Digital transformation at the margins: a battle for the soul of self-sovereignty

ABSTRACT

As the world watches millions of refugees whose livelihoods ripped apart by deadly missile attacks, this editorial investigates the forces that lead to the marginalization of populations as they battle for their sovereignty from the margins. It draws upon current publications to offer insights into the transformation of the lives of those residing in world's economic margins. Places that were once economic peripheries are now at the center of the digital transformation of the global economy as it changes how those at the margins can attain their freedoms. Insights from patching development and technologies of the oppressed offer unique insights into ways out of the structural oppression. Insights from these and papers published in this issue offer contributions to what we know about digital transformation in the context of socio-economic and human development and how the battle for the soul of self-sovereignty is won by digital transformation at the margins.

1. Introduction

Digital technologies and digitized modes of communication have become part of the fabric of society and the innovative uses of the technologies also known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are driving the transformations of the global economy. The concept of self-sovereignty helps us understand how people can have the ability to choose the direction of their own lives by having control over their identities. This is similar to human freedoms as described by Sen (2013) to include the fulfillment of needs, the liberty to define and pursue our own goals, objectives, and commitments, no matter how they link with our own particular needs. The concept of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is used in Blockchain technology architecture to describe individual control of digital identities that are managed in a distributed, decentralized manner. This authentication mechanism is unique in that individuals’ identity is controlled by themselves (Mühle et al., 2018). Self-sovereignty is used here to understand the quest for human freedoms as individuals seek control of their identities and the ability to choose the direction of their own lives. Given the changes driven by the digital transformation of the global economy, the question arises as to what are the forces at work? How does our digitally powered society offer opportunities to those at the margins? Can these possibilities offered by digital transformation help those at the margins overcome the constraints? This editorial draws upon recent publications that offer insights into the transformation of the lives of those residing in the world’s economic margins. Insights from these and papers published in this issue offer contributions to what we know about how the battle for the soul of self-sovereignty can be won by digital transformation at the margins.

The concept of self-sovereignty as described by Trotter (2014) is about what it means to be fully alive and autonomous. At the same time, individual agency or human freedom to control one’s destiny has restricted how people respond to the actions of one another. The intersubjective character of agency makes it vulnerable to the effects of social inequality, and the agency of the oppressed can sometimes surprises us with its vitality (Krause, 2015). Such exercise of self-sovereignty is particularly true of the Ukrainian people who are fighting to maintain control of the territory that represents their historical identity. The invasion of democracy by a superpower puts Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the heart of battle and resistance against dreaded Russian oppression.¹ Given the military imbalance between Russia and Ukraine, multiple Western countries, including the United States, are offering Ukraine military support. The US, UK, and European Union (EU) have imposed sanctions on Russia targeting the financial sector and individuals affiliated with the government. As part of these sanctions, the EU also placed trade restrictions and Germany halted the certification of the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 while the United States and major oil companies halted the purchase of Russian oil. Further sanctions announced by Australia, Canada, and Japan, are intended to deter the invasion (Statista, 2022). Undeterred by the sanctions, the Russian military continues to pour into Ukraine creating death and destruction in its wake, adding to a burgeoning refugee crisis. Essential to the survival of the displaced populations of the world, those at the margins, is their innovative use of digital technologies.

Digital transformation is taking place to combat fake news disseminated by the Russians; Ukrainian President Zelenskyy distributes videos on social media showing him and his cabinet in military fatigues ready to defend their country in battle, visiting injured soldiers in the hospital offering them medals, and speaking to his people asking them to stay strong. His recorded videos urge Ukrainians to keep fighting and deny Russian reports that he had called on his forces to lay down arms. Russian troops, many of whom told they were liberating Ukraine from the Nazis, face fierce resistance as Ukrainian forces fight hard to hold their cities and freedoms. Communicating through social media, Ukrainian government officials connect with people within and all over the world creating allies. Social media is also used to post images of destruction and casualties caused by the attacks. Protests against the Russian invasion erupt in cities around the world – including Moscow. The populations of both countries are technologically interconnected, educated, and resourceful.² They have experienced human freedoms and desire to maintain them using social media as their avenue for peace. In response to their desire to express themselves, Russian President Putin is repressing social media in Russia to the extent that some US social media companies have ceased operating there.

The right to self-determination and the battle for the soul of self-sovereignty is fought through digital media to the extent that it offers those under attack, oppressed, and at the margins a voice. As the war wages on greater numbers of people are forced into poverty and the margins. The Ukrainian refugees are forced to make do with limited resources in foreign countries while Russians are facing shortages of food at home and isolation from the world as the sanction stake effects and their access to social media is removed. The power of networked communication transcends property and sovereignty making self-sovereignty all the more essential in exercising human agency. Dewandre (2015) offers a view that identification of the idea of sovereignty is useful, in that in many cases people are declaring that the norms of the internet are something new and different that transcend sovereignty and laws, some ‘hacker’ manifestoes going so far as to redefine a ‘hacker’ as someone who is reconfiguring not just code, but society itself. This is illustrated as the war is being waged on the cyber front. An ‘IT Army of Ukraine’ forms a formidable cyber resistance against the disinformation propaganda and cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure by the Russians using their accounts to name specific projects and calls for help to shut down Russian sites, Russian agents and mobilize more volunteers. Their cyberattacks hit Russian banks, government services portals, Kremlin, Russian Parliament, Aerospace, and Railroad websites. Donations are being taken in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether (USDT). Russian banks’ removal from the SWIFT banking system deprived the Russians of the cash they needed to replace the equipment lost in the conflict (Lunden, 2022).

