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The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies
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chapter 1
....................................................................................................................................................
THE CHALLENGES
OF ICTs
.....................................................................................................................................................
robin mansell
chrisanthi avgerou
danny quah
roger silverstone
1 Introduction
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Many scholars have documented the way information and communication

technologies (ICTs) have been entwined with major changes in society since the
invention of electrical telegraphy in the 1830s.1 For some, the early ICTs, as well as
those stemming from the invention of the microprocessor in the late 1960s, are best
characterized as being revolutionary. This is because of the cascade of opportun-
ities they created for new forms of media and information and communication
services and for new ways of organizing society.
Enthusiasm for digital ICTs peaked towards the end of the twentieth century and
began to subside with the economic downturn that occurred at the end of that
century. The ‘irrational exuberance’ concerning the economic value of businesses
in the ‘new’ economy began to dissipate. This made way for renewed reXection on
the implications of the ways that ICT production and consumption have become
embedded within societies—both historically and in the twenty-Wrst century. In
this handbook our aim is to introduce readers to these theoretical and empirical
2 handbook of ict s
reXections as they appear within research undertaken by academics across a range

of social science disciplines.
Those who study the economy, organizations, or people’s everyday lives, some-
times depict ICTs as calling into existence a new inclusive, social, and economic
order. Others regard these technologies as dystopian determinants of social
inequality. However, there are many strands of research within the social sciences
that are yielding insights about the very complex ways in which ICTs are woven into
the fabric of society. We invited contributions from researchers who are sensitive to
the need to develop research which avoids the strongest forms of technological
determinism and of its counterpart, social constructivism. ICTs are regarded by the
contributors to this book as being neither transformational, nor as being entirely
malleable by their users. Although ICTs feature prominently in this volume, the
authors see these technologies as potential enablers, not as the determinants, of
particular cultural, organizational, social, political, or economic outcomes.
The United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) and its Action Plan2 created many forums for discussions about how to
resolve the still intractable problem of enabling all people and organizations to use
ICTs in ways that they are likely to Wnd engaging and useful. As a result not only of
the WSIS, but also of a surge of interest on the part of civil society and public and
private organizations in the wake of growing concerns about security and safety, it
is timely to reXect on the relationships between ICTs and human rights and
responsibilities, the kinds of communicative relationships that ICTs are support-
ing, and whether these are contributing to well-being in a globalizing world. We
have organized the chapters of this handbook around four themes covering topics
that we believe policy makers and those in other settings where ICTs are encoun-
tered will Wnd informative. The four themes are:
The knowledge economy : This theme focuses on the economic and policy dimen-
sions of the convergence of telephony, television, computing, and the Internet, and
on the changing roles of national and international policy and regulation.
This theme emphasizes the dynamics of the ‘new’ economy and the chapters
include critical assessments of the extent to which ICTs are associated with far-
reaching paradigmatic change as well as with less radical changes in markets and
institutions.
Organizational dynamics, strategy, and design: ICT system design and imple-
mentation involves processes of negotiation that often produce conXict within
organizations. This theme focuses on the ways in which the introduction and use of
ICT applications are negotiated by those involved and the potential of various
strategies for achieving consensus about the needs of users and the design of
technology.
Governance and democracy : The focus of this theme is a critical assessment of the
way ICTs are related to power relationships with respect to institutions and
the challenges of ict s 3
individuals. ICTs are examined in terms of the extent to which they are being
mobilized to enhance democratic participation and to support social movements.
The approaches to governance that may be required to achieve justice and fairness
in the face of surveillance practices and the potential for the invasion of privacy
protection are also examined.
Culture, community, and new media literacies: The role of ICTs is examined
within this theme in terms of their contribution to the communicative and other
resources that are needed for Wnding and expressing cultural identity, for fostering
new kinds of ‘community’ and for mediating experience in ways that foster new
kinds of literacies. The approach is consistently to reaYrm the commitment to
understanding the relationship between technology and social change as one of
mutual determination and therefore one that is crucially dependent on the actions
of individuals and institutions in the modern world.
2 Social science and ICTs

.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Many theoretical perspectives are available within the social sciences for the
investigation of ICTs. Perhaps the most predominant approach in the literature
concerning ICTs is diVusion theory, one of several approaches that have inXuenced
the research agenda on ICTs.
DiVusion of innovations
The production and spread of ICTs in society are often examined through the lens
of a diVusion model. In The DiVusion of Innovations, Rogers’ (1962) aim was to
explain how to inculcate awareness and enthusiasm for technical innovations such
that even those most resistant to their adoption might do so. By 1995, when the
fourth edition was published, he had modiWed his expression of the theory to
account for many of the contextual factors that inXuence the diVusion of new
technologies. Nevertheless, his central concern was to explain the rate and direction
of adoption of new technologies such as ICTs.3 The work in the diVusion theory
tradition is linked to the analysis of the technical and social networks that are
involved in the diVusion process.4 In this substantial body of research, there is little
critical reXection on the kinds of societal transformations or ethical issues that are
raised by innovations in ICTs when they are taken up by their users. In order to
encourage such reXection on these broader issues we have not used diVusion
theory as a key organizing theme in this handbook. Several chapters draw upon
4 handbook of ict s
this theory, but we have sought to include many complementary theoretical

perspectives and models.
Mapping and measuring ICTs

As ICTs have become more varied and pervasive in the post-World War II period,
substantial eVort has been devoted to mapping and measuring the extent of the
information society or the knowledge economy. This work is represented by the
early contributions of Daniel Bell, Fritz Machlup, Marc Porat and Youichi Ito,5 who
sought to document the growing contribution of information (or communication)
services to economic activity and the growing share of information-related occu-
pations in the workforce. Research in this tradition continues through the devel-
opment of indicators and surveys that enable comparison or benchmarking of
country or regional performance in terms of investment and use of ICTs.6 Several
contributors to this handbook comment on this research area.
Information economics and political economy

