Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Exploring the Rural Network Society
- 2 Civil Society and Cyber–Libertarian Developmentalism
- 3 Decrypting E-Governance
- 4 Cyber-Kiosks and Dilemmas of Social Inclusion
- 5 Innovating for the Rural Network Society
- 6 ICT and Development: Critical Issues
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Exploring the Rural Network Society
- 2 Civil Society and Cyber–Libertarian Developmentalism
- 3 Decrypting E-Governance
- 4 Cyber-Kiosks and Dilemmas of Social Inclusion
- 5 Innovating for the Rural Network Society
- 6 ICT and Development: Critical Issues
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When I began this study on the state, civil society and information communication technologies (ICTs) nearly a decade ago, the area now identified as ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) or ICTD (Information and Communication Technologies and Development) had not evolved into a full-fledged discipline. Nevertheless, the last two decades of the twentieth century had seen the emergence of perceptive studies on the social and economic impacts of ICTs and it was only a matter of time that the field acquired a name of its own. ICT4D, or ICTD, is now an advanced field of research and teaching in Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS). My study, keeping a critical distance from the mainstream concerns and methods of research in ICT4D or ICTD, draws on multiple theoretical, ideological and political perspectives that attempt to examine ICT–society interfaces in diverse social and economic landscapes.
Nevertheless, I share the idea that there are understated distinctions between ICT4D and ICTD, and that they cannot be used interchangeably. The difference, as far as I understand, is not just one of semantics, and it goes beyond a mere objection to the assertiveness of the implied linearity represented by the numeral 4 in the former acronym and preference for the ambivalence brought in by removing the numeral in the latter.
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- Chapter
- Information
- ICTs and Development in IndiaPerspectives on the Rural Network Society, pp. ix - xiiPublisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011