A socio-technical contract : network governance and ICT4D in Turkey
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Telematics and Informatics
Publication Date
2-1-2016
Volume
33
Issue
1
First Page
139
Last Page
149
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
ICT4D, Technology and politics, Network governance, Governmentality, Participation
Abstract
Critiques of Information and Communication for Development (ICT4D) often highlight the ways in which programs are disempowering rather than empowering, due to their furthering of capitalism and/or neoliberalism. While not denying the relevance of these critiques, this article looks at the multiple, unstable, and at times contradictory effects of the micropolitics of ICT4D assemblages and their articulation to the more general project of the “information society” in Turkey. Mobilizing a Foucauldian framework of governmentality, this article considers norms, rationalities, and models of governance as technologies of power that are productive of certain socio-technical orders, while distributing agency within them. In the Turkish context, ICT4D is implicated in the trend toward multistakeholderism, or network governance, steered by non-governmental organizations, tech companies, and the United Nations. I argue that ICT4D governance networks operate on the basis of two governing logics: participatory self-governance with regard to “local” and “communal” affairs and biopolitical management with regard to “global” affairs, including the modes of operation of informational capitalism. Yet networking as a micropolitical practice and a political imaginary can also challenge the stratification of spheres of participation and biopolitical management.
DOI
10.1016/j.tele.2015.06.011
Print ISSN
07365853
E-ISSN
1879324X
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Hoyng, R. (2016). A socio-technical contract: Network governance and ICT4D in Turkey. Telematics and Informatics, 33(1), 139-149. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2015.06.011