Internet connectivity is an essential part of the infrastructure in the battle for self-sovereignty. In an otherwise improbable alliance, SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk deployed the company's Starlink satellite broadband service to Ukraine in response to a tweet by the Ukrainian President. Jin (2022) reports that SpaceX is sending more terminals to the country, whose internet has been disrupted due to the Russian invasion. SpaceX had 1469 Starlink satellites active and 272 moving to operational orbits to ensure that Ukrainians continue to be connected. While extremely costly to deploy, satellite technology provides internet for people who live in rural or hard-to-serve places without fiber optic cables and cell towers. Such technologies can also support emergency management efforts when hurricanes or other natural disasters disrupt regular communication channels. This offers cyber-utopism or the opportunity will be for citizens to have greater power. Yet, it was not clear how the online sphere would either appropriate that power or utilize it outside of traditional political institutions such as political parties, legislatures, military forces, traditional mass media, or indeed the framework of states themselves (Dewandre, 2015).

Leadership plays an important role in the battle for the soul of democracy and self-sovereignty. Connecting from the Ukrainian capital being bombed by Russians, President Zelenskyy spoke to the European Union (EU) asking to expedite its application to the EU so his country could receive support in fighting to save democracy. Zelenskyy spoke before Britain’s House of Commons where he invoked Winston Churchill, likening the Russian attacks on Ukraine to England’s ‘darkest hour’ during World War II. As the attacks on Ukrainian cities escalated, he spoke to the United States Congress through video requesting a no-fly zone or at the very least allowance to have aircraft systems to protect themselves. In his speech, he called for sanctions to be imposed on politicians in the Russian Federation and said additional packages of sanctions should be approved. Zelenskyy spoke of the need for a new union of countries that would help each other in times of crisis offering all the resources needed to maintain peace. In addition to saving lives around the world, such a union could assist those who are experiencing natural and technological disasters, who fell victims to humanitarian crisis, or epidemics. His concluding remarks spoke directly to Biden: ‘Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of Peace’ (Edmondson, 2022).

In defending his country and democratic values, ‘Zelenskyy has masterfully harnessed the media and galvanized the world. It's just amazing the diversity of people who this person has resonated with’ (Gina Ligon’s interview in NPR: Chakrabarti & Kotsonis, 2022). Hunter and Ligon (2022) identify Zelenskyy as the charismatic hero who offers his followers hope and visions of a better future. People all over the world are drawn to his authentic, populist style as he inspires his people and has become a global icon. Zelenskyy’s background as a previously successful, professional actor who played a role as President, has experience with media, social media, and media content. His virtual tours speaking to global leaders and their people of their collective battle against Soviet oppression have given him the ability to garner the resources his country needs. Russian President Vladimir Putin, is the ideologue, embraces his role by seeking return to a bygone era by attempting to embody the values he believes represent Russia, including projections of strength, history and imperialism. U.S. President Joe Biden is the pragmatist who seeks a path forward by solving problems, attempting to achieve influence through logic and rationality rather than emotional appeals. The three leaders collide in this war. While Russia has a much larger military, Ukraine may survive the conflict due to the disconnect between Putin’s ideological leadership and his people’s tangible practical needs (Hunter & Ligon, 2022).

1.1 Digital transformation for development at the margins

Digital transformation is taking place globally as development efforts evolve with internet users in the world’s economic margins growing. Vial (2019) offers a comprehensive review of digital transformation: technologies play a central role in the creation as well as the reinforcement of disruptions taking place at the society and industry levels. These disruptions trigger strategic responses from the part of organizations central in digital transformation. Organizations use digital technologies to alter the value creation paths they have previously relied upon to remain competitive. To that end, they must implement structural changes and overcome barriers that hinder their transformation effort. These changes lead to positive impacts for organizations as well as, in some instances, for individuals and society. In the development context, digital transformation is changing the way improvements are taking place in the lives of people, their communities and nations. As ever more people and places join this globe-spanning digital network Graham (2019) asks what digitalization and digital production can mean for those in the world’s economic margins. He adds:

‘Places that were once economic peripheries can potentially transcend their spatial, organizational, social, and political constraints. An Indian weaver, a Chinese merchant, and a Kenyan transcriber all have the opportunity to instantly interact with markets outside their local contexts. In other words, possibilities now exist for fundamentally transforming economic geographies.’ (Graham, 2019, p. 1).

