ICT for development reconsidered: a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance

This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries

Explaining trust in large biometric infrastructures: A critical realist case study of India's Aadhaar project

The need for formulation of solid explanatory theories is heightened in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) by the high incidence of failure, which involves substantial costs for the countries affected. A core argument of this paper is that a critical realist ontology offers intellectual tools that can ground the formulation of causal theory in ICT4D. The paper illustrates such potential through the case study of India's Unique Identity Project (Aadhaar), which Indian states are increasingly using within their anti-poverty programmes. Following a critical realist retroductive methodology, the paper seeks to explain the incorporation of Aadhaar into India's main food security system, the Public Distribution System; an incorporation somewhat paradoxical given the mistrust often associated with biometric infrastructures in social protection. Critical realism allows construction of a theory of trust-building in Aadhaar, based on mechanisms of institutionalisation (state governments framing Aadhaar as a core institutional means to receive benefits) and image formation (authorities systemically associating Aadhaar with an image of effective pro-poor reform). Based on primary and secondary data collected over the course of six years, this paper contributes a theoretical explanation of an important phenomenon in Indian development, and illustrates how a critical realist philosophy is instrumental in building the type of causal theory that is needed in ICT4D

Human-Computer Interaction for Development: A knowledge mobilisation framework

Human-computer interaction for development (HCI4D) is an interdisciplinary field aimed at understanding and designing technologies for under-served, under-resourced, and under-represented populations around the world. The interdisciplinary nature complicates knowledge transfer and articulation between the disciplines contributing to the HCI4D domain with the consequence that researchers in one sub-domain do not always build on the extant theoretical and methodological progress in other sub-domains. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for HCI4D that could facilitate a better understanding of this domain, for knowledge mobilisation and articulation between researchers in HCI4D and the related field of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). Previous studies have presented an overview of the HCI4D field in terms of the geographies it covers, technologies it targets, and its varied epistemological and methodological underpinnings. This paper builds on those methodologies and findings to conduct a systematic literature review which revisits the domain questions, thus, the core issues and topics (why), the phenomenon of interest (what) and the research methods (how). A comparison of the findings from three seminal HCI4D papers led to the identification of three core issues (motor themes) namely, context, design and development. Based on Ward’s idea of a knowledge mobilisation framework, the findings from the systematic literature review are then synthesised and presented as a framework which comprises the core issues, recurring themes and the salient elements for each of the domain questions. The contribution is a knowledge mobilisation framework to enrich discussions on positioning HCI4D as research field

Understanding ICT in ICT4D: An Affordance Perspective

Understanding the role of ICT for development is at the core of ICT4D research. However, prevailing research in this field most often focuses on access or readiness of a technology, or on the outcomes of the technology use. Less attention has been paid to understand the mechanism of the technology use that leads to the outcomes. The question of why ICT in a development context sometimes work and sometimes does not work still remains a subject of enquiry. To enhance our understanding in this regard, we propose to use the concept of affordances to unfold the “black boxed” nature of ICT. We revisited a case from Kenya to illustrate the application of affordances in a ICT4D context. The findings show that the benefits of ICT can be harnessed only if the users in the underprivileged communities can perceive and actualize the affordances of the ICT. However, what is ICT affordances, and how people perceive and actualize the affordances in the context of developing countries are the issues that we delve in this paper

Southern theories in ICT4D

This paper suggests that the dominance of northern research paradigms in ICT4D may be viewed as a continuation of colonial sway over the endeavors of the global South. The notion of Southern Theory - as introduced in the work of Raewyn Connell, the Comaroffs, and others - may be a route by which re-searchers in the global South can reclaim the intellectual territory of ICT4D, with indigenous and regional research paradigms and theories rather than those simply absorbed from the global North

ICT for development reconsidered : a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance

This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceCommonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom (CSCUK)Warwick Business School (WBS)GBUnited Kingdo

ICT4D Research in Developing Countries: A Call for Pragmatism Approach

Today, Information Systems research and in particular in the area of ICT4D in developing nations is dominated by positivism and interpretivism paradigms.  Information systems contributions are influenced by historical, cultural, and political contexts in which it is done. Researchers in this area question the appropriateness of positivism and interpretivism philosophical foundations to conduct ICT4D research.  This paper explores the use of pragmatism as an alternative research paradigm to that can be employed to understand the state of the ICT4D research. Research drawing explicitly on pragmatism is still relatively rare. The paper reviews the pragmatism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, axiology and methodology and its value in the ICT4D research discipline. As a new paradigm, pragmatism disrupts the assumptions of older approaches based on the philosophy of knowledge, while providing promising new directions for conducting and understanding the nature of research in the area of ICT4D in developing countries. It is anticipated the readers of the article to make a more informed choice for themselves on whether or not to pursue the path ofpragmatism their own research. KeywordAxiology, epistemology, ICT4D, methodology, ontology, pragmatism, research paradigm

Enriching the evidence base of co-creation research in public health with methodological principles of critical realism

With the popularity of co-creation research in public health and other fields, there is a need to strengthen its evidence-base by developing a framework based on meta-theoretical principles. The lack of applying meta-theoretical principles in co-creation research impedes the theory- and evidence building. Critical realism seems a promising candidate for providing meta-theoretical principles to enrich the evidence base of co-creation research in public health. To this purpose we searched for relevant papers on critical realism methodological principles, clarified and subsequently applied such principles to a co-creation public health case study. We provide explanatory steps to apply five principles; 1) focusing on understanding an event, like childhood over-weight, 2) exploring the broader structure and context surrounding the event, 3) constructing hypotheses about the underlying mechanism(s) of an event, 4) empirical testing to corroborate those hypotheses, and 5) using multiple methods and triangulation. Further, this study shows that critical realism can enrich co-creation research in public health by iteratively building theory and evidence following the five proposed principles

FACILITATING FINANCIAL INCLUSION USING ICT: LESSONS FROM M-PESA AND E-ZWICH

Financial inclusion is a priority in most developing countries. While the inclusion approaches may differ, the primary aim remains enrolling the unbanked into the formal economy. This paper adopts Critical Realism as a lens to compare the efforts of two inclusion models; M-PESA from Kenya and ezwich in Ghana. The findings reveal that while both models do not provide the infrastructure for people to build trust, the enrolment successes of both models differ significantly