Perspectives on Development Sundeep Sahay What is this

Perspectives on Development Sundeep Sahay

What is this course about? • Key objectives: – – To undersstand development To understand ICTs in the context of development To analyze the ICT and development relationshio Is ICTs contributing to a better world Adopting a critical perspective to understand these issues and relationships

What is ICT 4 D? Image sources: http: //www. iwmi. cgiar. org/2013/09/who-can-you-call/; http: //www. indianneurosurgery. com/; http: //www. elfinancierocr. com/finanzas/Walmartofrecera-clientes-alianza-Credomatic_0_389361074. htm; http: //www. alternet. org/economy/black-lives-still-matter

Different Scopes of Development Scope 3: Generic Development Scope 2: Geography. Specific Development Any progressive change in a society Any progressive change in a developing country Development Scope 1: Agenda. Specific Development Particular progressive changes in a developing country

What is a “Developing Country? ” Image source: http: //www. oecd. org/dac/stats/daclist. htm

Defining Information and Communication Knowledge Information Data Image sources: http: //www. northcountrypublicradio. org/news/npr/165206203/in-rural-china-new-leaders-arent-familiar-faces; http: //www. flhsa. org/regional-leaders-chart-new-directions-for-improving-community-health; http: //www. stephencodrington. com/Hub/HK_Blog/Entries/2008/3/12_What_an_experience_in_Majiang!. html

Some points of departure • Development is not a standalone concept, neither is it something new • It is linked with various other concepts – Modernization – Globalization – Growth – Various others • Historically, research and practice have focused on this topic • ICT 4 D is a legitimate sub-discipline concerned with these issues • However, it remains too little and peripheral, and rhetoric far exceeds action

Development Paradigms Dominant Phases of Particular Development Paradigms 1950 s 1960 s 1970 s 1980 s 1990 s 2000 s 2010 s Modernisation Growth as development Technology transfer Transfer of ideas/values Dependency Core-periphery position within world system Breaking away Basic Needs Focus on basic needs High degree of state intervention (agricultural policies, credit, etc) Neo-Liberalism Beginning of retreat of the state Focus on markets – getting prices right Human Development Multi-dimensional – micro-credit, gender, environment, poverty, etc. Greater focus on participatory methods Post-Development Idea and discourse of development as problematic Sustainable Development Meeting current needs without compromising future needs; especially environment International Development Goals Millennium Development Goals Sustainable Development Goals Adapted from: Ellis & Biggs (2001) and Heeks (2009 a)

Some underlying critiques • Development: «making a better world for all» • No one will dispute this – it is feel good • Carries with it a neo-liberal ideology, which resontes with the Western notions of democracy, freedom and economic growth • But it also hides more than what it reveals – the world is (not) flat – The multiplicity of agendas in the development market – Power assymetries – Historical inequities 11. april 2011 Ny Powerpoint mal 2011 10

Critiques of ICT 4 D Development Paradigm ICT Role Modernisation ICTs transferred from global North have a central role in delivering economic growth and new cultural values Dependency ICTs transferred from global North could be exploitative, and greater emphasis should be on local development of ICTs which would have a central role in delivering economic growth Neo-Liberalism ICTs have an important role in connected enterprises and countries to local and global markets, and in increasing the efficiency of – and delivering alternatives to – the state Human Development ICTs are not central but locally-appropriate digital applications could deliver social and other development outcomes for those on lowest incomes Post. Development ICTs are not central but are carriers of discourse and sites for both exclusive and alternative approaches to development Sustainable Development ICTs are not central and can deliver either sustainable and just, or unsustainable and unjust development depending on the type of application Source: developed from Prakash & De’ (2007) and Thapa & Saebo (2014)

Exercise Look online to find the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and identify the ICT-specific targets within those goals.

Critiques of ICT 4 D Development Paradigm ICT Role Modernisation ICTs transferred from global North have a central role in delivering economic growth and new cultural values Dependency ICTs transferred from global North could be exploitative, and greater emphasis should be on local development of ICTs which would have a central role in delivering economic growth Neo-Liberalism ICTs have an important role in connected enterprises and countries to local and global markets, and in increasing the efficiency of – and delivering alternatives to – the state Human Development ICTs are not central but locally-appropriate digital applications could deliver social and other development outcomes for those on lowest incomes Post. Development ICTs are not central but are carriers of discourse and sites for both exclusive and alternative approaches to development Sustainable Development ICTs are not central and can deliver either sustainable and just, or unsustainable and unjust development depending on the type of application Source: developed from Prakash & De’ (2007) and Thapa & Saebo (2014)

Disciplinary Foundations for Development Informatics Sociology Science/ Technology Studies Organisation/ Management Studies Technology & Development Information Systems Development Studies Development Informatics Information Science Communication Studies Computer Science Governance Economics Source: Heeks (2010 c)

Some perspetctives we examine • • • Classical and neo-classical economics Marxisim and social transformation Poscolonial perspectives Development as freedom Globalization, marginalization and development 11. april 2011 Ny Powerpoint mal 2011 15

The Neo Classical Perspective – 1944 Bretton Woods Conference – the “proximate beginning of international aid was the agreement to create an International Bank of Reconstruction Aid and Development” (Rostow 1985) – The foundational institutions – World Bank/IMF 11. april 2011 Ny Powerpoint mal 2011 16

Underlying principles • There is nothing called society - Thatcher • Top down approach to development planning…marginal space for local views • Neutrality of scientific knowledge • Economic rationality – “trickle down effect” • Universal applicability of scientific and economic principles. . • Superiority over traditional knowledge • Technology determinism as development strategy 11. april 2011 Ny Powerpoint mal 2011 17

Some critiques • GDP a very uni-dimensional criteria • Ulterior motive of promoting the first world’s strategic and commercial interests through recolonization • Being un-democratic • Merely comprising transfer of western technology, knowledge, resources and organizational forms to developing country to make them acquire “modernity” • “You will soon become like us“ – replication model 11. april 2011 Ny Powerpoint mal 2011 18

Some outcomes • World Bank ploughed more than USD 50 billion since 1975 without being able to make any dent on poverty • “The idea of development stands like a ruin in the intellectual landscape. Delusion and disappointment, failures and crime have been the companions of development, and they tell a common story: it did not work. ”

Postcolonial critique • Arturo Escobar's 1995 book Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World • International development serves as a mechanism to promote the agenda of postcolonialism and cultural imperialism • Poor countries have little means to decline politely • Development seen as ontologically cultural • Use of Michel Foucalts’s discourse analysis • Another wonder example is Edward Said’s Orientalism • “Development planning was not only a problem to the extent that it failed; it was a problem even when it succeeded, because it so strongly set the terms for how people in poor countries could live". [ • l

Design-Reality Gap Model Information Technology Processes Objectives and values Skills and knowledge Management systems and structures Other resources Reality ICT 4 D System Design Gap Adapted from Heeks (2002 b)