1st Edition

The Digital Challenge Information Technology in the Development Context

Edited By Shirin Madon, S Krishna Copyright 2003
    386 Pages
    by Routledge

    386 Pages
    by Routledge

    This title was first published in 2003. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being recognized as vital to the economic growth and global inclusion and participation of developing countries. This book brings together both academics and practitioners to provide a comprehensive and insightful overview of ICT and development around the world. It examines the role of IT in providing new economic and industrial opportunities, in increasing access to global information and communication, in assisting small cultural and ethnic groups to overcome disadvantages of physical distance and in catalysing initiatives towards democratic decentralization and empowerment of citizens. It also critically appraises major problems such as inappropriate focus and resource allocation, and of missed opportunities. By combining comparative case studies from Africa, South and East Asia, South America and Eastern Europe with theoretical analysis, this volume synthesizes a range of issues related to the evident tensions that exist for developing countries as they try to balance global and local priorities through the adoption and use of ICTs.

    101: Introduction: Challenges of IT in the Development Context; 1: ICTs and Development: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives; 1: Taking Culture Seriously: ICTs Culture and Development; 2: Knowledge Perspectives on ICT and Development: What the Theory of Knowledge can Add; 3: IT as an Institutional Actor in Developing Countries; 4: ICT and Development: East is East and West is West and the Twain may yet Meet; 5: Research Methodologies for Information Systems in the Development Context: A Tutorial; 6: Information Systems in Global Organizations: Unpacking ‘Culture’; 2: E-Governance and the Digital Divide; 7: Information Village: Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural India 1; 8: Sustainable Telecentres? Two Cases from India; 9: An Investigation into Community Development Imperatives at a Rural South African Community Education Center; 10: Using Health Information for Local Action: Facilitating Organisational Change in South Africa; 11: Information and Communications Technology for Poverty Reduction in Rural India; 12: Critical View of E-Governance Challenges for Developing Countries; 13: The Development of an Information System for District Hospitals – A Case Study from the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa; 3: ICTs and New Organizational Forms; 14: Book Towns and the Network Society: New Perspectives on Developing Rural Enterprises; 15: Mobile Commerce as a Solution to the Global Digital Divide: Selected Cases of E-Development; 16: ICT Networking in Vietnam: The Limitations of an Information Needs Assessment; 17: Strategic and Institutional Response to the Digital Challenge: A Perspective on how Global IT Trends are Expressed in Developing Countries; 4: ICT Development and Global Software Outsourcing; 18: Mapping the Micro-Foundations of Informational Development: Linking Software Processes, Products and Industries to Global Trends; 19: Risky Business: A Case Study on Information Systems Development in Nigeria; 20: Nurturing a Software Industry in Kerala; 21: The Globalization of Software Outsourcing to Dozens of Nations: A Preliminary Analysis of the Emergence of 3rd and 4th Tier Software Exporting Nations

    Biography

    Shirin Madon, S Krishna