The Broader Context for ICT4D Projects: A Morphogenetic Analysis

This paper demonstrates the value of Archer's morphogenetic approach (MA) in understanding and explaining the complexity of the broader context within which many developing country information and communication technology (ICT) projects are implemented. It does this by using MA's analytical and explanatory apparatus to examine the evolution of the context of public sector ICT provision in Kenya over the period 1963-2006. In addition to demonstrating the practical value of MA, the paper contributes to the Information Systems literature on ICT for development (ICT4D). The analysis identifies (1) global normative pressures, polity, the national socio-economic base, disruptive technology, and the emergence of multistakeholder networks as key forces in shaping the evolutionary trajectory, (2) the explicit treatment of time and temporality as key for understanding mechanisms underpinning the evolutionary process, and (3) the difficulty of cleanly isolating the implementation of individual public sector ICT projects from the broader context and ICT4D agendas. The discussion elaborates on the features of MA found to be particularly valuable in this study. The paper concludes that explicitly attending to time and temporality, and to the broader context for ICT4D projects, would contribute to the development of more nuanced accounts of such projects and a more emancipatory outlook for ICT4D research.

[1]  Alistair Mutch,et al.  Situating Organizational Action: The Relational Sociology of Organizations , 2006 .

[2]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[3]  Janet Kaaya,et al.  Implementing e-Government Services in East Africa : Assessing Status through Content Analysis of Government Websites , 2004 .

[4]  A. J. Salazar Alvarez,et al.  Towards an interpretative integrative framework to conceptualise social processes in large information systems implementations , 2003 .

[5]  Elizabeth Fife,et al.  The case for a multi-methodological, cross-disciplinary approach to the analysis of ICT investment and projects in the developing world , 2008 .

[6]  Harold D. Lasswell,et al.  The Policy Sciences , 1953 .

[7]  Patrick Y. K. Chau,et al.  An evaluative framework for analysing e-government convergence capability in developing countries , 2004, Electron. Gov. an Int. J..

[8]  Michael Tribe,et al.  THE NATURE OF EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES: WHAT DO WE MEAN BY 'RIGOUR'? , 2004 .

[9]  W. Wong,et al.  Does E‐Government Promote Accountability? A Comparative Analysis of Website Openness and Government Accountability , 2004 .

[10]  A. Sarker.  New public management in developing countries , 2006 .

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

[12]  I. Wallerstein.  Unthinking Social Science: The Limits of Nineteenth-Century Paradigms , 1991 .

[13]  Kathy McGrath,et al.  Doing critical research in information systems: a case of theory and practice not informing each other * , 2005, Inf. Syst. J..

[14]  Gerald G. Grant,et al.  Highlighting the Duality of the ICT and Development Research Agenda , 2010, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[15]  Vesper Owei,et al.  Institutional Pressures as Sources of Improvisations: A Case Study from a Developing Country Context , 2004 .

[16]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[17]  Andrew Collier.  Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy , 1994 .

[18]  Paul Jackson,et al.  Making the Case for Critical Realism: Examining the Implementation of Automated Performance Management Systems , 2007, Inf. Resour. Manag. J..

[19]  D. Robey,et al.  Foreword: special issue on information systems in developing countries , 2007 .

[20]  W. Buckley.  Sociology and modern systems theory , 1967 .

[21]  Per Capita,et al.  About the authors , 1995, Machine Vision and Applications.

[22]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems , 1999, MIS Q..

[23]  J. Rée,et al.  The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences , 1977 .

[24]  M. Markus,et al.  Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research , 1988 .

[25]  Jørn Braa,et al.  The Struggle for District-Based Health Information Systems in South Africa , 2002, Inf. Soc..

[26]  C. Avgerou.  Recognising Alternative Rationalities in the Deployment of Information Systems , 2000, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[27]  David J. Will.  A realist theory of science , 1981, Medical History.

[28]  Rahul De',et al.  Importance of development context in ICT4D projects: A study of computerization of land records in India , 2007, Inf. Technol. People.

[29]  Andrew Sayer,et al.  Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach , 1984 .

[30]  M. Archer,et al.  Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach , 1997 .

[31]  Matthew Longshore Smith,et al.  Overcoming theory-practice inconsistencies: Critical realism and information systems research , 2006, Inf. Organ..

[32]  C. Whitbeck,et al.  A Realist Theory of Science. , 1977 .

[33]  Diane M. Strong,et al.  Technological Embeddedness and Organizational Change , 2007, Organ. Sci..

[34]  Stephen D. McDowell,et al.  The Information Revolution and Developing Countries , 2006, Perspectives on Politics.

[35]  Stephen M. Mutula,et al.  Testing a recent model of ICT in development: Botswana and its university , 2007 .

[36]  James Njihia,et al.  ICT for development reconsidered: a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance , 2008 .

[37]  I. Horrocks.  Applying the Morphogenetic Approach , 2009 .

[38]  Lilli Zeuner.  Margaret Archer on Structural and Cultural Morphogenesis , 1999 .

[39]  M. Archer,et al.  Making Our Way Through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility. By Margaret S. Archer , 2009 .

[40]  Thanos Papadopoulos,et al.  Information systems strategy: Past, present, future? , 2012, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[41]  Chrisanthi Avgerou.  Doing critical research in information systems: some further thoughts , 2005, Inf. Syst. J..

[42]  T. Beck,et al.  Access to financial services : measurement, impact, and policies , 2009 .

[43]  Shirin Madon.  Designing information systems for development planning , 1994 .

[44]  M. Hajer.  Policy without polity? Policy analysis and the institutional void , 2003 .

[45]  Sundeep Sahay,et al.  An institutional perspective on the process of decentralization of health information systems: A case study from Tanzania , 2007 .

[46]  Margaret S. Archer,et al.  Culture And Agency: ‘Social integration and System integration’ , 1996 .

[47]  Chrisanthi Avgerou,et al.  Information systems in developing countries: a critical research review , 2008, J. Inf. Technol..

[48]  Chrisanthi Avgerou,et al.  The Link Between ICT and Economic Growth in the Discourse of Development , 2003, Information Systems Perspectives and Challenges in the Context of Globalization.

[49]  John Mingers,et al.  Real-izing information systems: critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for information systems , 2004, Inf. Organ..

[50]  François-Xavier de Vaujany,et al.  Capturing reflexivity modes in IS: A critical realist approach , 2008, Inf. Organ..

[51]  Alistair Mutch,et al.  Actors and Networks or Agents and Structures: Towards a Realist View of Information Systems , 2002 .

[52]  Philip J. Dobson.  The Philosophy of Critical Realism—An Opportunity for Information Systems Research , 2001, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[53]  M. Archer.  Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation , 2003 .

[54]  Alistair Mutch,et al.  Technology, Organization, and Structure - A Morphogenetic Approach , 2010, Organ. Sci..

[55]  A. Mutch.  Critical Realism, Managers and Information , 1999 .

[56]  R. Young,et al.  Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction , 2001 .

[57]  Leiser Silva,et al.  Fighting Against Windmills: Strategic Information Systems and Organizational Deep Structures , 2007, MIS Q..

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

[59]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  ICT Research in Africa: Need for a Strategic Developmental Focus , 2010, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[60]  Mikko Korpela,et al.  Two Times Four Integrative Levels of Analysis: A Framework , 2001, Realigning Research and Practice in Information Systems Development.

[61]  Susanne Schech,et al.  Wired for change: the links between ICTs and development discourses , 2002 .

[62]  Paul Morton.  Using Critical Realism to Explain Strategic Information Systems Planning , 2006 .

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