Economic geography, the study of the geography of economic activities, developed from a focus on commercial activities and the exploitation of resources for economic gain. While the focus of the field includes sectors of economic activity, including understanding the capitalist world economy, firms, economic development, restructuring, and labor, economic geography has grown to encompass social, cultural, political, and institutional influences that affect the geography of economic activities. The infrastructure that comprises the ‘network of networks’ and the spatial patterns that have emerged in the Internet's short existence have shown a global bias towards the world’s cities (Malecki, 2002). Graham (2019) recognizes that digital information, services, and goods are embedded in broader socio-technical systems. The digitalization of goods, productions, and services is crucial to an increasing amount of economic value creation. On the other hand, digital production of products or services that are themselves digital or digitally transmissible also add to the economic value created. Such transformation of global processes and the production of goods and services comprise the digital transformation of the global economy. Development efforts so far have focused on the implementation of ICTs as agents of change. Some argue that Information Technology for Development (ICT4D) projects have increased inequality in the pursuit of development and failed the poor (Harris, 2016; Unwin & Unwin, 2017). ICT4D researchers are less inclined toward the activities that would make development efforts successful by engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience (Harris, 2016). It is also unclear if, in the economics of innovation, firms located in clusters benefit from territorial learning and knowledge spillovers (Huber, 2012).

The constraints facing those at the margins do not fully transcend possibilities of digital transformation. Due to the rapid rise of digital work around the world, Graham and Anwar (2019) suggest the emergence of a ‘planetary labour market’ in digital work which is the use of online outsourcing platforms that host jobs such as the training of machine learning systems to transcription to live personal assistance and everything in between. These platforms allow for global work whereby large numbers of people can find employers beyond single locations on a planetary scale. This planetary labour market is increasing inequities between workers and employers because it brings about both asymmetrical scalar relationships and uneven spatial ones. Graham and Anwar (2019) explain the growing disparities in the planetary labor market as follows:

While the geography of online labour is far from equally spread around the world, the relative ubiquity of digital connectivity, and the affordances that digital labour platforms provide, mean that employers can now find new workers on the other side of the world in minutes, as long as workers have relevant ICT tools and internet connectivity. However, for workers, the combination of the global market and the oversupply of labour power (or at least the perception of the oversupply of labour power) is experienced as something that significantly depresses the wages they are able to command. (Graham & Anwar, 2019, p. 4)

They explain that the affordances of online outsourcing platforms are designed for workers and clients to connect with one another, rather than for workers to connect with each other. This puts greater power into the hands of employers who can undercut the wages of skilled workers. Digital workers are at a disadvantage as they are unable to connect with each other to be able to counter these forces. The inability of platform workers to have any way of effectively achieving virtual co-presence severely limits their power and ability to create associations or unionize. As the nature of digital work takes place in transactions through the internet, the work of highly skilled digital employees is becoming commoditized across multiple workers across the globe. In their study of digital work of those on the economic margins, Graham and Anwar (2019) found that workers only obtain the type of information employers want to release about themselves, making it hard for these workers to upgrade to new job types. Often they have little information on the production networks that they are part of or their clients, which limits their bargaining power. For example, a worker does not know the industry they are working in would have a hard time offering knowledge they learnt on the job to other potential employers.

While a reliable infrastructure is essential to the digital transformation of society, the world’s infrastructure supporting digital transformation is thus concentrated in the hand of a few technology giants. Google, Amazon, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and Microsoft increasingly dominate the internet’s critical cable infrastructure. Fiber-optic cable, which carries 95% of the world’s international internet traffic, links up most of the world’s data centers. Until recently, the majority of the undersea fiber-optic cables installed, controlled, and used by telecommunications companies and governments, are now in the hands of the technology giants. Now the technology giants’ use 66% of the capacity and have poured more than $90 billion into capital expenditures in 2020 alone. The four technology giants are laying cable to increase bandwidth across the most developed parts of the world and to bring better connectivity to under-served regions like Africa and Southeast Asia. By building their own cables, they are saving money over time that they would have had to pay the cable operators. The ability of these companies to vertically integrate down to the level of the physical infrastructure of the internet reduces the cost of delivering their services (Mims, 2022). This also means that their increasing control over what is becoming an essential means of communication around the world makes those at the margins increasingly vulnerable to their control.

Those at the margins become vulnerable to digital biopolitics or efforts by governments and corporations to maximize knowledge and control of populations using digital means for political and economic power. In this the datafied society, increased data surveillance offered cause for activism and fight for human rights and freedoms (Qureshi, 2021). If the cyber-world is seen as an alternative sphere that is devoid of the true institutions of power and oppression then it can be seen as a place for people to network and collaborate but ultimately only a landscape of ideas. The paradox is that if the online sphere remains ‘pure’ and above traditional political institutions, it also remains relatively powerless and irrelevant in modern political life. As corporate interests began to emerge and quickly dominate the internet there was little protection for a fragile eco-system that relied on norms of communal sharing. Most internet users are unaware of the depth and breadth of personal information that is created via online interactions that are harvested by companies and sometimes state security officials (Dewandre, 2015).

Yet, there is hope for those residing at the margins to exercise human agency through ICTs. ICT4D research has shown that there is a correlation between the use of ICTs and economic performance in some geographic regions (Adeleye et al., 2021; Chatterjee, 2020; Levendis & Lee, 2013; Mayer et al., 2020; Qureshi, 2014; Samoilenko, 2008). Recent studies suggest that the effect of ICT adoption differs significantly across sub-regions and ICT innovation enhances the impact of trade on growth (Adeleye et al., 2021). This suggests that there may be a role geographic and technological distances play in the extent to which ICTs enable economic growth in some regions (Wang & Zhao, 2018). In their analysis of spatial patterns of ICT access and use, Pick et al. (2021) found that the most important and prevalent determinant of usage of technologies is the human development index, defined by the UN as an equal weighting of life expectancy, years of schooling, and gross national income (GNI) per capita. These socio-economic factors create inequities in health outcomes whereby people living in locations with greater resources will have better health outcomes than those who live in rural or areas with limited resources. There appears to be a relationship between access to mobile internet and the ability of people to access the resources they need to stay healthy (Qureshi & Xiong, 2021).

