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If only they knew better: strengthening knowledge systems for social development?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Lata Narayanaswamy
Lata Narayanaswamy*
Affiliation:
International Development, School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, 14.24 Social Sciences Building, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Information and knowledge are frequently upheld as the cornerstones of development programmes. Poverty reduction measures delivered through social policies are frequently premised on the need to ensure that both users and providers of services have access to information. In contexts where poor and marginalised groups are largely excluded from knowledge access and uptake, Southern-based civil society is called upon to act as an interlocutor to leverage knowledge on their behalf to achieve social welfare objectives. Ensuring that the greatest number of people have access to timely and relevant information, promoted as part of global-level discourses on the desirability of fostering a “knowledge society”, is presumed to contribute, for instance, to the capacity of citizens to uphold government accountability, ensure access to entitlements or protect basic rights. This paper critically analyses the capacity of knowledge, delivered primarily though not exclusively through new information and communications technologies and leveraged through Southern-based civil society acting as intermediaries, to achieve social policy objectives in development.

Keywords

knowledge societysocial developmentICTscivil societyneoliberalismSouth–South cooperation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 31 , Issue 2: Meeting Emerging Global Policy Challenges: Positioning Social Policy Between Development and Growth? , June 2015 , pp. 174 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis

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