Paper short abstract:

Digital platforms have occupied a key position in the business models of the biggest global companies. Overall, many of the most important digital platforms originate from the Global North, yet the platforms' developmental impacts to the lives in the Global South are not entirely understood.

Paper long abstract:

In 2017, five of the six biggest global companies by market value relied on the usage of digital platforms in their principal business models. What is more, digital platforms have become integral to many of the everyday activities that people across the globe encounter in areas like transportation, commerce and social interactions. Research on the topic has largely concentrated on the general functioning of these platforms in terms of platform governance, business strategies and consumer behaviour. However, their developmental implications have so far received less attention, which is noteworthy since unlike the platforms and the companies running them that are mostly based in the Global North, their users are increasingly coming from the Global South. This paper aims to bridge this gap by analysing digital platforms in terms of their developmental role. It takes the form of a synthesis study and sets to answer questions such as who are included and who excluded in terms of using digital platforms and whether the platforms function more as reinforcing inequalities or actually contribute towards developmental goals. The research is carried out by using secondary data from the industry and available reports, and provides a basis for studying the positive and negative developmental impacts digital platforms can have in a developing country context.

Paper short abstract:

Data is core to the competitiveness of nations, regions, and cities, as new business models, including digital platforms, emerge. The platform economy generates winners and losers: governments in emerging markets are keen to implement policies to benefit from digital opportunities, mitigating risks.

Paper long abstract:

Data is core to the competitiveness of nations, regions, and cities, as new business models, including digital platforms, emerge. The platform economy generates winners and losers: governments in emerging markets are keen to implement policies to benefit from digital opportunities, mitigating risks.

The interplay of rapidly changing enabling conditions in emerging markets and rapidly changing business models will impact the three main drivers of platform dynamics: network effects, localization and envelopment phenomena and winner-takes-some vs. winner takes all phenomena.

In light of these effects, what is the right set of policies to address the risk of inequality in the development of digital platforms in emerging markets? How can the benefits of the platform economy spread to Small and Medium Enterprises, and positively impact local development and rural areas? The paper will assess the main enablers of digital platforms and will identify specific policy and regulatory issues likely to impact an even development of digital platforms in emerging markets. These include: broadband policy and information security, digital payments and geo-localization policies, access to smartphones, digital trade and cyber-technology complements.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the digital divide in the domain names industry. It will reveal the present 'multistakeholder' ICANN regime to be a 'captured agency', dominated by commercial interests based predominantly in the Global North, to the detriment of digital development in the Global South.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore ICANN's New Generic Top Level Domains (New gTLDs) programme and associated policies in terms of their implications for the Global South. This analysis will be set in the context of long-standing criticism of the ICANN system by governments and other groups from the Global South. Such critics have consistently argued, at WSIS, the IGF and elsewhere, that ICANN pursues a neoliberal ideological agenda that strongly favours the interests of corporate stakeholders from the Global North and fails to accommodate the legitimate interests of the developing world. The paper will explore the extent to which the policy framework underpinning the New gTLDs programme favours the interests of particular groups from the Global North, while simultaneously failing to address the legitimate interests of groups from the Global South, placing real barriers in the path of potential gTLD applicants from the developing world and thus potentially stifling digital development in those regions. Based on the evidence from this case study, the paper will go on to argue that a failure of ICANN's multistakeholder system has allowed its policymaking processes to be captured by corporate interests from the Global North. Finally, the paper will explore some options for reform that could lead to the development of a more equitable and truly globally representative DNS governance structure.

Paper short abstract:

Analysis of how and in which way inclusive economic development, regional inequalities, gender equality, data security and privacy issues are addressed in Tunisia's digital development strategy drawing on text analysis and interviews.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores to which extent and in which way inclusive economic development, regional inequalities, gender equality, data security, and privacy issues are addressed in Tunisia's strategy for digital economy and development. It presents preliminary findings from my PhD project on inclusive socio-economic development in Arab countries in the light of digital transformation processes.

Following a concise review of the status quo of research on digitalisation in Tunisia, the paper introduces Tunisia's digital strategy. The analytical part of the paper rests on two pillars: First, an in-depth analysis of core documents outlining Tunisia's digital strategy is conducted. Such documents include in particular relevant official government and policy documents. This part of the analysis draws on methods of discourse analysis. To complement it, the paper will, second, present preliminary findings from interviews with different representatives from political parties, civil society, and the economy (e.g. young entrepreneurs, trade associations). The interviews will be conducted during a field visit in Tunis in April 2018. Aside from informative interviews, used to validate findings from the discourse analysis of key texts, also a number of narrative interviews will be conducted to learn more about interviewees' perceptions regarding potentials and threats of digitalization for inclusive social and economic development in Tunisia.