1.2 Technology of the oppressed for self-Sovereignty

Systems of oppression take place in many strata of society through the exclusion of segments of the population due to their ethnic backgrounds, education, income, and/or geographic location. In some countries systems of oppression date back to colonial times, where institutional discrimination keeps segments of the population from progressing. An important avenue for attaining personal freedoms is education. Freire (2021) offers a pedagogy of hope in the face of crisis by seizing upon the challenges and opportunities to make politics, hope, and education central to rethinking politics. He views educational practice as an adventure in unveiling the truth and suggests that hope is an ontological need anchored in practice. The role of an educator is to unveil opportunities for hope, no matter what the obstacles may be. It is through learning that people can take up the possibilities of collective agency and resistance. As the old-World order crumbles and a new one emerges, there is a moment in which established traditions are questioned, new social formations are produced, and the spirit of resistance comes alive. This can be seen in the way the oppressed question the traditions imposed on them by their oppressive colonialists and create new social structures through which they carry out their resistance.

Digital transformation by those at the margins takes place when people across the globe fight against oppression through the use of technologies that offer avenues for self-sovereignty through expression, commerce, and civic engagement. There is a sense that ICTs can help people out of their oppressed existence, the use of ICTs to educate themselves as they lift themselves out of the margins. The innovative uses of ICTs in the Favelas offer unique insights into ways out of the oppression of those living in the margins of Brazilian society. Nemer (2022) explains that to understand oppression, we must comprehend what constitutes the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor. He suggests that prescriptions are guidelines imposed by the consciousness of the prescriber (oppressor) on the consciousness of the prescribed (oppressed) and can be imposed by technological artifacts. Prescriptions imposed through laws and boundaries are designed into algorithms and technological affordances of digital technologies. These technologies are seen to encompass racial bias and algorithmic necropolitics. The term necropolitics is offered by Mbembé and Meintjes (2003) to describe the ways in which weapons are deployed to destroy people and the creation of death-worlds in new and unique forms of social existence. They add that in these death-worlds vast populations are subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead. Their preference for death over continued servitude suggests that the nature of freedom may not be palatable. Achieving self-sovereignty in these conditions takes a great deal of self-determination and ability to fight for individual rights. They add that the:

 … ultimate expression of sovereignty is the production of general norms by a body (the demos) made up of free and equal men and women. These men and women are posited as full subjects capable of self-understanding, self-consciousness, and self-representation. (Mbembé & Meintjes, 2003, p. 4.)

Digital transformation at the margins takes place when the oppressed can use technologies to find their way out of the necropolitics that binds them. The act of oppression is an inevitable outcome of favela residents’ digital experiences stated as follows:

 …  every oppressed favela resident occupies an institutional system designed to exploit them. Digital technologies may be perceived as paving a pathway to a better life, but this route is hardly open to everyone. (Nemer, 2022, p. 16)

Nemer (2022) draws upon Freire’s notion of oppression which is acts of exploitation and violence and a failure to recognize others as persons. Nemer tells the story of the Favelas in Brazil as the site of oppression. They emerged on the hills of Rio de Janiero when freed and runaway enslaved Black people established settlements. Then impoverished soldiers returning from war and rural immigrants fleeing droughts to the fast-growing urban centers in the southeast region joined them. Favela residents have become a vital part of Brazilian urban cities that profit from their labour. The segregation and exclusion of favela residents are perpetuated through government approaches that reinforce colonial social structures in which the relationship between landlord and vassal was always ambivalent, both oppressive and protective, authoritarian, and paternalistic. This is known as ‘paternalistic authoritarianism’, a phrase coined by Gomez Diaz and Rodriguez Ortiz (2006) to explain the systems of authoritarianism, legalism, fatalism, and compadrazgo, that underlie the prejudice. Nemer explains the role of prejudice in the favelas as follows:

Prejudice has been documented since the very beginnings of the hillside residences. In 1900, Jornal do Brasil reported that the Favella hill was ‘infested with vagrants and criminals that are shocking to families.’ … . Since then, the hills came to be seen as a place for dangerous and marginal people. Obviously, back then, there was no marked influence of drug trafficking, so prejudice had a lot to do with race and the customs of the people facing poverty. (Nemer, 2022, p. 13)

Historical inequalities continue to be reinforced by the lighter-skinned and economically well-off middle and upper classes, who constitute the minority that dominates the economic and political resources of the country. Instead of tackling the consequences of social and economic inequality to improve the living conditions and occupational opportunities of the working poor, solutions to violence have historically emphasized repression and violent surveillance. This takes place when upper classes use armed conflict to justify their prejudice against favelas and unfairly associate these neighborhoods with violence, crime, poverty, and lack of order. At the same time, favela communities have a history of working together as a people and solving problems in solidarity. They gather to build houses, pave roads, install sewage systems, clean streets, and help one another solve problems. This collaborative spirit, Nemer adds fills the void left from the paradoxical relation between the excess of state (violence) and the absence of state (lack of infrastructure, health, security, and education). Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto (2000) offers a nuanced view of millions who live in the favelas, shanty towns, and slums surrounding major cities find it difficult to escape poverty because they do not have property rights. He adds that the government and the ruling class often do not allow the favela residents means to formally declare their property and to create capital. They have houses but no papers, harvests but no documents, shops but no articles of association. As credit can only be obtained through property rights, they have little means of creating capital. Property converted into capital provides the opportunity to create, produce and grow; opportunity denied to favela residents.

