Promoting social change through Infirmation Technology 

• PREFACEInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an integral part of our daily life and correspondingly information technology finds a variety of applications in the planning, implementation and monitoring of several social development programs and projects. It is becoming among the most prevalent tools for international development and social change, including opening up new arenas for civic participation and protest in countries as diverse as Egypt (see chapter five), Spain (see chapter six), China (see chapter seven) and Russia (see chapter eight). It is to this development that the present volume speaks. In particular, we ask whether and what contextual circumstances are important for ICTs in promoting democracy and social change.The background to this subject matter can be found in the phenomenal increase of ICTs worldwide, not only in the West. Nowadays, when citizens around the Globe want to voice their opinions, define their political identities and change their life situations, they increasingly do so by using online platforms, mobile telephones and other information technologies. To start, the rise and spread of the Internet has been remarkable. The number of users has increased from 40 million in 1995 to 2,7 billion in 2013 according to ITU (International Telecommunication Union). This represents approximately 40 per cent of the world population. However, the Internet is surpassed another ICT here, the mobile telephone. Mobile cellular subscriptions reached more than 95 per cent of the world population (as per ITU data from 2014). Important to notice here, the rate of increase in penetration of the mobile phones has been higher in so-called developing countries rather than in so-called developed counties (as highlighted in chapter two). While the Internet is yet to achieve the same reach as mobile telephony, it is worth to mention the very fast increase in the use of so-called smart handheld devises in countries like India during the last couple of years is making it increasingly difficult to separate the two (Internet and Mobile Phone Devices). Indeed, mobile phone adoption probably will pave the way for digital connectivity, both through smart phones as well as through broadband connection via the mobile phone. For example, even though Internet connectivity is rather low among the citizens in East Africa, the ones who do get connected to the World Wide Web mostly use mobile and wireless broadband. This suggests that developing regions probably will leapfrog the fixed (cable/ fiber) broadband phase countries in the West have been through. This increase and social integration of ICTs around the Globe serves as a point of departure for chapters in this volume.It has been argued that the rise of ICTs is among the most important developments of the century, changing the ways societies function as well as its relations of power. The spread and diversity of ICTs together with their equally diverse applications in different domains of human life are posing a range of questions at every moment. Researchers around the Globe are working to take-up these questions and challenges. It is especially the raised expectations of democracy and social change that has accompanied this increase of ICTs worldwide that we want to address in this volume. The question on the potentials of ICTs to promote democracy and social change has sparked a debate between what is often labelled as techno-optimists and techno-pessimists. This debate is partly addressed in chapter three of the volume. But since this is perhaps the major dividing line of studies in ICTs, democracy and social change – it deserves a further mention here, as a background to the subject matter as well as to discern how the present volume relates to this debate.As always, whenever a new media technology is introduced, hopes and expectations (as well as outrage) are raised and invested into practices of this new media technology. Surely the emerging communication landscapes exhibit exciting possibilities for political discussion, protest mobilization and organization, offering citizens new channels for voicing concerns, speaking and acting together (participation in other words). The popular uprisings in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region have provided us with examples of how information circulation using online platforms can induce processes of democratization and political developments (see chapter five in this volume). Hence, the more techno-optimist stand of researchers and practitioners has argued that the long-raging debate over the potential of the digital technology, so- called  “new” or “social” media and mobile telephony to invigorate citizens’ participation in a democracy and promote social change, is not a matter of speculation anymore. In particular, they argue that these ICTs lower the threshold for political participation and social change all over the world.Still there are many questions around the claim of ICTs as tools for democratic participation and social change. Most of the uprisings in the MENA region failed (in terms of that democracy has not yet been achieved, apart from Tunisia). Furthermore, it has been argued that labelling these uprisings as Twitter or Facebook revolutions is both uncritical and ignorant of the real dynamics behind theses uprisings. Indeed, even though we have access today to numerous examples of the use of the digital technology and mobile phones for democratic participation and social change, very few democratic movements and social change projects have succeed through ICTs alone.Alongside with high-profile protests and so-called “social media revolutions”, research in the field has also revolved around less conspicuously, and perhaps more mundane, E-Government/ E-Services projects, offering access to asserted citizen centric services and improved processing of government-to-citizen transactions. Addressing the subject matter of ICTs democracy and social change these more mundane government uses of ICTs are also of interest to us in this book. Here, optimists argue that ICTs have emerged as powerful tools for reaching to the ever-increasing information demands of our contemporary societies. Indeed, governments across the Globe – from countries like India (see chapter nine) to countries like Australia (see chapter ten) ­–are increasingly focusing on such projects and many success stories have been accounted for in the academic literature of remarkable developments of E-Government services in the last five years. On the other hand, more pessimistic voices have been raised in regards to E-Government and E-Services in relation to issues of surveillance and data privacy in light of Edward Snowden’s revelation of United States NSA (National Security Agency) massive data collection of private citizens. In this volume, the issue of surveillance (video surveillance in particular) is addressed in chapter four. Here we also need to mention that consumerism and corporate ownership of information technologies and so-called social media platforms have also raised concerns of whether users communication practices are capitalized on by non-accountable commercial enterprises (to some extent addressed in chapter three).Hence, on the one hand we are witnessing that increased  access to ICTs has resulted in an array of new uses, innovative designs, practices and strategies often accompanied by success stories of democratic development and social change both in small and large scale. On the other hand, we are still groping in the dark when it comes to understanding the place of the ICTs in the shifting landscapes of democracy, government practices and social welfare around the Globe. We therefore invited scholarly research to shed light on these issues. In particular, we wanted to include two issues in relation to this long-raging debate between pessimists and optimist: 1) a focus on contextual matters and 2) research and researchers with a background in the global south. This is also how we situate this volume in the debate between techno-optimists and techno-pessimists. We contribute to the debate on how democracy and social change may be promoted through ICTs by 1) providing case studies in which contextual factors are highlighted and 2), by including studies and authors from four different continents (Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe). We are thus able to provide a broader perspective on the subject matter.Hence, the chapters in this volume provide examples of more optimist as well as more pessimist discourses on the roles of ICTs for promoting democracy and social change. We as editors have not wanted to put our foot down in this debate; we leave it to the reader to evaluate the benefits and constraints of ICTs in the contexts within which these chapters are written. As such this volume will serve very well as material for discussion in class as well as in study-circles. Indeed, the picture is often more complicated than fervent techno-optimists or techno-pessimists claim. The very different contexts within which ICTs are used and appropriated today make it difficult to generalize on an overall positive or negative “effect” of a communication platform and a technological practice. Therefore, we have asked the authors to rather focus on the contexts within which their cases are set. We strongly believe it is out of the contexts and cultures that ICTs are used and appropriated that they are best evaluated.We have also put explicit emphasis to include non-Western contexts and voices. As such, this volume taps into research in the field of ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development). Development agencies and governments have started to take interest in the use of ICTs to further democracy also in so-called developing regions. Indeed, the field of ICT4D has also been informed by the increase of ICTs around the Globe. Examples tha

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

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Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Media and Communication Studies

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