wisdoms from the East": Developing a Native Theory of ICT4D Using Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM)

Towards a critical-interpretive analysis framework for ICT4D in government

2009

The road of development through Information and Communication technology (ICT4D) is lined with deep potholes and dead ends since little is done to "accumulate either knowledge or practical guidance" (Heeks and Bailur, 2007, p. 243). This paper concerns how ICT can lead to development and, in particular, how ICT can facilitate government policy implementation in a development context; development being the emancipation and/or freedom of people from different forms of domination such as poverty, disease and oppression. Based on a three year ethnographic immersion in an emancipatory oriented longitudinal research project four theories stood out in their ability to offer some answers; the Capabilities Approach, Actor-Network Theory, the Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. Each of the named theories gave resourceful explanatory insights on how ICT can lead to development but each fell short at some point. By adopting an ethnographic approach where various theories explain different parts of the problem but not the whole of it, a theoretical framework was derived from the four theories. The framework was able to more cohesively explain how ICT can lead to development. This paper reports on the process of deriving the theoretical framework and uses the framework to analyse one research setting as a case study. The practical and theoretical contributions of the framework are respectively in its critical interpretivist explanatory power of ICT4D projects as well as in its provision of guidelines on how to conduct ICT4D research.

The Quest for Development-Reviewing ICT4D Research

GlobDev 2008, 2008

Electronic Government (eGovernment) has attracted considerable investment over many years but there is little agreement on how to measure success. This is problematic as eGovernment has ambitions beyond project success -in particular in developing countries it is expected to yield development. There is also both an academic and a practitioner debate on eGovernment assessment in which social and political values are included, meaning an external perspective is beginning to take root. This paper reports a literature study of ICT4D (Information and communications technologies for development) journals, where the focus on development should be the greatest. Our study investigates to what degree case study research on eGovernment and ICT4D focuses on ICT's role for development in developing countries or regions. This means that we examine to what degree evaluations of ICT4D-projects focus development assessment. We find that while a majority of the papers include social factors only a few take an external, i.e. development, perspective. It seems that instead of focusing research on the critical factors in developing countries today, on which we need new knowledge, the majority of the research is repeating studies done in the industrialized world in the past twenty years to which we cannot expect to find neither the solution to the problems in the developing world nor radically new findings to enrich the body of research already existing. This said, the few papers that did have a development focus introduced challenging issues, research on which holds promises of relevance to target countries as well as improving the knowledge base of IS research.

Theory building for ICT4D: the use of theory triangulation in case study research

The dominance of case study methods in ICT for Development (ICT4D) research presents challenges in comparing findings across studies for the purpose of theory building. This paper addresses this issue by outlining a method in theory triangulation as a way to systemize case study research across multiple cases in ICT4D. Three approaches to social development outlined by Hall and Midgley are used to provide contrasting theoretical perspectives on development. These are: Populist, Enterprise and Statist. The application of these three contrasting perspectives using theory triangulation is demonstrated in the analysis of multiple case studies taken from a community technology centers (CTC) program in Australia.

Persistent themes in ICT4D Research: priorities for inter-methodological exchange

2009

“Information and communication technologies for development”(ICT4D) is the name given to a range of activity which considers how electronic technologies can be used towards socio-economic development of developing communities worldwide. Typical technologies considered in ICT4D include PCs, the Internet, and mobile phones, and the domains of application are as broad as global development itself: public health, education, agriculture, microfinance, sanitation, political activism, and so on.

Information Technology for Development ICT4D research: a call for a strong critical approach

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.

ICT4D Research in Developing Countries: A Call for Pragmatism Approach

International Journal of Computer and Information System (IJCIS)

Today, Information Systems research and in particular in the area of ICT4D in developing nations is dominated by positivism and interpretivism paradigms. Information systems contributions are influenced by historical, cultural, and political contexts in which it is done. Researchers in this area question the appropriateness of positivism and interpretivism philosophical foundations to conduct ICT4D research. This paper explores the use of pragmatism as an alternative research paradigm to that can be employed to understand the state of the ICT4D research. Research drawing explicitly on pragmatism is still relatively rare. The paper reviews the pragmatism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, axiology and methodology and its value in the ICT4D research discipline. As a new paradigm, pragmatism disrupts the assumptions of older approaches based on the philosophy of knowledge, while providing promising new directions for conducting and understanding the nature of research in the are...

A holistic perspective on the theoretical foundations for ICT4D research

Information Technology for Development, 2018

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.

An analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives

Analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives

2011

The sustainability of ICT for Development (ICT4D) initiatives remains an enduring concern, and projects typically have a high rate of failure. ICT4D is in flux and the trends are analysed to show how sustainability issues have changed from requirements for external support via governments or funding agencies to self-sufficiency (mainly) based on economic viability. Sustainability is typically defined in terms of financial, social, institutional, technological, and environmental aspects. The major factors influencing the sustainability of ICT4D projects in poor rural areas are summarised via a systems analysis. The questions posed by this analysis may be partially addressed by strategies based upon the concept of human scale development. Two ICT4D initiatives that are concerned with enterprise development are used to illustrate the practical realisation of aspects of such a strategy.

Sharing Wisdoms from the East": Developing a Native Theory of ICT4D Using Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) - Experience from Timor-Leste (original) (raw)

Related papers