ICT4D research: a call for a strong critical approach

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• ICT4D
• critical research
• Escobar
• Spivak
• provenience
• Washington Consensus
• representation
• subjectivity

Notes on contributors

Rahul De' is Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor in ICT for Sustainable Economic Development at IIM Bangalore. He has published over 60 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, refereed conference proceedings, as chapters in books, and an MIS textbook. He has won two outstanding paper awards for his research and one for teaching. He serves on the editorial boards of Information & Management and Government Information Quarterly.

Abhipsa Pal is a third-year doctoral student at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in the area of Information Systems. Her research interests include ICT4D, open development, and information security. Previously, she was a senior systems engineer at Infosys Limited, where she worked for more than three years. She was involved in several projects related to front-end and back-end of Apple Online Store on applications such as search engine optimization and email. She has an engineering degree in Computer Science.

Rupal Sethi is a Doctoral Student in the Decision Sciences and Information Systems Area at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India. She holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering from University School of Information and Communication Technology, New Delhi, India. Her current research is in the areas of association rule mining, interestingness, affordance, social networks and design science of transformational IT.

Sunil K. Reddy is a doctoral candidate in the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is working in the broad area of ICT for education and health in India. His research interests include penetration of ICT in India, appropriation of mobile internet and role of social media in dissemination of information.

Chetan Chitre is a doctoral candidate at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is currently working on use of ICT in school education. His research interests include postdevelopment theory, critical theory and role of technology in society.