Another major strand of research is concerned with the role of ICTs in the
market exchange of information. Some analysts are enthusiastic about the
enormous growth of markets for information. Research often emphasizes issues
of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and its role in stimulating
economic growth and scientiWc endeavour.7 Others argue that concerns about
the market exchange of information need to be complemented by attention to
the beneWts and costs of information exchange which is less encumbered by the
costs of negotiating property rights.8 Still others direct their attention to the
consequences of economic power and domination that are present in media
and communication markets,9 notwithstanding the Internet and opportunities
for self-publishing. These areas of research inform several of the contributions
to this handbook.
Network societies
Research, represented by the work of Manuel Castells on the relationships between
networks, information Xows, and time/space reconWgurations, and by the work
of others such as Jan van Dijk and James Slevin who focus on ‘network’ or
‘Internet’ societies, has proliferated particularly since the mid-1990s.10 This work
is undertaken from many diVerent perspectives. Research in this area has
shown the importance of accounting for the interplay between online and oZine
activities if we are to comprehend the implications of the Internet and the spread
of an enormous range of ICT applications that oVer new means of creating and
interacting with digital information. Other analysts have been very interested in
ICTs and their association with ‘information’ or ‘knowledge’ societies, but those
such as Nicholas Garnham and Frank Webster are sceptical of claims that
these societies are radically altered by ICTs.11 In this handbook, many of the
contributors oVer critical assessments of some of the myths associated with
network societies and their implications for political, social, economic, and
organizational change.
ICTs, mediation, and power

Much of the research on ICTs is either under- or over-theorized in the sense intended
by Mark Granovetter.12 It is under-theorized in so far as it is often based on the
assumed autonomy of individual actors. In other cases, it is over-theorized, for
example, in attempting to account for the relationships between ICTs and the
meanings embedded in communicative relationships. In these cases, there is a
tendency to neglect power relationships. As Armand Mattelart suggests, in the
highly situated accounts that emphasize mediations and interactions, there is a
tendency to overlook those aspects of ICT production within a given system
that are ‘marked by the inequality of exchanges’.13 Alternatively, research on ICTs
that privileges the analysis of political and economic power tends to neglect the
agency of individuals. Our aim in this handbook has been to include research that
provides insights into the embeddedness of ICTs in diVerent contexts to show how
mediation processes are inXuenced by ICTs, but also to include research that
acknowledges power as a major factor in all socially and technologically mediated
relationships.
The production and appropriation of ICTs are marked by inequalities because
they mirror or reXect the inequalities of the societies that produce and use them.
Inequalities are visible in the ways that ICTs enable changing social practices,
provide new methods of communication and of information sharing, encourage
network forms of organization, and give rise to new learning dynamics and
commercial practices in the economy. The chapters in this handbook highlight
research programmes that would help to improve understanding of these devel-
opments and provide a basis for assessing the desirability of encouraging innov-
ation and experimentation in the use of ICTs.
A concise review of highlights from each of the four themes that provide the
organizing framework for this book follows as an introduction to the arguments
and evidence in subsequent chapters.
6 handbook of ict s
3 The knowledge economy and ICTs

.........................................................................................................................................................................................
By the beginning of the twenty-Wrst century, expenditure on research and develop-

ment (R&D), education, and software, which are treated as indicators of investment
in knowledge in studies of the economy, had reached about 9 per cent of GDP in the
OECD countries.14 The production of ICTs is a very dynamic component of physical
capital investment and had grown to about 4 per cent of GDP in some of the OECD
countries by this time. Software investment had also been increasing at a very rapid
rate. By the middle of the Wrst decade of this century, the rate of participation on the
Internet exceeded 50 per cent of the population in more than half of these countries.
Mobile telephone use had expanded rapidly, in some countries overtaking the
penetration of Wxed telephone service. Network interactivity had become a ‘routine’
facet of social and economic life in the wealthy economies of the world.
Most industrial sectors of these economies had become dependent on the use of
ICTs although there were large variations in the rate of investment in ICTs by
sector. The Internet and the World Wide Web had created the possibility of
producing and consuming information and media inside and outside the conWnes
of formal institutions. There were still gaps or digital divides within the wealthy
countries and the production and use of ICTs in developing countries continued,
in many cases, to lag far behind the industrialized countries. There was also
increasing evidence that the way that the Internet and other ICTs are introduced
or localized in diVerent regions of the world varies considerably.15
The ‘knowledge economy’ is a static concept that shifts each time a map of the
economy is redeWned and when boundaries change through time. This concept also
suggests that an invasive and transformational process is underway that alters the
rationale for, and outcomes of, economic relationships. The rapid decline in the cost
of ICTs and their growing use in the acquisition, storage, and processing of informa-
tion link them to the knowledge economy. This is because of the way these technolo-
gies inXuence the creation and use of knowledge in the economy and the exchange of
information. Knowledge is essential to organizations that exist to coordinate the
actions of individuals and to maintain continuity to some degree in their various
purposes. For individuals, their knowledge is a basic component of their ‘human
capital’ and this strongly inXuences their wage and employment opportunities. As a
result, we cannot ignore the signiWcance of ICTs if we are concerned about economic
growth, even if we may choose to critique the terminology that is used.16
By the end of the twentieth century, these developments had become associated
with labels such as the ‘knowledge economy’, the ‘new economy’, the ‘weightless
economy’, and the ‘information society’.17 The growing emphasis of economic
activity on the circulation of information has led to questions about the extent
to which investment in ICTs and in human capital are major contributors to
economic growth and to gains in productivity. There is a substantial body of
research on the relationship between investment in ICTs and the relative perform-
ance of national economies as well as on the relationship between ICT investment
and the competitiveness of Wrms. One conclusion about which there is little
argument is that ‘ICT seems to oVer the greatest beneWts when ICT investment is
combined with other organizational assets, such as new strategies, new business
processes, new organizational structures and better worker skills’.18 The contribu-
tors to this theme examine the features of the knowledge economy from diVerent
standpoints employing the tools of economic analysis, and all of them Wnd lacunae
in our ability to fully understand the contribution of ICTs to the economy. Several
important features of their arguments stand out.
General purpose technologies and the ICT paradigm

For analytical purposes, ICTs are treated by economists as ‘general purpose tech-
nologies’ (GPTs).19 Because of their enormous adaptability and their ubiquity they
are expected to play a major role in the economy. In his chapter, however, Freeman
points out that despite characteristics that make ICTs subject to increasing rates of
return in use, there are many social and institutional factors that create resistance to
their smooth take-up. There is a substantial body of research that aims to measure
the uneven economic gains from ICTs, which result from diVerences in the rate and
direction of processes of adjustment to ICTs, as discussed by Draca, Sadun, and Van
Reenen. One of these processes is the standardization process, which smooths
adjustment to ICTs, creating platforms upon which applications can be built, as
shown by Steinmueller. An important concept which informs the work of econo-
mists who study ICTs is the notion of paradigmatic change.20 Freeman claims that
the remarkable features of ICTs have led some enthusiasts of the ICT paradigm to
adopt ‘missionary zeal’ in advancing the diVusion of these technologies and to
exaggerate the ‘exemplary’ aspects of the paradigm. He argues that it is necessary
to distinguish clearly between the way the knowledge economy might be expected to
develop and its real expansions and contractions, which produce uneven develop-
ment, an argument that is further developed by Melody. The malleability or adapt-
ability of ICTs also provides the starting point for Greenstein and Prince’s
examination of the diVusion of the Internet. They show, as do the other contributors
to this theme, that institutions of various kinds are essential if economic value is to
be created through the application of ICTs.
Productivity and ICTs

Economic theory suggests that a shift toward the predominance of the ICT
paradigm should result in productivity gains and provide a stimulus for economic
8 handbook of ict s
growth. In their chapter, Draca, Sadun and Van Reenen use growth accounting and
econometric methods to examine productivity gains and learning eVects that may
be attributable to the widespread use of ICTs. They review the literature on the
‘Solow Paradox’ (computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics), and
consider possible explanations for the greater acceleration of productivity in the US
compared to Europe in the 1990s. One explanation may be diVerences in the way
that US and other multinational Wrms have introduced organizational changes
alongside their investments in ICTs. The contribution of ICTs to major changes in
the banking and Wnance sector is examined by Melody who also discusses the
public sector’s lagging take-up of ICTs and the diYculties of assessing eYciency
gains in this area.21
ICTs and human capital

Investment in human capital is essential to foster ICT innovations at the technological
frontier and to build demand for these technologies and related services. Freeman and
Melody both highlight the fact that such investment currently reaches a relatively small
proportion of the global population. They argue that the rate of investment is not fast
enough to avert inequality within knowledge economies or to eliminate digital divides.
There is a need for a much better understanding of ‘organizational capital’, as Draca,
Sadun, and van Reenen suggest, if we are to explain diVerences in productivity
performance between Wrms, industries, and countries. Some developing countries
have prioritized investment in human capital to promote their capacity for ICT
production. This is especially the case in the East Asian countries, which have used
diVerent combinations of development, and national innovation and education strat-
egies, alongside the investment and the employment strategies of multinationals, to
reverse the ‘brain drain’ to higher wage countries and to become world leaders in
semiconductor production, as outlined by Lazonick.
ICTs and information

The claim that ICTs are GPTs is evocative of the breadth of their application, but
the economic factors underpinning their inXuence hinges upon the unique prop-
erties of information as an economic commodity. Expansibility, that is, the ability
to instantly and costlessly reproduce information, and its implication that the use
of information may be non-rival, challenge the scarcity foundations upon which
economic theories of value and price are constructed. Institutional arrangements
for governing scarcity, such as the assignment of property rights, should not
obscure the augmentation of productive resources enabled by this property. As
Steinmueller explains, ICTs not only oVer new ‘shovels’ that may be reproduced at
will and at no cost, but also may provide the means for replacing those who are
currently doing the shovelling. Melody, in his chapter, considers the conXicts
between the goal of maximizing proWts in quasi-monopoly information markets
(where markets are created by strong IPR protection) and of maximizing the
societal distribution of information. Like David and Steinmueller in their contri-
butions, he argues that these conXicts are major issues that need to be addressed
through changes in governance systems and new means of regulation.
ICT infrastructure and the state

State institutions have an important role in shaping knowledge economies. Regu-
latory agencies, standards-setting institutions, and public sector investment in ICTs
and in the workforce, inXuence the ICT industry structure and, as Melody argues,
contribute to the emergence of highly concentrated oligopolistic markets. Freeman
observes that there are few signs that the network features of ICTs are leading to the
demise of the state or the Wrm, a myth that became prevalent in the 1980s and
1990s. Regulation by the state has played a central role in the rate of expansion of
telecommunication infrastructures, including the spread of the Internet and
broadband capacity. In the case of the Internet, David shows that innovation is
strongly inXuenced by interdependencies between technology and policy. He
highlights the implications of the concentration of market power among a small
number of Internet Service Providers for the continued development of global
networks, whereas Greenstein and Prince focus on the economics of Internet
developments in the US to explain the factors contributing to its uneven geo-
graphic development. Like David, they highlight the importance of examining
whether changes in the design of the Internet, new services such as VoIP (Voice
over Internet Protocol), and new wireless networks, will slow innovation or alter
the geographic distribution of digital divides.
DiVusion and ICTs

The diVusion model, as highlighted earlier in this chapter, has dominated studies
of the demand side of the ICT industry for decades. Economists have few means of
examining the organizational changes that aVect the diVusion process and as a
result they often examine labour skills, as does Lazonick, or undertake surveys at
the Wrm level, as recommended by Draca, Sadun and Van Reenan, in order to
provide an empirical basis for examining the organizational changes that occur
with investment in ICTs. The need for more systematic data to understand how
ICTs are used by organizations, and in the economy as a whole, gives rise to studies
that endeavour to ‘map and measure’ the knowledge economy, as noted by
10 handbook of ict s
Steinmueller. Despite the inadequacies of the indicators that are used, these eVorts
provide data for econometric research on the dynamics of knowledge economies
and help to explain diVerences in the diVusion of ICTs between the rich and the
poor, and between urban and rural areas, an issue that is discussed by Freeman,
Greenstein and Prince, and Melody in their respective chapters.
4 Organizational dynamics, strategy,

design, and ICTs
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Ever since the Wrst uses of computers in business organizations the development of
ICT-based information systems has been inseparable from the dynamics of organ-
izational change.22 Some 30 years of information systems research have highlighted
multiple crucial aspects of this complex socio-technical process. A great deal of
early research focused on the construction of technology applications. Such
research has been driven by the principle that it is the designer’s duty to achieve a
good Wt of new information processing artefacts in existing organizational struc-
tures and practices, but also by the expectation that the organizations implementing
the new ICTs will adjust themselves to more eYcient and eVective technology-
mediated practices and structures.23 Other research streams, though, sought to shift
the starting point and the overall orientation of the ICT innovation process in
organizations from designing innovative technologies for existing organizational
settings to anchoring innovation in business strategy and organizational reform
interventions. But whether the primary research emphasis has been on the con-
struction and implementation of new technologies, the perceived imperatives of
organizational change for business survival, or the interaction between them, it has
become increasingly clear that ICT innovation and organizational change are not
contained in good design practices—for technology or organizations. Instead, they
are more accurately understood as a continuous sense-making and negotiation
process among multiple parties and as Claudio Ciborra argued, involve care and
cultivation of new, emerging, socio-technical, organizational conditions.24
The role of management

