Development Informatics Research and the Challenges in Representing the Voice of Developing Country Researchers: A South African View
Date
2016-11-15
Authors
Van Biljon, Judy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg
Abstract
Indigenous or local researchers from developing countries have not made a leading
contribution to development informatics (DI) or information and communication
technologies for development (ICT4D) research. This is noteworthy since these
researchers should be in a prominent position to contribute to the discourse, where
context knowledge is regarded as vital. Furthermore, a dependence on foreign
scholarly direction can create a gap between research and reality in a way that affects
the success of ICT programmes in African countries. Extant literature highlights this
problem, but most studies stop short of considering the causes and proposing how
to amplify the voice of developing country researchers. This paper documents the
ICT4D/DI research discourse that took place during four seminal academic events
in South Africa during the period 2012 to 2015. Those discussions are presented
and analysed here to contribute to the wider discourse on ICT research and practice
in developing countries, with the aim of enhancing the research contribution of
developing countries. An interpretivist, involved researcher analysis of the workshop
reports is conducted to gain an improved understanding of the South African
ICT4D/DI researcher’s challenges to proportional participation. While this study
takes a South African perspective, many of the findings could apply to researchers in
other developing countries.
Description
Keywords
development informatics, ICT4D, research participation, challenges
Citation
Van Biljon, J. (2016). Development informatics research and the challenges in representing the voice of developing country researchers: A South African view. The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC), 18, 75-94. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/21757