[Book Review] Information Technology in Context: Studies from the Perspective of Developing Countries

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

[thanks to developmentgateway.org for the link; the review appeared 
as "Book of the Month" for May 2002 on the website of Resource Center 
for Cyberculture Studies (see URL at the end of text)]


Chrisanthi Avgerou & Geoff Walsham, eds., Information Technology in 
Context: Studies from the Perspective of Developing Countries. 
Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2000.

Reviewed by John Daly [*]




This book testifies that information and communication technology 
(ICT) innovations in and of themselves seldom lead to social and 
economic development, but the lack of appropriate (automated) 
information systems can hinder the implementation of development 
projects and programs. 

Most of the readers of this review are surrounded by telephones, 
radios, televisions, computers, and the Internet. Yet most readers 
are probably, by developed country standards, moderate rather than 
power ICT users. Thus, they are probably much less wired than today's 
teams of atmospheric scientists who make weather and climate 
predictions using voluminous data from satellites, radar, and 
automated terrestrial and ocean stations, transmitted via high-speed 
terrestrial and satellite channels, and analyzed by supercomputers -- 
predictions which are then instantaneously disseminated via the 
electronic media.1 At the opposite extreme, billions of people have 
never made a telephone call and can't afford a transistor radio.

Why is the Digital Divide so great? Why are the benefits of the 
information revolution so unevenly distributed? Surely the answer 
lies not in the technology per se, but in its context: the social, 
cultural, and economic factors that have limited ICT diffusion, 
investments in information infrastructure, and the benefits obtained 
from the technology. 

Chrisanthi Avgerou and Geoff Walsham based their edited volume, 
Information Technology in Context: Studies from the Perspective of 
Developing Countries, on a 1998 conference in Bangkok, combining 19 
papers around the theme of the organizational, sectoral, and wider 
developing country contexts for ICT innovations. The book's chapters 
treat a variety of ICT applications, perhaps emphasizing management 
information systems. Case studies are drawn from Asia, Africa, and 
Latin America. The authors do not share a specific conceptual 
framework, and each chapter begins with its own overview. The 
chapters vary in quality. The most interesting treat specific 
innovation projects, generally describing events in an author's home 
country. Some of the materials are dated, such as Matthias Nicola and 
Matthias Jarke's "Analysis of Wireless Health Care Information 
Systems in Developing Countries" (Chapter 10) which makes a number of 
recommendations on use of wireless technology in Africa that have 
been outmoded in the years since their field work was done by the 
explosion in cell phone use and the commercial failure of the Iridium 
system.

The book is valuable in that it responds to a need for stories about 
ICT innovations in developing countries. Moreover, as a group, the 
authors are apparently seeking to create a research program 
differentiated from those of larger, more-established groups studying 
organizational processes, user interfaces, and similar issues -- 
groups which tend to do research in developed countries. Many of the 
authors of these chapters reference each other. All are involved in 
the IFIP Working Group 9.4 on the social implications of ICT in 
developing countries. Many are involved in the Electronic Journal on 
Information Systems in Developing Countries. 

IS A GROUP RESEARCH PROGRAM JUSTIFIED?

The development of such a program seems timely. The need for better 
understanding of the ICT innovation process in developing countries 
is clear. Tens of billions of dollars are spent per year on ICT in 
developing countries, and huge benefits are potentially available 
from ICT applications. Yet many ICT innovations fail, many 
information systems function poorly, and resources are often wasted.

Developing countries have special problems in adapting ICT. In recent 
decades, ICTs have gone from craft to mass production. In the past, 
applications may have been poorly crafted but there was little 
question that they were intended to fit their context. Mass 
production of hardware, software, and applications has made great 
cost savings possible, but sometimes the products fit no better than 
off-the-rack clothing. Most ICT mass production is for developed 
country markets. The resulting products often do not fit developing 
country applications very well, but are frequently used with little 
adaptation, and sometimes carry unexpected cultural baggage.

The ICT innovation context is different in developing countries. Per 
capita GDP and the openness in the use of information are correlated 
with the per capita expenditures on ICTs, providing a prima facie 
case that these contextual factors affect ICT innovation. Moreover, 
developing countries are far less advanced in the 
institutionalization of ICT.

Lessons can be generalized among developing countries. Countries with 
comparable per capita GDPs will probably face many similar social and 
economic problems in ICT innovations. Moreover, there may be other 
groupings of developing countries that have similar contextual 
factors, such as: Latin American, Confucian, South Asian, African, 
and Orthodox.2 

Avgerou and Walsham are helpful in suggesting that the sectoral 
context also matters. Not only does this view correspond to common 
sense, but even cursory observation will show that some sectors, such 
as airline transportation and financial services have led in the 
applications of ICTs, while others such as the agricultural and small-
and-medium enterprise sectors lag. Developing countries differ from 
developed countries in the sectoral balance of their economies as 
well as in the contexts within sectors.

