Theorizing ICT4D Research

Abstract

The aim of this special issue is to show how theoretical ideas from the social sciences can be applied to researching ICTs and socioeconomic development. Why should this be needed? Because the explosion of work on ICTs for development (ICT4D) has (unconsciously) followed Marx’s dictum: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world differently; the point is, to change it.” There has been a bias to action, not a bias to knowledge. We are changing the world without interpreting or understanding it. Most of the ICT4D research being produced is therefore descriptive not analytical. It might make some interesting points but it lacks sufacient rigor to make its andings credible and it can often be repetitive of earlier work. It has a close-to-zero shelf life. The pictorial analogy of such work is that of stones being thrown into a pond, each one making a ripple but then sinking without trace. Instead, it would be better if each “stone” was placed on a cairn, building on what has come before and acting as a foundation for future work. Such a contribution is generally possible only where the research draws on some preexisting conceptual framework. Of course, there are existing and ongoing research foundations for ICT4D work, which we can and particularly in various factions of “informatics”: