Readily available technologies in low-resource communities: a review and synthesis

ABSTRACT

Socioeconomic changes in recent years have forced a shift in focus from resource abundance to resource scarcity and from top-down solutions to bottom-up, community-driven solutions. Consequently, novel research has emerged on how resource-scarce communities innovate by leveraging readily available technologies that are more accessible and affordable than other technologies. This paper presents a scoping literature review on the role of Readily Available Technologies (RATs) in Low-Resource Communities (LRCs) and identifies knowledge gaps as well as future research opportunities. We analyzed 49 articles published in relevant, high-quality journals between 2010 and 2021. We propose a framework illustrating the interactions among RATs, community actors in LRCs, and contextual factors. Through a theoretical framework, this article raises awareness about how practitioners utilize RATs in various LRC contexts to facilitate community and economic development. It lays the foundation for future theoretical and empirical development and provides guidance to practitioners for fostering RAT-driven community development.

KEYWORDS:

• Readily available technologies
• low-resource communities
• community development
• scoping review

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Abby Golub, Sumaiya Siddiqua, Arnoosh Golestanian, and Adeleine Pascua-Matte for their feedback on earlier versions of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://ai100.stanford.edu/2016-report/section-ii-ai-domain/low-resource-communities

2 https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/backgrounders/Pages/icts-to-achieve-the-united-nations-sustainable-development-goals.aspx

3 *5 papers did not mention the explicit terms/categorizations (e.g., financial shortage) that we have in Figure 6. However, they implicitly covered issues dealing with LRCs and this was represented in their discussion. After analyzing those papers, we agreed that they still fall under the “low-resource” context. For instance, we interpreted the mentioned rural areas in Haenssgen and Ariana’s study (2017) as places having geographical and financial limitations as the broader literature generally supports this assertion.

4 Devices connected via the internet and other digital communications protocols that could be controlled remotely.

Additional information

Funding

SSHRC Institutional Grant (SIG) Explore and The National Bank Initiative for Entrepreneurship and Family Business at The John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.