One persistent research theme in information systems research concerns the
capabilities for the managerial direction of ICT innovation towards desirable
business ends. There have been numerous management principles and ‘best
practice’ prescriptions for exploiting ICTs. These provide guides for identifying
the strategic and operational value to be gained from new technology information
systems, objectives that should be targeted, organizational models that should be
followed, and systematic activities through which all of these might be achieved.
A great deal of such knowledge has been ephemeral, or of dubious empirical
validity, but as Galliers shows in his critique of three major themes in information
systems research—alignment, competitive advantage, and knowledge manage-
ment—decades of empirical research and critical scrutiny have developed valuable
knowledge of eVective technical/rational action beyond the faddish prescriptions.
Moreover, we have now a better understanding of the nature of the process of
strategic management of ICT innovation.
Similarly, the review by Willcocks, Lacity and Cullen of more than 15 years of
research on experiences of outsourcing shows the gradual development of know-
ledge for managing organizations’ relations with the ICT services vendors that they
rely heavily on. One lesson is clear from their review: ‘outsourcing cannot be
contracted for and then not managed’. Large organizations are pursuing
continuous ICT innovation involving partnerships and contractual arrangements
with multiple ICT service providers across continents. OVshore outsourcing is
an increasingly visible phenomenon, with opportunities and risks that require
management at both government policy and business management levels, as the
chapter by Willcocks, Lacity, and Cullen shows.25 The challenges of steering such
across-the-globe, organizational, business arrangements in developing and sustain-
ing information system resources should not be underestimated; but, as the
chapters by Galliers and Willcocks, Lacity, and Cullen suggest, a core of valuable
lessons for practice is being produced from longitudinal empirical research.
ICT and new organizational forms

Many predictions of changes in the structure of organizations have been associated
with ICTs. Some of them, such as the Xattening of the hierarchical organizational
pyramid that has been prevalent in the industrial era, have been conWrmed by
empirical evidence. Others, such as the formation of new structures—for example,
the ‘matrix’ or ‘platform’ organization—have been demonstrated in particular
cases, but have not become widespread.26 Nevertheless, with the spread of intranets
and the Internet the hierarchical organization seems to have been eroded both
through internal restructuring of the organization of work, and through business
processes crossing organizational boundaries in the outsourcing arrangements and
industrial partnerships of producer Wrms with suppliers and customers.
The network form has been heralded as the emerging dominant organizational
form. Yet Kallinikos in his chapter suggests the need for caution in making
predictions about the transition to the network organization as the dominant
feature of the information society. He points out that such a transformation is
not just a matter of technology-induced design of organizational structures and

practices; it involves fundamental institutional changes. The spreading of network
organizational arrangements is confronted by existing institutions and will not go
very far unless the institutional contexts also change. Analyses of the merits of
network organizational arrangements in terms of business gains, eVective manage-
ment, and market reach, need to be complemented by studies of changes occurring
in the broader institutional context of modernity, such as the legal frameworks
governing labour markets, property rights, and social welfare, nation-state bound
societies, and cultural patterns.
Knowledge and information in organizations

ICTs are closely linked with issues of knowledge in organizations. Galliers critiques
the stream of research on ‘knowledge management’ and proposes a way of consider-
ing knowledge issues strategically without oversimplifying them. Kallinikos puts
forward a diVerent critique, on the basis of an analysis of ICTs as means of represen-
tation and processing of information, as well as of codifying and formalizing know-
ledge produced in the course of an organization’s activities. Thus, ICTs may empower
or constrain action on the basis of tacit knowledge, facilitate or inhibit new ideas and
creativity, and alter power/knowledge dynamics in an organizational context.
Moreover, Kallinikos draws attention to the phenomenon of information growth,
which is to a large extent facilitated by ICTs. Against the euphoria surrounding the
Internet as providing almost unlimited access to information and knowledge
repositories, Kallinikos detects a self-referential generation of information, which
poses a challenge to the existing cognitive capabilities of organizations. So far there is
limited understanding of the way the unprecedented circulation of information,
disembedded from the context that gave rise to it, aVects knowledge formation in
organizations.
Multiple perspectives in the study of ICT and organizational

and social change
Research aiming at understanding the role of ICTs in organizational change has
addressed a range of fundamental conceptual questions regarding the relationship
between technology and society. At the very least, such research has enriched the
language we use to present and discuss information systems phenomena, to justify
and explain expectations and consequences associated with ICT innovation, and to
chart courses of action to that end. For example, sensitized by theoretical critiques
of deterministic perspectives of technology, information systems researchers
and their practice avoid assumptions of cause and eVect relationships between
particular technology properties and the direction of organizational change. Instead,

they have developed accounts of complex processes of change that complement
technological potential with consideration of intentions, interests, cognitive and
emotional dispositions of multiple agents, and power relations unfolding in the
organizational context.
Moreover, as Jones and Orlikowski demonstrate in their chapter, speciWc theor-
etical perspectives shed light on particular facets of the complex relationships
between ICT innovation and organizations or society at large. There is ongoing
debate on the validity and explanatory merits of speciWc perspectives, but few
scholars see progress in this research Weld as a matter of establishing the superiority
of one particular theoretical perspective over others, thus resulting in a ‘correct’
general theory of ICTs, organizations, and society. This line of argument is clearly
followed by Introna, who presents and discusses three distinct theoretical
approaches for understanding ethical issues raised by new ICTs in organizations
and society. There is much to be gained in terms of in-depth understanding of new
ICT associated phenomena from pursuing research through multiple theoretical
perspectives, with analytical consistency within each of them and critical awareness
of alternatives.
5 Governance, democracy, and ICTs

.........................................................................................................................................................................................
The growing use of ICTs has generated considerable discussion of how this may
inXuence the institutions and processes of governance and democracy. In whatever
form they are conceived, democratic processes and regimes of governance at all
levels of society are likely to be profoundly inXuenced by the use of these tech-
nologies. This is because of how they oVer opportunities for the production and
circulation of information in new ways, and how they support new communicative
relationships. At least theoretically, this provides a new foundation for citizens’
participation in democratic processes and for their numerous interactions with
services provided by the state.
The Internet, in particular, has provided new virtual spaces for public discussion
and deliberation and the expansion in the use of the World Wide Web by govern-
ments is supporting a host of e-services. However, as the contributors to this theme
emphasize, before conclusions are drawn about the implications of ICTs, analysis
of the potentially disruptive implications of ICTs for democratic practices and for
governance systems needs to be undertaken in relation to the speciWc nature of
the technologies and the particular contexts in which they are used. The digital
technologies that are encountered within this theme include public and private
networks based on the Internet Protocol (IP) as well as networks that support
conventional telephony. They include e-government services at all levels developed
for citizens’ use, as well as large-scale information technology systems involving
databases for internal use of public sector employees. They include web-based
e-voting systems and ‘social software’ such as blogs, wikis, email, and privacy
enhancing technologies, as well as closed circuit television cameras, and embedded
technologies such as radio frequency identiWcation (RFID) tags used for monitor-
ing the movement of goods and people. ICTs are also associated with growth in the
collection, retention, and analysis of data generated by computerized commercial
and non-commercial transactions.27 In many instances, what distinguishes ad-
vanced ICTs from earlier generations of technology is their use to support global
networks and the consequences of these networks for governance systems and
democratic processes that are bounded by nation states.28 The following are some
of the topical insights that come to light under this theme.
Questioning determinism
In their respective chapters, all the contributors to this handbook illustrate the
importance of avoiding deterministic claims about the impact of ICTs on govern-
ance and democracy. Simplistic assumptions about the ‘transformative’ nature of
ICTs are challenged in the light of empirical observations indicating that the
political and social relationships engendered by the spread of ICTs are inevitably
complex. In some cases, these relationships give rise to new social movements and
greater interaction between governments and citizens, but in others, the transpar-
ency of governance and the effectiveness of governance systems may be reduced,
and power hierarchies reinforced.
Sassen draws attention to the complex ways in which the design of ICTs and
social processes interact, a theme that is addressed in studies of ICTs informed by
social science theories concerning power and its embeddedness in both techno-
logical and social systems. This demonstrates how the technical design of the
Internet as an open, non-hierarchical network can be associated with more dis-
tributed power relationships, as in the case of some social movements, or with the
greater coalescence of power, as in the case of the Wnancial services industry. As
Sassen puts it, the outcomes associated with global networks are ‘mixed, contra-
dictory, and lumpy’. It is crucial to examine empirically how and by whom ICTs are
used, before reaching conclusions about whether they are associated with greater
empowerment for citizens or better governance practices.
Technological convergence has given rise to many new ICT platforms and to
greater capabilities for large-scale processing of personal and transaction-related
information. The use of these ICTs has the potential to alter the relationships
between those invested with the power to govern and those who are governed, with
major, albeit uncertain, implications for democratic freedoms and responsibili-

ties.29 In the light of these developments, Couldry draws attention to the need to
consider the communicative resources that are necessary to enable citizens to
participate eVectively in democratic processes, while Coleman emphasizes the
need to challenge claims that e-democracy leads to greater direct communication
between politicians and citizens. Similarly, Dunleavy ’s account of the way
e-government services have been introduced questions the notion that investment
in ICTs automatically leads to improved service provision or to more eVective
means of managing information within public sector organizations. Both Raab
and Lyon show that ICTs can be used in ways that are inconsistent with particular
values associated with democracy. It is clear from the research traditions that are
included under this theme, that ICTs do not transform relationships of power in
society in predictable ways.
Resources for empowerment

The unequal distribution of the communicative and information resources that
may be deemed essential to underpin democratic processes is a central issue in many
of the chapters. Coleman argues that asymmetries in information resources can lead
to the suppression of public engagement with the political processes that are
essential to democracy. He questions the assumption that individuals will gain in
social capital simply as a result of their interactions within online communities. The
promise of e-democracy is often said to be related to the fact that new ICTs can
support a two-way dialogue between citizens and their government, but since the
early 1970s there have been fervent debates about whether the majority of citizens
will want to access online forums and about whether politicians will have an
inclination to listen.30 Online voting and blogging during elections are just two of
the many developments that continue to fuel debates about whether the use of ICTs
creates new possibilities for a public sphere in which rational debate can occur.31
Couldry emphasizes that the distribution of communicative and information
resources is central to achieving social justice.
The use of ICTs also is giving rise to new and unequal distributions of risk as
demonstrated by Lyon in his discussion of surveillance societies and by Raab in his
observations about the problems created by the unequal incidence of privacy
intrusions and distribution of privacy protection. There are many unanswered
questions about the nature of the resources that are needed to enable individuals
to protect themselves from such risks and about the role that the state should
play in protecting citizens’ interests. The issue of resources is raised in a diVerent
context by Dunleavy in connection with the unequal resources available at diVerent
levels of government for investment in e-government services and the implications
of this for the way these services are designed and implemented.
Digital divides, democratic participation, and governance

There is no shortage of controversy over what has come to be known as the ‘digital
divide’.32 There are those who treat the uneven spread of ICTs and the capabilities
to use them as a reXection of a relatively early phase in a diVusion process within
the ICT paradigm. In their view, market forces will ensure that these technologies
are available and aVordable for all.33 The alternative view is that the concept of the
digital divide is misleading because it calls too much attention to the technology
rather than to whether the distribution of ICTs is a reXection of inequalities that
have their origins in society.34 Inasmuch as ICTs can play a role in enabling new
forms of participatory democracy it is important to reXect on what ‘participation’
means and whether citizens should be entitled to acquire capabilities that would
enable them ‘to be informed and to be heard’, as Couldry suggests. The decisions
about what speciWc resources citizens should be entitled to, and the practicalities of
who should provide them, are issues for continuing research and debate. Central
research topics in this area include whether ICT networks give rise to new patterns
of political power, to the need to develop more eVective means of political
communication, and to the need for a ‘civic commons in cyberspace’.
The contributors to this theme challenge the idea that the availability of ICTs
necessarily overcomes various forms of social exclusion. Sassen shows, for example,
that the use of these technologies by civil society activists is not inclusive in any
straightforward way, a Wnding that is in line with other research Wndings on how
social movements have been making use of ICTs to support their activities.35 The
reproduction of pre-existing social inequalities and the potential for exclusion is
emphasized also in the context of Raab’s discussion of the social distribution of
privacy protection where diVerences in the protection of individuals’ personal
information can inXuence their access to social services and health care. Similarly,
as Lyon indicates, ‘social sorting’ can lead to discrimination or divides between
social groups that have been characterized, for whatever reason, as ‘desirable’ or
‘undesirable’. Dunleavy’s research on e-government services illustrates that the
design and organization of such services also produces new forms of exclusion,
in this case, in the form of problems of access to relevant information by those who
provide services or by those who are intended to beneWt from them.
Regimes of power
EVective governance and participatory democracy are predicated on the notion
that citizens’ views will be taken into account by those who are deemed to be
accountable. The changing regimes of power that are emerging with globalization
and the spread of digital networks give rise to the need to reassess the roles of
dominant actors and to consider the need for a new ‘politics of information’. Sassen
emphasizes the power of global Xows of Wnancial capital beyond the control of the
states. Dunleavy highlights the power of the large ICT companies that design and
manage information systems and e-government services for the public sector.
DiVerences in regimes of power are also visible in the authority accorded to ICT
professionals in diVerent countries which leads to diVerent outcomes in the way
e-government and e-democracy services are developed. Coleman’s analysis of
e-democracy services indicates that, while their use may make elections more
transparent and alter the relations of power between political parties and citizens,
their use does not overcome diVerences in citizens’ abilities to discriminate
between sources of information, nor does it indicate whether the use of ICTs will
lead to new regimes or ‘manifestations of political power’.
Legitimacy, enforcement, and freedoms