INTENTIONALITY ISSUES

The authors often discuss the relative success or failure of ICT 
innovations, and in general the book recognizes that different 
stakeholders might have different objectives against which they would 
measure success. Unfortunately, one or two of the authors appear 
judgmental.

I would suggest that in developing countries success is often best 
studied in terms of the current state of institutionalization of ICT 
capacity; for example, wise managers do not entrust their 
enterprise's critical success factors to untested technologies, and 
success in the early stages of institutionalization may be measured 
in terms of confidence building. The authors generally did not employ 
models specifying stages of the ICT institutionalization process.

It seems likely that the long-term transformations involved in 
institutionalizing ICT and knowledge capacities are more teleonomic 
than teleologic -- more evolutionary than planned, more the result of 
multiple, independent processes than of a single coordinated effort. 
If this is so, it is important to monitor and evaluate the large-
scale changes, and not just the achievement of local goals of 
individual innovators or managers. The authors generally did not do 
so.

SPECIFIC COMMENTS

Thoughtfully used, this book could help people learn to think in a 
more holistic and multidisciplinary way about ICT innovations in 
developing countries. Too often "techies," managers, and policy 
makers take too narrow a view, albeit each group in its own way. For 
these groups, some chapters would be especially useful. For example, 
Geoff Walsham's final chapter, "IT, Globalization and Cultural 
Diversity" (Chapter 19), would provide a useful introduction to a 
training program. Kaewta Rohitratana's "The Role of Thai Values in 
Managing Information Systems: A Case Study of Implementing a MRP 
System" (Chapter 2) provides a succinct and informative account of 
the introduction of a set of software packages into a food processing 
company in Thailand, emphasizing the role of the Thai cultural 
context. Natalia Volkow "Strategic Use of Information Technology 
Requires Knowing How to Use Information" (Chapter 4), shows how a 
firm in Mexico integrated ICTs increasingly into its jewelry business 
as the context of that business changed with the passing decades. 
Subhash Bhatnagar's "Getting Value from IT Investments: Experience 
from Two Organizations" (Chapter 6) briefly discusses context in case 
studies of successful projects in India and Vietnam. Abiodun O. 
Bada's "Institutional Intervention in the Adoption of Computer Based 
Information Systems (CBIS): The Case of the Nigerian Banking 
Industry" (Chapter 11) traces the complex history of ICTs in the 
banking industry in Nigeria, illustrating the effects of national 
crises and changes in government, as well as the role of the software 
industry. Taken together, these chapters illustrate the effects of a 
wide variety of contextual factors on ICT projects, and exemplify a 
variety of approaches to understanding such contexts.

I would caution readers to approach two chapters critically. In 
"Information Technology in Africa: the Policy of the World Bank" 
(Chapter 17), Gert Nulens' discussion of World Bank ICT programs was 
apparently based on a relatively few, externally-available documents, 
and was written before the recent completion of the Bank's ICT Sector 
Strategy Paper. Much of the Bank's ICT funding for poverty reduction 
is through education, health, government reform, financial services, 
and other sectoral projects; these efforts are generally not 
described in the papers he references. He also challenges the 
importance of liberalization of the telephone and Internet 
industries; other studies support the benefits of liberalization.3 

In "Information and Communication Technology Policy in Africa: A 
Critical Analysis of Rhetoric and Practice" (Chapter 18), Leo Van 
Audenhove's discussion of ICT policy in Africa treats policy papers 
as blueprints for action rather than as political documents, failing 
to put them in their political and administrative contexts. He 
portrays the participants in African policy 
forums as far more naive than they in fact are.

Knowledge and understanding must underlie the development process, 
and social transformations 
are needed to enhance knowledge processes. The information technology 
revolution makes 
automation of information processes more affordable, and may 
contribute to development, but 
only if the technology is integrated effectively in a larger 
development context. This book 
makes a modest contribution toward that end.

_________________


An earlier version of this review is forthcoming in Progress in 
Development Studies (Volume 2, 
Number 3): June, 2002.


Moderate ICT users may be unable to appreciate the full effects of 
the ICT deprivation 
experienced by developing countries.


See, for example, R. Inglehart, "Culture and Democracy," in Harrison, 
L. E. and Huntington, S. 
P., eds., Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, New York, 
Basic Books: 2000: pp. 
80-97.

"A Survey of the Economic Effects of Services Trade Liberalization," 
SITrends, November 5, 
2001.

_________________
John Daly is a freelance consultant. His work focuses on science and 
technology in developing 
countries, and especially information technology. He began his 
professional career as a 
research engineer in the aerospace industry, but has worked in 
international development for 
35 years, and taught part-time in universities for more than a 
decade. His Ph.D. is in operations research. [back to text]

source: 
http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/books/avgerou.html