Nemer describes the role of digital technologies in favelas as appropriating mundane technologies as an act of hope whereby residents use technology to seek liberation from oppression. Favela residents appropriate the keyboard and progressively redesign the keyboard for Latin-script alphabets themselves, taking their time and working at their own pace. This approach benefits favela residents by accounting for first, their human values in a principled and comprehensive manner through the process of value-sensitive design, which exposes the values embedded in the system. Second, a design for transient use of the Mundane Technology ensures that users are conscious of the implications that using the digital technology could have on their lives. Mundane Technology is offered as a concept of how the oppressed critically and consciously appropriate their technologies to liberate themselves from what Nemer (2022) refers to intersectional oppression. Repair is seen to take place as favela residents use Mundane Technologies to maintain and support their everyday lives. The irregular and makeshift infrastructure of favelas made the companies reluctant to provide services to customers who live there. Due to the fluctuating voltage in the power lines, internet providers are reluctant to invest in the physical infrastructure necessary to deliver a reliable broadband connection. This leaves favela residents with slow, unreliable connections shared with five or more computers. Some business owners allude to the danger of running a business late night due to drug cartel activities. Although internet providers were responsible for maintaining their infrastructure in the favelas, they are not keen on improving it and making it more accessible. The Telecenters that provide free access were over one mile away from those areas, and crossing territorial boundaries were not safe due to the armed conflict. By centralizing technological availability, the Local Area Network (LAN) Houses became a source of technological help and knowledge for the favela residents. LAN House operators have the necessary technological knowledge through a combination of hands-on interactions, online videos, and articles rather than formalized training or official certification. The connections in LAN houses are shared with five or more computers with the speed of connection able to handle Windows updates and security patches through the only internet they can access (Nemer, 2022).

The plight of favela residents as described above, point toward an uphill battle for the soul of self-sovereignty. The internet was supposed to be a post-modern collaborative effort that was above the demands of both sovereignty and capitalism. Its inception grew through interactions between software programmers, scientists, and intellectuals who saw the internet grow through collaborative research processes. In recent years, the internet has become the prime locus for business and national controls whereby security services in nations around the globe mine the internet to monitor citizens. Dewandre (2015) suggests that there is a need for the choices people make as they interact online to be made more evident. To attain self-sovereignty, connections to the internet or engagement online need to be informed and to prioritize the rights of citizens over the needs of elites. This means that more nuanced and useful information should be available for people of all generations and socio-economic backgrounds.

1.3 Patching development: informational politics and social change in India

There is hope when a government bureaucracy and a combination of pressure and cooperation from social groups bring about positive change. Patching Development is a concept created by Rajesh Veeraraghavan (2021) to help us understand how states can deliver social benefits to marginalized citizens. His book is concerned with understanding how states can effectively work with local authorities as they exercise their power during the last mile of implementing a development program. Veeraraghavan argues that the main takeaway is that the focus on the politics of implementation deserves full scholarly and policy attention to effectively implement welfare programs. In drawing upon the analogy of software patches that are pushed to secure local computer systems from a central location, he theorizes the patching process can be flexible in responding to new situations – in particular attempts by powerful actors at the ‘last mile’ to thwart development goals. The question he asks is: how can development programs avoid being captured by either state or local power systems? In answering this question, the Indian government’s National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT (NREGA) is one of the largest development program in the world to provide employment on demand and to build useful rural infrastructure. While this program offers rights-based social entitlements and transparency, its implementation is left to state governments. This has revealed that empowering the poor politically and economically runs up against a range of vested interests and social powers. In examining the processes from central bureaucrats to marginalized citizens, Veeraraghavan (2021) focuses specifically on the ‘last mile,’ where local officials oversee the final distribution of grants.

Patching development is defined as an iterative process of implementing policies in a manner that enables them to be adjusted in response to resistance from vested interests. Veeraraghavan (2021) uses patching development as a process of governance to overcome challenges in implementation as well as developmental outcomes. In particular, by patching development, he refers to a socio-technical process that relies on a continuous series of responses that react to local implementation. Patching development aims to alter power equations by directing attention to the mundane minutiae of processes. These include changes in institutions and technology, changes in documents, and changes in other implementation practices and procedures. Political will is an important precondition for the process of patching. Patching highlights the ability of upper-level bureaucrats to access local information about implementation details to address the counter-strategy from powerful actors at the local last mile. The process of patching development has three features: The first process is top down whereby the patch sender is at a higher level and has jurisdiction over the patch receiver. The second feature relates to fine-grained changes in that patches are very specific and make focused alterations to policy. Since patching is an iterative process, the third feature relates to bureaucrats sending multiple patches to the field as new information reaches them. In this way, patching is a continuous cycle of fine-grained changes to implementation. As development can be a political process, patching can be about modifying an existing information infrastructure to accommodate unanticipated uses because of resistance. This process of constantly adapting to local-level problems is essential to patching (Veeraraghavan, 2021).