The legitimacy accorded to legislative and regulatory measures as forms of gov-
ernance has a major bearing on a variety of rights and freedoms normally associ-
ated with democracy. Questions about the legitimacy of authority and political
representation are raised by Coleman in terms of the public’s conWdence in
political actors. Couldry raises issues concerning the role that governments can
legitimately play in ensuring that citizens are able to acquire communicative
resources for democratic participation. Dunleavy’s discussion of public sector
information management practices raises questions about the legitimacy of the
norms governing decisions about how information is controlled and who has the
authority to decide what information should be processed and shared inside and
outside government.
Both Lyon and Raab raise issues concerning the public acceptance of safety
measures in the cases of surveillance and privacy protection, especially in the light
of variations in the capacity to enforce legislation and regulations in a ‘boundary-
less’ world. Couldry regards individual agency or freedom as a social commitment
to ensure that goods and resources are distributed fairly, and Lyon raises ethical
issues concerning citizens’ expectations about freedom from surveillance as a result
of data processing. Raab questions whether it is reasonable to retain existing
standards of privacy protection in a globalizing world. The protection of individual
privacy is far more diYcult in the face of government measures aimed at enhancing
the ‘safety state’, and the emergence of ‘surveillance societies’ is a response to
concerns about the threat of attacks of various kinds.
The research agendas set out by the contributors to this theme provide clear
evidence of the need to assess changes in political power relations in the light of
ethical considerations, aspirations for human welfare, and the rights and freedoms
that we wish to sustain, rather than mainly in terms of what a given technology
might enable.
6 Culture, community, and new media

literacies
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
The Wnal theme in this handbook addresses the relationship between technological
change, and the social and cultural, where the social and the cultural can be
considered as both context for, and consequence of, the logic of innovation. We
have framed it as a whole in these terms, and in some ways it could be argued that
this part of the book, rather than coming at the end, should have been placed at the
beginning. This is because it is clear that there is no possibility of disentangling
technology either from the structures of symbolic and material power—the power
of institutions, the power of traditions—or from its embedding in the conXicts and
continuities of experience—the experience of producers, users, and consumers in
their everyday interactions both with each other and with the technologies and
services on which they have become so dependent.
In Habermassian terms ICTs are clearly part of both system and life world, and
indeed crucially can be seen in many, if not most, respects to be articulating the
relationship between the two. Economy, polity, and organizational life are all
products of this interaction, and the dialectic between all their elements—structure,
action, organization, machine, intention, value—increasingly depends on what we
do, and on how we live with these technologies and the resources they release.
From this perspective there are as many questions to ask about technological
change as there are questions to be asked about the social world as a whole. And an
understanding of the place of ICTs in that world requires the deployment of
theoretical approaches and empirical research which is not hide-bound to a single
discipline or to a mechanical, more or less positivist, methodology. The contribu-
tors to this theme reXect on this complexity.
The contributors approach this complexity from a number of different perspec-
tives and with a number of different foci. The discussion here is framed through
Wve key windows. The Wrst is literacy, the second the interdependence of online and
oZine communication, the third the political appropriation of the aVordances of
ICT, the fourth the role of ICTs in the formation and functioning of community,
and the Wfth their equivalent role in relation to identity.
ICTs and literacy

Thinking about the social dimensions of ICT as an issue of literacy directs
attention to them as being constituted through social practice and, in their turn,
requiring or perhaps more accurately inviting, the development of particular skills
both to engage with them at all, but more importantly to engage with them in socially
and culturally coherent and productive ways. Each moment in the evolution of
both communication and information technologies, since the age of writing, has
oVered new and diVerent possibilities for communication,36 and challenged
cultures and societies to respond in creative and ultimately non-exclusive ways.
Literacy, democracy, and economy went hand in hand in the nineteenth century.
The question, ultimately posed in the Wrst two chapters within this theme, is the
extent to which they might still be intimately connected in the twenty-Wrst century.
Some of these issues have been discussed under the third theme of this handbook.
Literacy, media literacy, new media literacy, or information literacy (the terms
are necessarily imprecise and Xuid) involves more than merely a set of practical
skills. Engaging in the products of a complexly mediated world, and one indeed of
information overload, is not just a matter of knowing one’s way around and
having a certain degree of competence in what might once have been called
reading. It involves much more than that, as Graham and Goodrum, and Living-
stone, in their diVerent ways argue. What is involved is the opportunity and the
capacity meaningfully to engage in a discourse which is public, highly mediated,
technologically sophisticated, and symbolically powerful. Literacy is a matter of
making sense, of constructing and communicating understandings in a world of
great dissonance and great ambiguity, one which ICTs both create as well as help
to resolve. But literacy is also a matter of participation and protection, as
individuals confronted with the bewildering and otherwise indecipherable pres-
ence of the social, need the skills to Wnd, absorb, and use the resources that in one
way or another are a precondition for citizenship, a satisfactory level of eco-
nomic and Wnancial activity and sustainability, and the overall quality of their
everyday life.
ICTs, culture, and participation

