The problems with telecentres are well documented. Based on a participatory action research project that directly contributed to improved quality of life for 35% of participants and indirectly for another 41% of participants, this paper presents key factors affecting the use of telecentres by poorer people to empower themselves to improve their quality of life. Understanding the numerous interlinking problems surrounding the functionality and use of telecentres as factors of structure and agency as presented in Kleine’s Choice Framework (2011), provides a useful departure point to re-invent telecentres as active citizen development centres.
Kleine's choice framework (CF) is a significant advance in the theorization of ICTD. Using the findings of an intervention imbedded within a participatory action research project, we propose six amendments which could enhance the CF's usefulness.
What has been the role of politics within and around the community telecentres (TCs)? The background is the depoliticized international discourse that has accompanied ICT4D policies. The focus is on multi-purpose TCs run by non-governmental organizations, equipped with computers and internet connectivity, tasked to implement public ICT-to-the-poor policies. Specifically, the article discusses the differences of technical-social functionality of such TCs within the same country and policy context. The assumption is that empowerment, particularly of the local operating organization and its personnel, is a key factor. The strategy is to combine stakeholder and power analysis to assess the extent of empowerment by exploring a multi-dimensional framework for understanding power relations. Four TCs in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were studied over a two-year period of repeated visits of intensive fieldwork of participatory observation and interviews. The research found that big differences existed between the TCs in terms of empowerment. Changes in power relations are necessary, although not sufficient, conditions for a community TC to function in the way desired. Moreover, three stages of empowerment are suggested, highlighting the Operating Organization, the TC manager/staff and the TC users, respectively. The article concludes by reflecting on the analytical-theoretical framework for power relations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.