“When words become unclear”: unmasking ICT through visual methodologies in participatory ICT4D

Abstract

Across the globe, our work and social lives are increasingly integrated with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), yet massive disparities in the values, uses and benefits of ICT exist. New methods are needed to shed light on unique and integrative concepts of ICT across cultures. This paper explores the use of visual methods to facilitate critical engagement with ICT-defined as situational awareness, reflexive ICT practice and power and control over ICT. This definition of critical ICT engagement is informed by a cultural identity lens, and intends to improve participatory methods in ICT for Development (ICT4D) and community technology design and application. Our notion of critical ICT engagement is developed through an analysis of three case studies, each employing visual methods to shed light on concepts and practices of ICT cross-culturally. This paper makes three contributions to the ICT4D literature. First, it establishes a cultural identity lens to chart out cultural differences between researchers and participants, and to develop situational awareness of ICT in context. Second, it defines the conceptual domain of reflexive ICT practice and establishes the key role of researchers in facilitating it. Third, it argues for the need to support participants to develop capacity to engage critically with ICT as a means to influence social and organizational structures. This paper offers a way for researchers and practitioners to engage with cultural issues in community-based research and design using visual methodologies.

A holistic decolonial lens for library and information studies

“…Scholars have also highlighted how these knowledge-transfers from the North to different contexts in the South only very rarely produce long-term sustainable results (Heeks, 2010;Unwin, 2009), and how only participation of local communities and consideration of local dynamics could ensure research and development projects to succeed (Brunello, 2015;Roche, 2008). Thus, libraries have been addressed as spaces for community participation and production of local content (Nwalo, 2000;Sey et al, 2013;Vannini et al, 2013), while participatory methods have been adopted to promote community empowerment (Bentley et al, 2017;David et al, 2013;Vannini et al, 2015). However, the field seems to have been motivated mostly by sustainability issues than by dismantling the structural colonial legacies that produced these imbalances in the first place (Irani et al, 2010;Jimenez & Roberts, 2019).…”

A return to Teacherbot: rethinking the development of educational technology at the University of Edinburgh

“…In research on rural Nigerian communities and their use of technology, Okon (2015) suggests a context-driven and highly participatory approach to enable communities to define the parameters of use and meaning of ICT themselves. Bentley et al (2019) argue that participatory methodologies around community driven technologies develop capacity for specific communities to engage critically with technologies. There are many more examples, especially emerging from the Global South, that point to the value of processes of speculation, deliberation, adaptation, and design.…”

Going beyond the “T” in “CTC”: Social Practices as Care in Community Technology Centers

“…Given such limited understanding, scholars in ICT4D and Community Informatics have been devoting increasing attention to the social practices that take place in CTCs in order to highlight their role in addressing some of the individual and community needs (see [10][11][12][13]). Sweeney and Rhinesmith [12] argue that we need to challenge the conditions of current information environments such as CTCs, which have been increasingly characterized by neoliberal policies that have severely de-funded social services.…”

“…When it comes to addressing social concerns, the literature has often seen them as an outcome of the interactions between people and ICTs. Nonetheless, there is a growing interest among ICT4D and Community Informatics scholars that focuses on the mundane interactions between people in CTCs, which are also approached as addressing community issues (see [10][11][12][13]). Thus, in this study, I join these scholars and present an ethnographic account of how residents of favelas (urban slums in Brazil)-who are from understudied and marginalized areas-used these centers beyond the "T" (technology) in order to fulfill some of their needs.…”