The iterative use of digital technology can counter local resistance. Veeraraghavan (2021) examines how digital technology and changes in institutions and processes of minutia become an instrument in the struggle for control of administrative processes between upper and lower-level bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Model is a top-down process that focused on controlling the implementation. The bureaucrats did this in two phases: they used a lot of digital technology to control the discretion of the lower-level bureaucrats. The second part of the strategy was to involve NREGA workers in the implementation through a social audit process, which opened up everyday records to workers through a household survey, public meetings at the village and the sub-district level to allow workers to contest these records. Focusing on how the digital technology in Andhra Pradesh was successfully employed Veeraraghavan (2021) offers an analysis of patching technologies of control. Legibility within the state is where upper-level bureaucrats used electronic documents as a tool to control lower-level bureaucrats and make information accessible to citizens so they can monitor the state. This caused resistance from the lower-level bureaucrats who often have to contend with the political realities of the local landed class and political elites. Using technologies to increase legibility involved the creation of a digital system that would give supervisors access to information about the daily practices of lower-level bureaucrats. The software used to implement the program made it easy to modify circulars through software updates. Software patches perform the same function as paper circulars: they announce updates to a particular policy designed to address a problem or improve practices in the field. Like software patches, no one can pretend they have not received the circulars.

The technologies of control centralized the power of upper-level bureaucrats. It also enabled lower-level bureaucrats to cope with local pressure from politicians wanting their favorite projects implemented. The rapid and documented delivery of circulars tightened the upper-level bureaucrats’ control of the implementation of their policies in response to resistance by lower-level bureaucrats. The system prevented the forging of documents through software tools that checked for inconsistencies in the data that was entered. Digitalization of muster rolls, also known as personnel records, enabled the upper-level bureaucrats to increase control over the muster rolls by speeding up the reporting of worker attendance data by requiring filed assistants to record attendance in real time at the worksite using mobile phones every day. Further control of hiring of field assistants, upper-level bureaucrats created a computer algorithm to select employees – thereby excluding local politicians for the decision. One of Veeraraghavan’s most interesting findings is that the upper caste workers ended up having to work on Dalit (lower-caste worker’s) lands. An upper-level bureaucrat who identified a Dalit stated: ‘This is a revolution. This is the first time we have higher-caste people working on Dalit lands’ Veeraraghavan (2021, p. 66).

Fundamentally, patching development is not just about changes in technology, but also changes in governmental institutions and processes that seek to address resistance to the implementation. Veeraraghavan argues that focusing on seeming ‘technical’ details is not a technocratic act, but a political process that needs to be recognized as such. Going beyond the empirical cases he examines, he argues for a model for exercising citizenship over governmental platforms, that would require civil society organizations to develop a new form of politics that pays attention to the mundane minutiae of process that include technical and non-technical aspects such as designing institutions and processes for development.

2. Papers in this issue

Digital transformation is taking place at the margins as people fight for the freedom to determine the course of their own lives. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has illustrated the digital transformation of society as people fight for self-sovereignty. They exercise their human agency for the freedom to live the lives they choose to live is central to the concept of development (Sen, 2013). There is a fundamental transformation in economic geographies as people carry out their social, political, and economic lives on the internet. The innovative uses of technologies by those living in the favelas of Brazil offer unique insights into how the oppressed may be able to overcome the institutional structures that have kept them in the margins of Brazilian society. As development efforts evolve with internet users in the world’s economic margins growing, patching development offers a powerful view of how implementation of technology may be processes of exercising human agency. When understanding how digital transformation is taking place at the margins of society, papers in this issue reflect how human agency is exercised and digital transformation takes place in the context of socio-economic and human development.

The first paper in this issue titled ‘Exploring the impact of ICT usage among indigenous people and their quality of life: operationalizing Sen’s capability approach’ is co-authored by Najmul Hasan, Yukun Bao and Shah Miah. The authors state that numerous indigenous communities suffer from digital divide issues affecting their social, cultural, and economic well-being. As various technologies contribute to creating opportunities and responding to social and cultural changes, it is imperative to explore the wider impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on improving living standards, individual knowledge, and awareness development in these groups of people. The authors conducted their study in Bangladesh and investigated the connection between ICT usage and Sen’s (2000) freedom factors with the objective of measuring quality of life. After an initial qualitative pilot study, a structured questionnaire was administered (n = 250). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results suggest that a strong relationship between ICT usage and Sen’s freedom factors exists in the development of indigenous people’s quality of life. Political freedom has a substantial effect on economic freedom for development. Moreover, economic freedom creates social opportunities as well as transparency.

