ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1990s there has been considerable discussion in development circles over the potential of new ICTs to facilitate access to information and opportunity in developing countries. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) says for example:
The ultimate objective is a knowledge and information society - one with the ability, capacity and skills to generate and capture new knowledge and to effectively access, absorb and use information, data and knowledge with the support o f ICTs. (UNDP, 2000:1)
In addition to opportunities, there is also discussion of dangers. The G-8 Digital Opportunities Task Force discusses the necessity of overcoming the ‘digital divide’, where the divide is defined as:
unequal possibilities to access and contribute to information, knowledge and networks, as well as to benefit from the development enhancing capabilities o f ICT. (Crowder and Michiels, 2001:4)
In reflecting on my participation in an ICT project in Vietnam, I argue here that programmes to deploy ICT infrastructures may underestimate the complexity of social change involved in such deployments. What I am concerned with is the degree to which complex social development goals become seen as technical problems when ICTs are a project focus. Although there is a range of approaches among those involved in ICT transfers, the dominant discourse in recent years has been one of marked technological determinism (Heeks, 1999), as demonstrated by the above quotations.
