Book ReviewAlthough the editors speciªcally deny that this book is a historical account, it only narrowly escapes that label. The book does attempt to consolidate some 15 years of International Development Research Centre (IDRC)–sponsored action research on ICT intervention projects undertaken in three main global regions, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. This “Herculean” (the editors’ words) effort does give the book the semblance of an epic, engrossing, all-encompassing exposition of the key concerns, actors, and events relevant to the IDRC’s ICT4D community. The book reports on the work of an IDRC-created thematic grouping identified as “Information and Communications Technologies for Development” (ICT4D), an acronym which has since gained widespread appeal in the academic research community (Heeks, 2006)

Abbott, P

Information Technologies and International Development

English

Brunel University Research Archive

Connecting ICTs to Development ABBOTTBook ReviewConnecting ICTs to Development:The IDRC ExperiencePamela AbbottLaurent Elder, Heloise Emdon, Richard Fuchs, and Ben Petrazzini (Editors), Connecting ICTs to Development:The IDRC Experience, London, UK and New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2013, 298 pp., $99.00 (hardback).Although the editors speciªcally deny that this book is a historical account,1 itonly narrowly escapes that label. The book does attempt to consolidate some15 years of International Development Research Centre (IDRC)–sponsoredaction research on ICT intervention projects undertaken in three main globalregions, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. This “Herculean”(the editors’ words) effort does give the book the semblance of an epic,engrossing, all-encompassing exposition of the key concerns, actors, andevents relevant to the IDRC’s ICT4D community. The book reports on the workof an IDRC-created thematic grouping identiªed as “Information and Commu-nications Technologies for Development” (ICT4D), an acronym which has sincegained widespread appeal in the academic research community (Heeks, 2006).ICT4D has also become associated with research that makes a technologicallydeterministic assumption of a clear link between investment in ICTs and devel-opment outcomes (Raiti, 2007). Such critiques have led to attempts to redeªnethe academic ªeld in a broader sense, incorporating all studies that considerICTs in a development context (Burrell & Toyama, 2009) or in developing countries (Avgerou, 2008).A key differentiator claimed by this book is that the IDRC’s ICT4D research agenda was about ICTs for devel-opment not on development,2 i.e., about harnessing the capabilities of ICT interventions to advance a develop-ment agenda by working closely with beneªciary communities. Hence, IDRC’s objectives were to enable newways of working (e.g. new modes of production, new ways of creating value) that would be embedded in localpractices. This explains the book’s two-pronged approach, focusing ªrst on policy change to enable access,then on new ICT-enabled practices (work, communication, services). This approach aligns well with calls forICT4D research to consider a “broader political economy of developmental ICT” (Thompson, 2008, p. 2) andto investigate sustainable approaches to ICT-enabled developmental projects (Mansell & Wehn, 1998). Onesuch approach in the development literature and ICT4D research area may rest with community participation(Bailur, 2007). The book also attempts to map out the IDRC-speciªc ICT4D research ªeld which, the author ofthe introduction to Part I admits, initially comprised a “hastily assembled, rapidly grown, multidisciplinary teamof development professionals” (Elder et al., 2013, p. 17). The collection succeeds in highlighting the complex-ity of such an undertaking, but this has already been a highly debated topic of scholars in the ªeld (Burrell &Toyama, 2009).The primary audience for this book includes two groups: ICTD (to use the broader concept) academics and83To cite this article: Abbott, P. (2014). Connecting ICTs to development: The IDRC experience. Information Technologies &International Development, 10(3) [ICTs for Leisure in Development Special Issue], 83–85.1. “This book is not a history. Rather, it is a documentary or ethnography of a particular time in the business of foreign aid”(Elder, Emdon, Fuchs, & Petrazzini, 2013, p. 1).2. See page 177 of Elder et al. under the section labelled “Research for Development Outcomes.”© 2014 USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unportedlicense. All rights not granted thereunder to the public are reserved to the publisher and may not be exercised without its express written permission.Volume 10, Number 3, Fall 2014, 83–85development professionals. The former would beneªt from a timely review of the ªeld from an inºuentialorganization that has helped shape practical ICTD programs and measure their outcomes over more than adecade. Such a perspective permits reºection on past efforts and recognition of open problems, suggestingopportunities for further research. The latter would beneªt from the detailed documentation of best practices,methods, tools, and techniques used to implement, monitor, and measure projects and their outputs. Within acontext of ongoing debates questioning the role that ICTs play in development (Avgerou, 2010; Silva &Westrup, 2009) and critiques of major donor organizations’ failure to adequately address ICT-led development(Mansell, 2010), this collection of edited work, presented in a balanced and comprehensive manner, provides amuch-needed basis for reºection on sustainable approaches to development through ICT interventions andthe practical limitations of such projects. A third relevant readership for this book would come from those whoparticipate in the formal and informal institutions and regulatory bodies involved with developing and enactingICT policies. Although the book is targeted at a research-focused audience, the level and pitch of the dialogueis such that any person at the regulatory, policy, or administrative level can read this book and gain insightfulinformation.The book carries a clear message that, regardless of the social and technological innovations made possibleby ICTs, development outcomes would be unlikely to ensue without embedding these interventions in a sus-tainable manner in the social and political institutions of the adopting country. Although this is not a new argu-ment (Avgerou, 2010), the book demonstrates how the micro practices enabled by ICTs at the individual andcommunity levels become implicated in institutional change. The second powerful message that emerges fromthe book is that institutional changes such as democratization, deregulation, enlightenment, and