A review of the ICT-enabled development literature: Towards a power parity theory of ICT4D

Abstract

ICT projects are considered an important means of achieving development goals in developing countries. Although voluminous, the research to date is inconsistent in theorizing how, or why, development outcomes do or do not occur following the introduction of ICT4D. To better understand how and why ICT projects succeed, and even what success means in the ICT4D context, we conducted a literature review of ICT4D studies published during the period 2000–2016. We find that the very meaning of development varies, with four meanings of development emerging from the literature: (1) development as increased freedom, (2) development as expanded inclusion, (3) development as increased economic productivity, and (4) development as improved well-being. An ICT might succeed according to one meaning of development while simultaneously hindering achievement according to another meaning. As revealed by our analysis of the literature, these four perspectives suffer from some limitations, not least among them being the imposition of colonialist views of development on the recipients of the ICT4D. To address the limitations, we employ postcolonial theory to derive a new theory of ICT4D in which development is defined as an increase in power parity between dominant stakeholders and intended beneficiaries.