Moonjung Yim and Ricardo Gomez co-author the second paper titled ‘ICT4D evaluation: its foci, challenges, gaps, limitations, and possible approaches for improvement’. With significant cases of failures in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D or ICTD), much attention has been paid to the importance of evaluation to improve project sustainability. Using the Capability Approach and human development notion as a theoretical lens, this study examines the foci of the ICT4D evaluation, its challenges and gaps, and possible approaches to address the challenges and gaps. Their study conducts content analyses of 108 peer-reviewed journal articles and 114 aid/development agency reports, and interviews with 24 researchers in the academic and practitioner spheres. They found that the foci of the ICT4D evaluation are described in terms of areas such as continental/regional focus, method and research design, notion of development, and evaluation focus. Moreover, the study finds that challenges exist surrounding impact assessment, which can be addressed by clarifying the development notion–impact connection in the evaluation process and focusing on the evaluation capacity building (ECB) of project participants. In addition, they highlight the importance of the domain-based approach in the ICT4D evaluation.

Haibo Hu, Haitao Lu, Tao Huang, William Wei, Chunbing Mao and Stanley Bruce Thomson co-author the third paper titled ‘The Process of Resource Bricolage and Organizational Improvisation in Information Technology Innovation: A Case Study of BDZX in China’. They argue that research has shown there is a connection between bricolage and improvisation. However, discussion about their dynamic relationship in fixed situations is limited. In the context of information technology (IT) innovation, three aspects of corporate strategic actions are analyzed in this article by the exploratory single case study of BDZX in China. They found first that IT innovation has experienced a transformation from component to architectural innovation, triggering corporate strategic actions. Secondly, resource bricolage in the IT innovation process is divided into combined resources and resetting resources, and organizational improvisation in the IT innovation process is divided into integration capabilities and development capabilities. Finally, in IT innovation, the impact of resource bricolage on companies is gradually increasing, while the impact of organizational improvisation on companies is gradually decreasing.

‘Inter-agency information sharing for Chinese e-government development: a comparison between vertical and horizontal dimensions’ co-authored by Dan Ma, Junjie Zhou and Meiyun Zuo is the fourth paper in this issue. The authors suggest that effective inter-agency information sharing can facilitate the internal administration and external service delivery of government agencies, as well as help them address some complex social issues and then promote social development. Thus, how to promote the success of inter-agency information sharing has attracted the attention of researchers and public administrators. A lot of research has investigated the influential factors of inter-agency information sharing; however, few studies have taken account of the governmental administrative systems, which may influence the collaborations among agencies. Given the composition of the Chinese governmental administrative systems, their study investigates and compares the factors that influence inter-agency information sharing in vertical and horizontal dimensions. An extended technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework is used to organize the influential factors. The results show that marked differences in influential factors between vertical and horizontal inter-agency information sharing indeed exist.

‘E-diary: a digital tool for strengthening accountability in agricultural extension’ co-authored by Angella Namyenya, Thomas Daum, Patience Rwamigisa, and Regina Birner is the fifth paper in this issue. Their study aims to assess the potential of smartphone applications for strengthening accountability in public agricultural extension services. Therefore, a smartphone application called ‘e-diary’ was developed and tested in Uganda. A Design Science Research approach was adopted for the development and assessment of the e-diary. Individual face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were used for data collection. Data analysis was conducted using the content analysis method. Their findings indicate that smartphone applications have the potential to strengthen accountability in the public agricultural extension services by enabling remote supervision in real-time, which reduces the costs and time of supervision. However, the study also indicates that the successful implementation of such tools requires incentives such as awards of recognition. These findings contribute to the understanding of the role of ICTs in strengthening the management of public services (such as agricultural extension).

The sixth paper in this issue titled ‘Estimating effects of ICT intensity on productivity, employment and output in South Africa: an industry-level analysis’ is co-authored by Mapula Hildah Lefophane and Mmatlou Kalaba. Their article aims to estimate the effects of ICT intensity on labor productivity, employment, and output of agro-processing industries. To achieve this, the ICT intensity index is applied to rank industries into ‘more ICT-intensive’ and ‘less ICT-intensive’ groups. Thereafter, the annual growth rates of labor productivity, employment and output were calculated. Ultimately, the effects of ICT intensity were examined using Pooled Mean Group estimation, the Toda and Yamamoto Granger Non-Causality Test, and the Impulse Response Function and Variance Decomposition analyses. The findings suggest that ICT intensity yields higher positive and significant effects on the growth of the more ICT-intensive industries. Evidence of a causal relationship was detected for the more ICT-intensive industries. The findings suggest that ICT intensity contributes to the forecast error variance in the growth of the ICT-intensive industries. Overall, this article provides evidence of ICT-led growth for industries that use ICT most intensively.

‘Knowledge economy classification in African countries: A model-based clustering approach’ co-authored by Antonio Rodríguez Andrés, Abraham Otero, and Voxi Heinrich Amavilah is the seventh paper in this issue. The authors contend that the Knowledge economy (KE) has been central in the political-economic literature of advanced economies, but little research has focused on the transition towards a KE in Africa. Using a latent profile analysis, six clusters of the KE were found in the region. The clusters range from very prepared with good performance in all KE dimensions (institutional, education, and innovation output) to very unprepared with low-performance information for each KE dimension. Lastly, policy recommendations that shed some light on the national and international economic policies towards a more knowledge-oriented environment. One such recommendation is that effective policies should consider both the similarities and dissimilarities of African knowledge economies. Future research can consider the precision with which effective policies can be studied in Africa.

