ICTS AND EMPOWERMENT IN ASYMMETRICAL POWER RELATIONS: A CASE OF UNION INFORMATION AND SERVICE CENTRE (UISC) IN BANGLADESH
VOLUME 27 • NUMBER 2 • DECEMBER 2016
Abstract
The empowerment of global citizenry through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has drawn ample attention among development planners since the 1990s. Proponents of rural and community empowerment are encouraging governments in the developing world to take ICT initiatives, suggesting that the investment in ICTs will enable those countries to bypass more gradual development processes in order to engage their citizens on par with the developed world (Dey et al, 201O; Harris, 2016; Takio, 2013). But this notion is flawed for three key reasons. Firstly, it over emphasises the role of technology through simplifying the social, political and economic parameters of development. Secondly, it overlooks the needs, abilities and cultural context within which those technologies were originally introduced and interrelated; third: the importance of the political, social and economic context within which those technologies are now being applied
(Mansell, 2014; Thomas, 2012).
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