Wired for Change?

Abstract

The recent global diffusion of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) has raised expectations for technological change to support socio-economic progress and political reform in the developing as well as the developed world. Much as been written about e-government within a growing stream of literature on ICT for development, generating countervailing perspectives where optimistic, technocratic approaches are countered by far more sceptical standpoints on technological innovation. In seeking to bridge existing gaps in the literature, this article critically examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies in governmental reform processes for development through the presentation of a case study based in the Indian State of Karnataka. The study focuses on a collaboration between the state government of Karnataka and the eGovernments Foundation (a non-profit private sector organisation) between 2002 and 2011, designed to reform existing methods of property tax collection through the establishment of a networked online tax collection system across the municipalities of 56 towns and cities within the state. Through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data, this paper analyses the interactions between new technologies and changing information flows within the complexities of public administration reform of the given context and, in doing so, examines the interplay of local and external factors and relationships and their role in shaping the implementation of the project at hand.