open innova-tion do not automatically arise from the spread of ICTs. Instead, these outcomes emerge only through con-certed actions based on evidence that demonstrates how ICTs enable beneªts. These messages are supportedby carefully collated data showing longitudinal depth and broad geographical coverage, encompassing a mul-titude of methodological approaches. This book presents ways in which those beneªts can be determined sys-tematically. As such, it is effective in carrying out its objective of being “a foundational building block in whatwill continue to be a space—both inside and outside IDRC—to build an understanding of how to achieveequitable, sustainable and inclusive development outcomes using ICTs” (Elder et al., 2013, p. 22).The many strengths of this book have been alluded to above: Its comprehensive and data rich coveragepresents a variety of perspectives through the eyes of the practitioners on the ground, embedded in the partic-ular development context. There are few books that engage so thoroughly with research of this type. Thebook’s other major strength lies in deªning the ªeld. Few books on this topic attempt to map out the variousreference disciplines that converge to produce the backdrop in which ICT4D makes its contributions. What Ifound particularly interesting and relevant to ªeld deªning was Chapter 7’s discussion of the boundary workoccurring in creating the e-health research area. For practitioners and academics, this is a useful reºection onnegotiations that take place when a new ªeld evolves. The discussion also provides a basis for problematizingand theorizing about ªeld-deªning activity in ICTD research. ICTD research is generally hampered by lack ofaccess to project outputs since they may be informal published material, buried as part of a shelved report orinaccessible due to lack of permission to the contents and so forth. This book refers to such material as “grey”literature, and has admirably addressed its access by providing a roadmap from the IDRC archives. Finally, thebook gives researchers new directions for progressing ICTD both explicitly by illustrating new areas for investi-gation (e.g., crowdsourcing, open data) and implicitly by recognizing that although there are parallels for thisresearch in established Western outlets (e.g., ICT adoption, ICTs and productivity, etc.), unexplored subtletiesarise when these same phenomena are viewed from a different socioeconomic context.One weakness in this collection is the occasional tendency to evangelize about the beneªts of ICTs inmarginalized societies. This perception is reinforced by the use of terms such as “heresy,” “orthodoxy,” and“beginning and end” (as in alpha and omega). In reading the book, I felt a critical voice was lacking, unlikemore incisive expositions on ICTD (e.g., Unwin, 2009). There is little discussion about the effects of power andpolitics on ICT intervention decisions and the roles of stakeholders with vested interests (Schech, 2002; Silva &Westrup, 2009). I believe there could also be a better balance between the success stories and the failures.Often due to the socially constructed nature of ICTs, it is difªcult to understand failure: The reasons may be84 Information Technologies & International DevelopmentCONNECTING ICTS TO DEVELOPMENTelusive, hidden beneath many layers of interpretation. Hence, work that does engage with failure is sometimesmore helpful than work which predominantly chronicles success, as this book does. One of the ªrst and mostinºuential books on ICTD documents case studies of failures to advance our understanding of the ªeld(Avgerou & Walsham, 2000). The book is also atheoretical, although it does admit this from the beginning. Itseeks to consolidate and expose grey literature but not to engage in problematizing the ªndings, which seemsa waste of such rich data. In another critique, this book is mostly silent on literacy, both in terms of people’sability to read and write and in terms of the more recent term “digital literacy” (Koltay, 2011). This impedimentcould represent a major barrier to the adoption and diffusion of ICTs in the very communities that ICTs areexpected to serve. Barriers of gender, poverty, language, etc., have been addressed thoroughly but literacy is(surprisingly) only brieºy mentioned. Future editions could incorporate this theme more meaningfully. ■ReferencesAvgerou, C. (2008). Information systems in developing countries: A critical research review. Journal of Infor-mation Technology, 23(3), 133–146.Avgerou, C. (2010). Discourses on ICT and development. Information Technologies & International Develop-ment, 6(3), 1–18.Avgerou, C., & Walsham, G. (Eds.). (2000). Information technology in context?: Studies from the perspectiveof developing countries. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Bailur, S. (2007). The complexities of community participation in ICT for development projects: The case of‘Our Voices.’ In Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in De-veloping Countries. Sao Paolo, Brazil.Burrell, J., & Toyama, K. (2009). What constitutes good ICTD research? Information Technologies & Interna-tional Development, 5(3), 82–94.Elder, L., Emdon, H., Fuchs, R., & Petrazzini, B. (Eds.). (2013). Connecting ICTs to development: The IDRC ex-perience. London, UK and New York, NY: Anthem Press.Heeks, R. (2006). Theorizing ICT4D research. Information Technologies & International Development, 3(3),1–4.Koltay, T. (2011). The media and the literacies: Media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy. Media,Culture & Society, 33(2), 211–221.Mansell, R. (2010). The information society and ICT policy: A critique of the mainstream vision and an alter-native research framework. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 8(1), 22–41.Mansell, R., & Wehn, U. (1998). Knowledge societies: Information technology for sustainable development.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Raiti, G. C. (2007). The lost sheep of ICT4D research. Information Technologies & International Develop-ment, 3(4), 1–7.Schech, S. (2002). Wired for change: The links between ICTs and development discourses. Journal of Inter-national Development, 14(1), 13–23.Silva, L., & Westrup, C. (2009). Development and the promise of technological change. Information Technol-ogy for Development, 15(2), 59–65.Thompson, M. (2008). ICT and development studies: Towards Development 2.0. Journal of International De-velopment, 20(6), 821–835.Unwin, P. T. H. (2009). ICT4D: Information and communication technology for development. Cambridge,UK: Cambridge University Press.Volume 10, Number 3, Fall 2014 85ABBOTT

Connecting ICTs to development: The IDRC experience

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