ABSTRACT
It is remarkably difficult to find articles on ICT and development that situate themselves in the very large body of literature that, beginning in the 1970s, addressed itself to topics such as technology transfer, technological capabilities, choice of technology, etc. (collectively known as ‘technology and development’). Whatever the reasons for this near complete disjunction between the two bodies of literature, the problem, as I see it, is that it impoverishes current attempts to harness ICT for the benefit of the majority of those living in developing countries. For what then tends to characterize the ICT and development literature is a classification system based on areas of intervention (such as health, education and governance), rather than approaches or models that cut across the different policy areas. And the result, predictably, is that the large number of actual field experiences remain separated from the process according to which paradigms are created and changed over time.
