27 / 2007 ICT and development studies : towards development

This paper calls for a more committed engagement between ICT practitioners and the development community, and seeks to make two contributions. The first is to show how it has never been more important, as the more mature discipline, for development studies to critique the operation of developmental ICT at policy level, as well as to inform and educate the increasing numbers of, usually foreign, ICT investors and practitioners who are involving themselves in these emerging markets. The second contribution is a description of the fundamental challenge that recent Web 2.0 models of networked social interaction are increasingly likely to pose to more established approaches and debates within development studies itself. Having outlined the challenge, the paper looks at how such thinking, conceived as ’Development 2.0’, may contribute to four of the most pressing current debates within development studies today. Finally, the paper concludes with an acknowledgement of some of the immediate constraints to the transformational potential of Development 2.0, and outlines some work that will be required to develop these ideas further. 1. ICT AND ‘DEVELOPMENT’ HAVE NEVER BEEN SO MUTUALLY IMPORTANT 1.1 Development studies’ challenge to ICT at Policy level: a political economy of developmental ICT The theme of 2007’s DSA conference exemplifies the unprecedented focus on the potential of technology as a catalyst for economic and social development, a focus that is mirrored by the increasing levels of interest being shown in information and communications technologies (ICT) within the developmental context (World Bank 2005), of which the launch of the $100 laptop this summer is perhaps emblematic. It is surely instructive that ICT is seen as a crucial enabling infrastructure for future progress within four of Sen’s (1999:xii) five developmental indicators: economic opportunities, political freedoms, social facilities, and transparency guarantees – and in the development of ‘knowledge societies’ as a key accelerator for development (UNESCO 2005). This increasing, global role of ICT as both medium and platform for cultural and economic