The eighth paper in this issue is titled ‘Socioeconomic status and digital inequality: lessons from Cote D’Ivoire’ by Bangaly Kaba and Peter Meso. Their study investigates the problem of digital inequality from a socioeconomic perspective by examining if socioeconomic status moderates the impacts of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on Internet use continuance in a developing country context. The study sheds empirical light on the context of Internet use continuance by demonstrating that mere access to Internet-capable or Internet-connected personal computational devices is not a sufficient precondition for continued Internet use. Rather, Internet Use Continuance is a function of broader economic factors among them socioeconomic status, communal influence, and government influence. Their study also reveals that the effect of subjective norms on Internet use continuance differs across socioeconomic groups. Therefore, they suggest that policymakers ought to consider using specific and targeted mechanisms in bridging digital inequality, particularly in developing country contexts.

‘The role of ICT and effect of national culture on economic growth’ is the final paper in this issue and is co-authored by Parvathi Jayaprakash and Radhakrishna Pillai. The ubiquitous nature of ICT makes it an inevitable choice to address the economic growth of a nation. The literature indicates a positive significance of ICT on economic growth, but the intensity of the usage of ICT highly depends on the nature of the society. Their study uses the perspective that sustained usage of ICT is highly dependent on various factors and facets of the society. Using national culture as a societal facet, the study demonstrates the necessity of congruence between ICT usage and national cultural values to attain the desired level of economic growth. The results indicate that national culture dimensions and ICT have a significant influence on the economic growth of a nation. The study demonstrates variations in using ICT for economic growth depending on cultures in different regions of the world. Their study has implications for policy makers at national and international levels regarding the role of ICT for economic growth.

3. Conclusion

The battle of self-sovereignty is described here in the context of the Ukrainians’ battle for their human freedoms and their right to be alive and fully autonomous. Their fight to maintain control of the territory that represents their historical identity takes place as the digital transformation of society unfolds. There is a fundamental transformation in the economic geographies of people’s social and economic lives as development efforts evolve with internet users in the world’s economic margins growing. The innovative uses of technologies by those living in the favelas of Brazil offer unique insights into how the oppressed may be able to overcome the institutional structures that have kept them on the margins of Brazilian society. Patching development that is a means of offering specific solutions through digital means offers a powerful view of how the implementation of technology may be processes of exercising human agency. When understanding how digital transformation is taking place at the margins of society, papers in this issue reflect how human agency is exercised and digital transformation takes place in the context of socio-economic and human development and how the battle for the soul of self-sovereignty can be won by digital transformation at the margins.

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to Information Technology for Development editors Nancy Pouloudi, Doug Vogel, and James Pick for their detailed, insightful, and very valuable comments on earlier versions of this editorial. Thank you to Rajesh Veeraraghavan for his corrections on my understanding of his concepts on patching development. Special thanks to Mark Graham for introducing me to the possibilities and constraints of the planetary labour market for those at the global margins. To my colleague Nicolas Lalone goes my gratitude for his detailed comments and explanation that the preferred way to refer to disasters as all disasters are human-created and not natural. Natural and technological hazards represent those events that create the devastation of human-created settlements referred to as a ‘Lack of control’ or ‘loss of control’. All their thoughtful comments are very much appreciated as it is the work of editors and reviewers like them that the quality of papers published here continues to rise.

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sajda Qureshi

Sajda Qureshi is Kayser Professor at the Information Systems Department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). She is Editor-in-Chief of the Information Technology for Development Journal and director of the Information Technology for Development mHealth Lab. She has held multiple leadership positions such as President of the AIS International Special Interest Group for Global Development (GlobDev), co-chair of the annual GlobDev workshop at ICIS, and mini-tracks and Global Development Track co-chair at AMCIS. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She and has been awarded the Nebraska University Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA), UNO Graduate Mentor, Faculty Service Learning and Association for Computing Machinery awards. She has secured competitive funded research awards of over a million US dollars and has over 200 publications in peer reviewed books, journals and conferences.

Notes

1 On 24 February 2022, Russian President Putin declared Russia could not feel ‘safe, develop and exist’ because of what he claimed was a constant threat from modern Ukraine. Seeking to overthrow Ukraine's democratically elected government, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the bombing of Ukrainian airports and military headquarters. Led by the Russian president’s reluctance to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) towards its border with Ukraine, cities, including the capital of Ukraine were bombarded by Russian missile attacks. Then tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine from Russia, Russian-annexed Crimea and its ally Belarus (Kirby, 2022).

2 Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine are classified in the World Bank’s ‘low and middle income’ economies with a GNI per capita between $1046 and $4095 (World Bank, 2022). The International Monetary Fund estimates that the growth Ukraine’s growth rate is 3.6% and that of the Russian Federation in 2.9% (IMF, 2022). Ukraine ranks 74 on the Human Development Index with an index of 0.78, its mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people is 122.6 – this means that many people have more than one mobile phone. Almost 60% of Ukrainians are internet users. In Ukraine 80% of the labor force is skilled with a 100% adult literacy rate. The Russian Federation ranks higher at 52 on the Human Development Index with an index of 0.82, its mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people is 157.4 and almost 81% of Russians are internet users. In Russia, 96.1% of the labor force is skilled with a 99.7% literacy rate (UNDP, 2022).