On the Margins of the “Information Society”: A Comparative Study of Mediation

Beck, Eevi E.; Madon, Shirin; Sahay, Sundeep

doi:10.1080/01972240490481009

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Beyond facilitating and enabling use, intermediaries can also take an activist role with the aim of empowering disadvantaged groups. Examples include the role played by an NGO on behalf of slum dwellers in India (Madon & Sahay, 2002) and by government officials in Sweden (Beck et al, 2004). The latter study also reveals another dimension of the intermediary concept: an intermediary may also be a government official.…”

Section: Intermediaries In the Ict4d Contextmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, with a few notable exceptions, their involvement directly in the interaction process has received less explicit attention. Among the exceptions have been terming these third parties as intermediaries (Heeks, 2002), examining their roles in mediation (Beck, Madon, & Sahay, 2004;Madon & Sahay, 2002) and categorizing the different types of intermediaries in the specific context of e-government (Al-Sobhi, Weerakkody, & Kamal, 2010;Sein, 2011;Sorrentino & Niehaves, 2010). What is lacking is a systematic conceptualization of their characteristics, roles and form of intermediation in the wider context of ICT for development in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Intermediaries: bridges across the digital divide

Sein

Furuholt

2012

Information Technology for Development

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The challenge of bringing developing countries into the "information society" has been traditionally framed as bridging the digital divide. Meeting this challenge has predominantly been through technical solutions aimed at providing physical access to the Internet. Yet, other aspects of the divide such as low literacy rates, gender and religious issues arguably pose bigger hurdles in getting the benefits of the Internet to the vast majority of the population of developing countries. They are seldom aware of the information available on the net and even when they are, they have difficulty using it. To facilitate access and use of the Internet by the population, an intermediary is often needed. While case studies in the literature have shown several examples of such intermediaries, the role of this entity has not been conceptually examined. In this paper, we attempt to meet this knowledge gap by conceptualizing the characteristics, types and roles of the Intermediary entity. We present a view from practice through three vignettes of intermediaries from our own studies to illustrate our conceptualizations. Based on this, we discuss some implications for practice and offer directions for research.

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Section: Intermediaries In the Ict4d Contextmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Intermediaries: bridges across the digital divide

Sein

Furuholt

2012

Information Technology for Development

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“…However, instrumental intermediation is an answer to only a part of the problem. As Beck et al (2004) have shown, mediation is essential, even in a developed country. However, they also emphasized the difference; that in developing countries, this mediation often comes from government entities, e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “I” Between G and C: E‐Government Intermediaries in Developing Countries

Sein

2011

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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While there has been a rapid growth in e-Government initiatives in developing countries, whether it has led to providing effective government services to the citizens has remained a question of concern. Evidence suggests that this objective is far from being met. The main hurdle has been that an overwhelming part of the citizens in these countries do not have the capability to either access government information physically or to use it effectively even when they can access it. In this paper, the conjecture is made that linking citizens to government in developing countries require an intermediary. Based on prior articulations of this concept, this paper develops the entity Intermediary and explicates its role in the government to citizen interaction process 12 .

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“…The limitations in capabilities, due to illiteracy of the slum dwellers, were sought to be enhanced by an NGO who played the role of an intermediary, for example, by developing systems in audio (rather than written) forms as a means of communication. As a result, the NGO was able to strengthen the capabilities of the slum dwellers through increased awareness about their rights, which enabled them to participate more effectively in the definition and implementation of projects by the municipal authorities aimed at improving their living conditions (Beck, Madon, & Sahay, 2004; see also Edwards & Hulme, 1992). Similarly, the kiosk managers, served as intermediaries through strategies of providing information of the services to the community and technical support to access these services, so as to enable the villages to participate more effectively in the definition and use of the Gyandoot services.…”

Section: What Capability Do People Have To Participate?mentioning

confidence: 97%

Role of ICTs in participatory development: An Indian experience

Puri

Sahay

2007

Information Technology for Development

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Participation of local communities has been important at least in two domains: (a) rural development processes in developing countries and (b) information systems design. The issue of participation becomes especially important in the contemporary contexts in which the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is being integrated within rural development initiatives in developing countries, for example in e-governance. This article attempts to synthesize the issues around participation from both IS and development studies literature in order to identify four key problematic areas: viz., (a) who defines the participation agenda, (b) what capabilities do stakeholders have to participate and how can this be strengthened, (c) what is the role of institutional conditions in enabling effective participation, and (d) how do local participatory processes experiences get integrated into broader networks to become sustainable. These four themes provide a theoretical framework to analyze how the use of ICTs is reconfiguring the dynamics between participation, rural development, and ICTs. This framework is applied in the context of an ICT initiative for rural development in India. Implications for both theory and practice are developed based on the need to judiciously integrate both structural and behavioral approaches to participation. C 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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On the Margins of the “Information Society”: A Comparative Study of Mediation

Cited by 32 publications

References 15 publications

Intermediaries: bridges across the digital divide

Intermediaries: bridges across the digital divide

The “I” Between G and C: E‐Government Intermediaries in Developing Countries

Role of ICTs in participatory development: An Indian experience

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