Based on the findings of the analysis, the paper will conclude by discussing their potential implications for inclusive socio-economic development in Tunisia and point to open research questions.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation argues that digital divides subtly reproduce knowledge hierarchies that have important implications for development and colonialism. This argument is grounded in an examination of how Arctic indigenous peoples engage in digital knowledge politics.

Paper long abstract:

Scholarly excitement around ICTD project has long been tempered by the recognition that digital divides prevent the effects of technologies from being equal for all people or across all places. The material infrastructure and educational requirements of these technologies often intersect with pre-existing political and socio-economic histories to reproduce inequality. The unit of analysis for most of this work has been the individual or community, asking how digital divides shape who has access to technological empowerment. I argue that this lens should be expanded to include an analysis of the broader implications that digital divides have for the visibility and legitimation of knowledge systems. Digital divides subtly shape what types of knowledge individuals can express once they have access to digital spaces, and therefore reproduce knowledge hierarchies. These hierarchies, in turn, can drive development processes. I ground this argument in a case study of how Inuit, an indigenous people of the Arctic, have engaged with digital technologies in Canada. Inuit increasingly have access to the Internet, and have used that access to push for increased representations of their views within discussions of environmental management. This talk examines both the material inequalities and digital practices that prevent Inuit from fully expressing indigenous knowledge online, as well as the digital tactics they've employed to overcome knowledge hierarchies. This description is then connected to current efforts to build a broader research agenda around digital divides and knowledge politics. This research has important implications for understanding digital divides, knowledge politics, and digital colonialism.

Paper short abstract:

A case study investigation of a digital citizen engagement project in South Africa, called MobiSAM. The research study reveals the inter-connected factors that contribute to participation inequality in the digital initiative, which emanate from a lack of civic and responsiveness digital literacy.

Paper long abstract:

Digital citizen engagement is considered a game changer for development, enabling two-way communication and collaboration between citizens and government. The dimensions of citizen engagement describe the levels that emerge overtime from an implemented initiative. ICTs in citizen engagement typically originate as tools for the provision of (1) information, which then lead to citizen (2) participation in holding government accountable for services. Subsequently, as the programme becomes successful, citizens and government begin to (3) collaborate on developing policies and proposals to address service delivery issues, based on evidence-based data developed from ICTs. The final level of citizen engagement is (4) empowerment, where both citizens and government are empowered to participate in making keys decisions on service delivery that are relevant to the contextual needs of a community. Despite these benefits, digital citizen engagement is confronted with barriers at each level. A case study of the MobiSAM project reveals barriers that result in participation inequality. The MobiSAM platform that is meant to address issues around inequality in order to develop resilience in development progress, have mainly benefited affluent populations in the municipality, leaving most marginalised communities without access (conceptually) to this key service. The research study reveals the inter-connected factors that contribute to participation inequality, which emanate from a lack of civic and responsiveness digital literacy. Understanding these illiteracies in the municipality, is a step towards implementing and planning for strategies that mitigate participation inequality in digital citizen engagement.

Paper short abstract:

When and how do ICTs enable equity in food access? Drawing on long-term research in Chhattisgarh, India, we find justifications for technologies that increase beneficiaries' and intermediaries' freedoms to choose when, where, and how choose when, where, and how to accomplish food access.

Paper long abstract:

Food security is a universal human right requiring consistent access to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate nutritional sources.

ICTs have emerged as key tools to implement food security policies that improve both the quantity and quality of food access. A key assumption underlying most ICT interventions in food security is that using ICTs ceteris paribus leads to better outcomes for all stakeholders. A corollary of this assumption is that using more advanced ICTs will lead to further improvements in performance.

We challenge these assumptions by demonstrating how successive ICT-interventions in procurement, processing, and distribution have both constrained and enabled food access by Chhattisgarhi households between 2011 and 2017.

We found that public and private adoption of technological interventions in procurement, processing, and distribution led to significant improvements in household food access.

