Discourses on ICT and development

(2010) Discourses on ICT and development Information Technologies and International Development, 6 (3). pp. 1-18. ISSN 1544-7529

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Research on ICT and development (ICTD) involves assumptions on the nature of ICT innovation and on the way such innovation contributes to development. In this article I review the multidisciplinary literature on ICTD and identify two perspectives regarding the nature of the ICT innovation process in developing countries - as transfer and diffusion and as socially embedded action - and two perspectives on the development transformation towards which ICT is understood to contribute - progressive transformation and disruptive transformation. I then discuss the four discourses formed by combining the perspectives on the nature of IS innovation and on the development transformation. My review suggests that ICTD research, despite its remarkable theoretical capabilities to study technology innovation in relation to socio-economic context, remains weak in forming convincing arguments on IT-enabled socio-economic development.

Item Type	Article
Copyright holders	© 2010 USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Unless noted otherwise, all ITID content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License: http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/560
Departments	Management
Date Deposited	13 Apr 2011 10:47
URI	https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/35564