New ICTs oVer quite new possibilities. The capacity for interaction, the blurring of
the boundaries between production and consumption, together and convergently,
enable the a priori possibility for greater participation in what might be seen as the
blurred world of public/private communication that is the web and, increasingly,
mobile telephony. There are primary concerns of inclusion and exclusion here, and
a suYcient degree of media and information literacy is a precondition, at the very
least, for the former.
There are two issues involved. The Wrst is the relationship between the oZine
and the online world. And the second is the politics of it all.
It has been customary, indeed it was once deemed almost self-evident, to Wnd
in the Internet the basis for a self-contained speciWc realm—it was called
cyberspace—which worked according to its own patterns, and which in its
seductiveness, encompassed a world that was sui generis. Research then began to
question this, and oVered an account of the relationship between online and oZine
communication (and culture) as being determined not by the technology but by
the actions of those in the real world (most notably, but by no means exclusively, by
Daniel Miller and Don Slater).37 One determinism replaced another, and actually
neither was, nor is, sustainable.
As Shani Orgad argues in those signiWcant realms of personal or institutional
action that involve communication, negotiation, and organization online, there is
nevertheless a much more complex set of interactions to be understood. These
involve a degree of substantial interdependence within what takes place in both
domains; that both domains, the online and the oZine, exercise a materiality in
relation to the other, and that this needs to be addressed both methodologically
and substantively.
Individuals may meet and fall in love online, but they still have to meet in some
real setting if they are to marry or procreate. Likewise, the realities of social and
political action in the real world increasingly and in certain increasingly vivid
settings, can be enhanced and even directed by the communications that take place
exclusively online or on-mobile. The two domains nevertheless are neither substi-
tutable nor separable.
Politics, community, and identity

The political realities of online interaction and communication both reXect and
engage with the politics of the world. Political movements, political mobilizations,
alternative accounts of political realities, are believed to be signiWcantly the stuV of
online interaction, for all the obvious reasons: the weakness or lack of state
regulation, the low cost of entry, and the ease of global communication. However,
as Downing and Brooten also suggest, what seems uniquely possible online is also
available, and continues to be signiWcant, across many media, both old and new.
Media are essential to the conduct of politics of all kinds in the modern world. And
of course the new digital environment has spawned a range of technologies that can
be, and often are being, used to sustain a range of alternative activities from the
support of local communities to the coordination of information and political
action across continents.
Indeed the nature of online community and its relationship to place-based
communities have been the focus of continuous and contentious concern in
the literature on ICTs. Online interaction has been seen as facilitative, and it has
also been seen as destructive, of the kinds of otherwise unmediated interactions
that in their continuity and intensity have the capacity to create a sense of
meaningful, place-based belonging. Research has tended to show that eVective
networking online emerges from, and to a degree depends on, pre-existent live
communities, but it has also indicated the profound a-social potential in online
interaction,38 both from the point of view of the seduction of its users into an
electronic realm, and in terms of the ephemerality and invasive dangers of such
communication.
It is clear, however, as Jung, Ball-Rokeach, Kim, and Matei argue in their chapter,
that such communicative spaces are as complex and problematic as those in real
space, where communities are just as fractured and diYcult. They also suggest that
where and when such ‘real’ communities do work, they have the capacity to
mobilize the potential of online communication and information access in creative
and supportive ways. This goes both for the local and the more or less sedentary, as
much as it does for the migrant and the displaced, though in the case of the latter,
the capacity of ICTs meaningfully to provide a framework for social interaction
is dependent very much on the prior circumstances, both the resources and the
literacies, of the group concerned.
The argument from the study of community, and indeed the argument we are at
pains to articulate throughout this volume, that the relationship between technol-
ogy and the society is one of mutual shaping, is sustainable too at the level of the
individual. Again the literature is replete with both determinist and essentialist
Wgures, most evidently in arguments about gender and especially the status of ICTs
as, in one way or another, necessarily gendered. Such positions are not sustainable.
And while it is the case that in many societies women are denied the possibility of
equivalent access to the full range of literacies, which in turn enable participation in
the ICT-based culture and where indeed such exclusions are both the product of
established patterns of disadvantage, and more or less motivated strategies in
design. There is, as Wajcman points out, no immutable Wxing of position or
identity, and no singularity either, in the eVects or consequences of engaging
with ICTs.
7 Conclusion
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
This handbook cannot encompass all the research on the development and appli-
cation of ICTs within the social sciences and it has been necessary to set some
boundaries. We do not include lines of research that view these technologies as
being linked to a smooth evolution of society towards a network arrangement that
propagates itself throughout the world in a singular way. We also have not included
detailed discussions of the technical characteristics of ICTs,39 research on ICTs and
cognition, or on the legal frameworks for the management and control of the way
ICTs are used.
The research included here is limited by the fact that it highlights work by those
who publish in the English language and who are based in universities in Australia,
Canada, France, Japan the UK and the US. Although some of the contributors draw
upon empirical research undertaken within or about developing countries, this
handbook does not include research that is responsive to the ICT, or communica-
tion ‘for development’ debates; although it does take account of research on the
principles and practices that might guide discussions about digital divides.40
Research in the physical sciences, computer science, and engineering is devoted
to promoting innovations in ICTs.41 For example, research on ubiquitous or
ambient computing, applications of RFID technology, software automation, multi-
media content, the Semantic Web, and Knowledge Management is receiving
substantial Wnancial support. Frequently, this work gives rise to calls for cross-,
inter- or multidisciplinary research which embraces the social sciences as a means
of addressing the uncertainties—ethical, social, economic or political—that
research in the natural sciences and engineering Weld brings to light, but often
fails to address.
This handbook provides a resource for those working in other traditions em-
bracing research that is informed principally by the disciplines of anthropology,
economics, philosophy, politics, and sociology.42 The contributors set out an
intellectual agenda that encourages reXection on the implications of ICTs for
individuals, organizations, democracy, and the economy. Many of the media
accounts of ICTs present them as ‘new’ and appear to suggest that a wholly new
way of thinking is required in order to understand their implications. The
discussions in this handbook conWrm our view that it is the continuous inter-
penetration of the old and new ICTs, older and new practices and meanings, and
innovations in institutions and governance systems that need to be investigated to
achieve a deeper understanding of the place and consequences of these technolo-
gies for society.
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Notes
1. Or even before as optical telegraphy had been in use since the 1790s. ICTs also may be
taken to include mechanical devices in which case, movable type that was Wrst used in
China for printing in the eleventh century, could be included. For historical studies, see
Braudel (1981), Castells (1996), Innis (1950, 1951), Freeman and Soete (1997), Marvin
(1988), and Mattelart (1996/2000).
2. The WSIS was held in 2003 and 2005, see http://www.itu.int/wsis/ accessed 24 Mar.
2006.
3. For research in this tradition see, for example, Attewell (1992), Brancheau and Wetherbe
(1990), Carter et al. (2001), Chin and Marcolin (2001), Damsgaard (1996), Deroian
(2002), Fichman and Kemerer (1999), Lyytinen and Damsgaard (2001), and Stoneman
(2002).
4. See, for example, Monge and Contractor (2003).
5. See Bell (1973), Machlup (1962), Porat and Rubin (1977), and Ito (1991).
6. For example, OECD (2005), and Room (2005).
7. For example, Lamberton (1971, 2006) on the variety of roles that information plays in
the economy, Noam (2001) on the institutional rules governing the development of new
markets, and Quah (2003) on the potential of ICTs for creating digital goods such as
digital music and novel software algorithms.
8. For example, David (1993, 2005a, b), Lessig (2001), and Mansell and Steinmueller (2000).
9. For example, McChesney and Schiller (2003), Mosco (1996), and Schiller (1999).
10. See Castells (1996, 1997, 1998, 2001), van Dijk (2006), and Slevin (2002).
1 1. See Garnham (2000), Webster (2002), and Braman (1995) for a review of some of these
works.
12. See Granovetter (1985).
13. See Mattelart (2000: 107).
14. See Science, Technology, and Industry Scoreboard 2005: Towards a Knowledge-based
Economy, OECD, http://titania.sourceoecd.org/vl¼2609992/cl¼23/nw¼1/rpsv/ij/
oecdthemes/99980134/v2005n15/s1/p1l, accessed 18 Mar. 2006.
15. For example, see Kim (2005) and Adam (2005).
16. See May (2002) and Webster (2002) for critical appraisals of these labels.
17. See Coyle and Quah (2002), Mansell and Wehn (1998), Quah (1996), OECD (2001),
UNESCO (2005), World Bank (1998), for examples.
18. See OECD (2001: 12).
19. See Bresnahan and Trajtenberg (1995).
20. See Perez (1983, 2002), and Freeman and Louça (2001).
21. Sassen examines the Wnancial sector and Dunleavy discusses the public sector and ICTs
in Pt III of this Handbook.
22. See Caminer et al. (1997).
23. For example, research on systems development methodologies in the 1980s presented in
Avison and Fitzerald (1996).
24. See Ciborra (2002).
25. Lazonick also addresses outsourcing in Pt I of this Handbook.
26. For example, DeSanctis and Fulk (1999).
27. See Agre and Rotenberg (1997), and Samarajiva (1996).
28. This volume does not contain a chapter on the governance of the Internet from a
technical or regulatory perspective, although some aspects of Internet governance are
discussed by David in Chapter 6 in terms of the need for social regulation of the
Internet. See StauVacher and Kleinwächter (2005), ITeM (2005), Milward-Oliver
(2005), and Raboy (2003) for discussions of Internet governance.
29. For access to literature on the role of the media in this context see, for instance, Axford
and Huggins (2001), Bennett and Entman (2000), Dahlgren (2001), Kellner (1990), and
Norris (2000).
30. See Arterton (1987), Etzioni (1992), Guthrie and Dutton (1992), London (1995) and
Schudson (1992).
31. For discussion of the nature of the public sphere, see Calhoun (1992), Habermas (1989/
1962, 1989), and Keane (1995).
32. The digital divide generally refers to diVerences—socio-economic or geographical—in
access to ICTs and the Internet and to diVerences in people’s capabilities to use ICTs.
Inequality is said to have implications for the economy, and political and social
processes.
33. This argument is made by some of the contributors to Compaine (2001).
34. See Norris (2001), van Dijk (2005), and Warschauer (2004).
35. See, e.g. Cammaerts (2005), Cammaerts and Van Audenhove (2005) and Carpentier
(2003).
36. See, e.g. Ong (1982).
37. See Miller and Slater (2000).
38. See Kraut et al. (1998).
39. The technical features are explained at: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:
Information_technology_bookshelf; http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks: Computer_
software_bookshelf; http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Computer_science_bookshelf;
and esp., Wiley publishers at http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-2925.html,
accessed 22 Mar. 2006.
40. ICTs are mentioned in the United Nations Millennium Goals http://www.un.org/
millenniumgoals/ and work in this area has been growing rapidly often supported by
development agencies and government departments. The web resources are too nu-
merous to cite here, but readers might start with http://www.dWd.gov.uk/aboutdWd/
organisation/icd.asp or http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-43441-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html. See also
Latham and Sassen (2005).
41. See, e.g. Mansell and Collins (2005).
42. A complementary Handbook of New Media (Lievrouw and Livingstone 2002, 2006)
focuses more directly on ‘new media’.
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The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies

Article · September 2009

Robin Mansell Chrisanthi Avgerou

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Knowledge Societies View project

Knowledge societies View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Many scholars have documented the way information and communication

reXections as they appear within research undertaken by academics across a range

the challenges of ict s 3

2 Social science and ICTs

this theory, but we have sought to include many complementary theoretical

Mapping and measuring ICTs

Information economics and political economy

the challenges of ict s 5

ICTs, mediation, and power

3 The knowledge economy and ICTs

By the beginning of the twenty-Wrst century, expenditure on research and develop-

the challenges of ict s 7

General purpose technologies and the ICT paradigm

Productivity and ICTs

ICTs and human capital

ICTs and information

the challenges of ict s 9

ICT infrastructure and the state

DiVusion and ICTs

4 Organizational dynamics, strategy,

The role of management

the challenges of ict s 11

ICT and new organizational forms

not just a matter of technology-induced design of organizational structures and

Knowledge and information in organizations

Multiple perspectives in the study of ICT and organizational

the challenges of ict s 13

particular technology properties and the direction of organizational change. Instead,

5 Governance, democracy, and ICTs

the challenges of ict s 15

major, albeit uncertain, implications for democratic freedoms and responsibili-

Resources for empowerment

Digital divides, democratic participation, and governance

the challenges of ict s 17

Legitimacy, enforcement, and freedoms

6 Culture, community, and new media

ICTs and literacy

the challenges of ict s 19

ICTs, culture, and participation

Politics, community, and identity

the challenges of ict s 21

the challenges of ict s 23

Avison, D. E. and Fitzerald, G. (1996). Information Systems Development Methodologies,

Dahlgren, P. (2001). ‘The Transformation of Democracy’, in B. Axford and R. Huggins

the challenges of ict s 25

the challenges of ict s 27

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