Importance of development context in ICT4D projects: A study of computerization of land records in India

Purpose – This paper aims to show that the meaning of development influencing the design of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects is important in deciding what purpose they will eventually serve.Design/methodology/approach – Through a review of the literature on development and technology studies, the paper shows how different meanings of development guide technology usage and policy choice for land reforms. A case study of a land records computerization project in India is used to reinforce this claim.Findings – By explaining alternative manifestations of interlinkages between development and technology, the paper demonstrates that the design choice, especially the content and service delivery model, for an ICT4D project gets influenced by the development context within which it is set.Research limitations/implications – The focus of the paper has been restricted to a limited context of information and communication technology usage – to land reforms as a development objective, in a relatively better‐off ...

[1]  D. Simon,et al.  Development Reconsidered; New Directions in Development Thinking , 1997 .

[2]  E. F. Schumacher,et al.  Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered , 1974 .

[3]  R. Wade.  Bridging the Digital Divide: New Route to Development or New Form of Dependency? , 2002 .

[4]  Jihad Qaddour,et al.  An Economic Development Model for IT in Developing Countries , 2006, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[5]  Richard Heeks.  e-Government as a Carrier of Context , 2005, Journal of Public Policy.

[6]  A. Escobar.  Encountering Development : The Making and Unmaking of the Third World , 1994 .

[7]  U. Kothari,et al.  Development Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives , 2002 .

[8]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems , 1987, MIS Q..

[9]  Frans J Schuurman,et al.  Paradigms lost, paradigms regained? Development studies in the twenty-first century , 2000 .

[10]  A. Aysan,et al.  Neoliberal globalisation, the nation-state and financial crises in the semi-periphery: A comparative analysis , 2000 .

[11]  C. Ciborra,et al.  Good governance, development theory, and aid policy: Risks and challenges of e-government in Jordan , 2005 .

[12]  T. Byres.  Introduction: Contextualizing and Interrogating the GKI Case for Redistributive Land Reform , 2004 .

[13]  Rob Kling,et al.  Learning About Information Technologies and Social Change: The Contribution of Social Informatics , 2000, Inf. Soc..

[14]  G. Walsham,et al.  Research on information systems in developing countries: Current landscape and future prospects , 2006 .

[15]  M. Carter.  IDENTIFICATION OF THE INVERSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FARM SIZE AND PRODUCTIVITY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF PEASANT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION , 1984 .

[16]  Govindan Parayil,et al.  Mapping technological trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution from modernization to globalization , 2003 .

[17]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Implementing public information systems in developing countries: Learning from a success story , 2005 .

[18]  Des Gasper.  The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Human Development , 2004 .

[19]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[20]  T. Pinch,et al.  The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each Other , 1984 .

[21]  U. Kothari,et al.  Development Theory and Practice , 2001 .

[22]  Claudio Ciborra,et al.  Interpreting e-government and development: Efficiency, transparency or governance at a distance? , 2005, Inf. Technol. People.

[23]  Jan Nederveen Pieterse,et al.  Development Theory: Deconstructions/Reconstructions , 2002 .

[24]  H. Bernstein,et al.  Land Reform: Taking a Long(er) View , 2002 .

[25]  C. Alvares.  Homo Faber : technology and culture in India, China and the west 1500-1972 , 1976 .

[26]  J. Manor,et al.  Successful Governance Reforms in Two Indian States: Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh , 2007 .

[27]  Maung K. Sein,et al.  Conceptualizing the ICT Artifact: Toward Understanding the Role of ICT in National Development , 2004, Inf. Soc..

[28]  A. Olukoshi.  From Colonialism to the New Millennium and Beyond , 2007 .

[29]  Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama,et al.  Is There A Relationship Between ICT, Health, Education And Development? An Empirical Analysis of five West African Countries from 1997–2003 , 2006, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[30]  M. Callon.  Techno-economic Networks and Irreversibility , 1990 .

[31]  D. Ludden.  Development regimes in south Asia: History and the governance conundrum , 2005 .

[32]  Romesh Diwan,et al.  Alternative development strategies and appropriate technology : science policy for an equitable world order , 1981 .

[33]  A. Sen,et al.  Markets and Freedoms: Achievements and Limitations of the Market Mechanism in Promoting Individual Freedoms , 1993 .

[34]  H. D. Malaviya.  Land reforms in India , 1955 .

[35]  J. Clapp,et al.  Development as freedom , 1999 .

[36]  P. Bardhan.  Globalization and Rural Poverty , 2006 .

[37]  Amartya Sen,et al.  Human Development and Economic Sustainability , 2000 .

[38]  K. Deininger,et al.  The evolution of the World Bank's land policy : principles, experience, and future challenges , 1999 .