The Broader Context for ICT4D Projects: A Morphogenetic Analysis

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the value of Archer's morphogenetic approach (MA) in understanding and explaining the complexity of the broader context within which many developing country information and communication technology (ICT) projects are implemented. It does this by using MA's analytical and explanatory apparatus to examine the evolution of the context of public sector ICT provision in Kenya over the period 1963-2006. In addition to demonstrating the practical value of MA, the paper contributes to the Information Systems literature on ICT for development (ICT4D). The analysis identifies (1) global normative pressures, polity, the national socioeconomic base, disruptive technology, and the emergence of multistakeholder networks as key forces in shaping the evolutionary trajectory, (2) the explicit treatment of time and temporality as key for understanding mechanisms underpinning the evolutionary process, and (3) the difficulty of cleanly isolating the implementation of individual public sector ICT projects from the broader context and ICT4D agendas. The discussion elaborates on the features of MA found to be particularly valuable in this study. The paper concludes that explicitly attending to time and temporality, and to the broader context for ICT4D projects, would contribute to the development of more nuanced accounts of such projects and a more emancipatory outlook for ICT4D research.

Critical Realism in Information Systems Research

“…A key injunction from Archer is that we need to develop "analytical narratives" in which the interplay of agency, structure and culture is examined over time. Njihia and Merali (2013) essay such a narrative in their account of ICT4D in Kenya, but this is a difficult task within the confines of a journal article. Archer's (1979) own early empirical work on the development of educational systems covers a 300 year period in some 800 pages!…”

Intervention Breakdowns as Occasions for Articulating Mobile Health Information Infrastructures

“…Since technological capabilities are constantly changing and stakeholders participation is fluid over time, an information infrastructure is also considered as evolving (Hanseth and Lyytinen, 2010). In the context of developing nations, the evolution of IT capabilities is not continuous but is punctuated by short periods of significant change with long periods of relative stasis (Njihia and Merali, 2013;Silva and Hirschheim, 2007). To explain the inability of a health systems intervention to be sustained, Silva and Hirschheim (2007) also note the importance of changing the underlying deep structures of organisations.…”

How do development actors do “ICT for development”? A strategy‐as‐practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

“…Information and communication technology for development initiatives have been critiqued for their lack of an “emancipatory ethos” and for their failure to generate impetus “driven by local expertise, needs, and adaptive capabilities” (Njihia & Merali, , p. 901). Scholarship has provided development actors with little useful input into the strategic shaping of their interventions.…”