Rural and urban families surviving on incomes below the poverty line (BPL) were highly responsive to smart-card-based interventions that offered freedom of food access i.e., freedom to choose when, where, and how much food to purchase through portability of entitlement claims.

Studying the subsequent replacement of smart cards and POS machines with newer devices such as tablets and advanced biometric authentication, we observed curtailment and denial of beneficiaries' freedom of food access in direct consequence of articulation work associated with implementing new technologies including: redundant and resource-intensive practices such as seeding new identification databases, and, managing increased technology costs and complexity; while operating in low-bandwidth, high-latency communication infrastructure.

Paper short abstract:

This study examines the existing power dynamics in rural society in Bangladesh and how these dynamics influence benefits and/or limitations of government initiated ICT ptoject to serve marginalised citizens, focusing on the rural information centres namely the Union Digital Centre (UDCs).

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the existing power dynamics in rural society in Bangladesh and how these dynamics influence benefits and/or limitations of government initiated Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to serve marginalised citizens, focusing on the rural information centres namely the Union Digital Centre (UDCs). Of particular interest is how people accumulate, conceptualise and perceive the relationships between social, economic and political power and their various uses in daily rural life. Based on ethno-methodological observations of service seeking and delivery trends in six rural UDC service areas across Bangladesh, along with 55 in-depth interviews from both users and non-users of the UDCs, this study unpacks the digital inequalities that have arisen instead of bridging the gap between the power-rich and power-poor in rural Bangladesh.

Paper short abstract:

Health seeking behaviour in developing countries is marked by information scarcity. Thus we study smartphone use in 688592 Indonesian adults using control function estimator. While the poor had less access, smartphone users had significantly higher access to health care, so enhancing health equity.

Paper long abstract:

Health seeking behaviour in developing countries is marked by information scarcity, from knowledge about personal health condition to information about health facility. Smartphones as a quintessential information device should make a difference yet nationwide evidence is thin. We study personal use of smartphones to seek information (compared with to achieve other purposes or with no use at all) and its effects on visits to inpatient and outpatient health facilities in 688,592 Indonesian aged 15 and over. We applied control function estimator for nonlinear outcomes since visits are binary and smartphone use is endogeneous. Identification is achieved using variations in smartphone diffusion rates in their residences five year in their past, following recent practices of using historical information as exogeneous variations. The analysis revealed that while those in poverty had 13% (p < 0.001) lower probabilities of visiting health care facilities, those who used smartphones to seek information had significantly higher probabilities of visiting outpatient (1.5%, p = 0.02) and inpatient (9%, p < 0.001) facilities, thus enhancing equity in health care. Given the persistent digital divide we recently reported in Indonesia, the digital dividends uncovered here call for a concerted policy from telecommunication to health sectors to bridge the divide in order no to deny the majority from reaping the healthy digital dividends.

Paper short abstract:

Based on research conducted in refugee settlements in Kenya and Uganda, this talk will explore how mobile connectivity impacts the migration and settlement of refugees in East Africa and the opportunities for the delivery of new digital services this presents.

Paper long abstract:

Mobile phones, especially smartphones, provide a gateway through which refugees fleeing conflict or persecution communicate with friends and family and access vital, sometimes lifesaving information. Poor cellphone coverage and the absence of 3G (data) presents significant challenges for refugees migrating within East Africa. Similar connectivity challenges are also faced within the refugee settlements of host countries in the region. Based on research conducted in refugee settlements in Kenya and Uganda, this talk will explore how mobile connectivity impacts the migration and settlement of refugees, as well as smartphone penetration amongst refugees in selected settlements and opportunities for the delivery of new digital services this presents.

Paper short abstract:

This paper shows how digital technologies can cross boundaries to provide support and training for teachers living and working in two different contexts: in rural Pakistan and in refugee camps in Jordan. It exposes some of the barriers and offers possible solutions.

Paper long abstract:

The English Language Teaching profession has faced two new challenges in recent years. The first is the controversial introduction of English Medium Instruction in many parts of the world, particularly in the primary sector; the second is the role that language plays in the significant movements of people around the world. This latter is connected to the migration of peoples affected by natural disasters, wars and epidemics. Both of these challenges put education systems under even more stress and make it very difficult for any meaningful improvement of language teaching to occur. This is often compounded in many contexts in the world where education systems are not well financed.

The increasing use and availability of digital technologies, in particular mobile phones, are argued to provide potential solutions to provide support and training opportunities for teachers who would not normally be able to access any support. They also offer the potential to build resilience into education systems as it is now recognised under SDG 4 that teachers make a significant difference in learning outcomes. This paper will highlight two case studies, one from Pakistan and one in Jordan where digital technologies have been utilised to try to support English language teachers in the development of their teaching skills, their language and to provide much needed resources. It will present some of the barriers to running these courses and in providing materials and the roles of boundary crossers who provide a much needed link to enable teachers to develop.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the concept of knowledge hubs as shared space between development agencies and community partner. We argue for the integration of creative collaborative strategies in the offline space to build the foundation for meaningful engagement with digital technologies.

Paper long abstract:

It is widely acknowledged that the agenda of integrating digital technologies in development projects beyond technological innovation has been challenging. In many cases digital technologies have perpetuated dominant top-down approaches in development, not fully taking into account the local complexities. Some progress has been made, such as developing guidelines for integrating digital technologies within development and community projects (Waugaman 2016). However, there remains a gap in terms of translating and integrating meaningful interactions that allow users to challenge issues around power and agency.

In this paper, we discuss the concept of knowledge hubs based on our collective work in Papua New Guinea. Increasingly, knowledge hubs are regarded as shared spaces where research and project results can be shared both by community partners and implementers. From the perspective of donor agencies, it provides a public face while collating information for communities.

Reporting from co-design processes working with educators and human rights defenders in PNG, we investigate the intersection of digital and human technologies, relational engagements and obligations from the perspective of our community partners, issues around representation and sharing of knowledge. We highlight processes that we have developed through engagement of creative practice such as process drama and storytelling to build the foundation in the offline space to strengthen networks and relationships to engage in a digital space. We argue that this hybrid space is necessary to overcome some of the inequalities maintained and perpetuated through the use of digital technologies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper attempts to explore the link between income inequality and internet inequality at a household level within metropolitan areas. In particular, it uses a mixed-methods approach on two South American cases: Santiago (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia).

Paper long abstract:

This paper attempts to explore the link between income inequality and internet inequality at a household level within metropolitan areas. In particular, it uses a mixed-methods approach on two South American cases: Santiago (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia). A metropolitan-level quantitative analysis is included based on existent household surveys. A qualitative analysis is presented based on semi-structured interviews that focus on key actors that play a role in the supply-side, including government, service providers, workers from telecom companies, and leaders from selected neighbourhoods. One of the key aspects of the compared analysis between these two cities, is the contrast between an entirely privatised and globalised telecom sector in Santiago, and a virtual monopoly on the provision of internet by a regional state-owned enterprise in Medellín. The mixed methods approach aims to characterise and compare the internet gap in these two metropolitan areas, and to understand similarities and differences in decision-making that could come from contrasting institutional arrangements (i.e. ownership and competition among providers).

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how IoT technologies are being incorporated within the decentralised water and energy infrastructures of Nairobi. The results identify that whilst IoT can positively reconfigure infrastructural engagement and management, they also present new political challenges within the city.

Paper long abstract:

Like many cities, Nairobi faces a myriad of infrastructural challenges. Recently, greater hope and efforts are being placed in ICT innovations in helping solve these problems. One particular, growing element of these innovations has been that of IoT (Internet of Things) technologies.

Whilst research has explored the development of IoT within cities of the global North, often under the smart narrative, and their incorporation within urban infrastructure, African cities are under-researched. This paper examines how IoT has been developed within Nairobi's urban energy and water infrastructure, with a focus on decentralised constructions and away from a purely technical perspective. By focussing on the everyday experiences associated with IoT (Lawhon et al., 2014), the paper examines these data exchanging devices in terms of their identifiable impacts and the consequences of data representation.

Focussing on four main projects (Water ATMs, water tank sensors, ethanol and LPG IoT-networks), the research engaged a variety of key stakeholders across Nairobi, especially those usually left out of the IoT conversation.

The findings from the research highlight the lessons learnt by home-grown IoT developers, the need to engage and train local populations and the benefits of making IoT technologies adaptable. Secondly, the research identified the everyday impacts of these IoT technologies including; clearer financial planning and greater time-management in water/fuel collection. The final finding opens up discussion on how data representation within urban infrastructure, through IoT, ties into both local and municipal politics, as well as the negative consequences of this representation for future infrastructure investment.