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This Seminar is organised by The Information School, SIID and ICT4DNorth

In the past, ICT4D has often been associated with supporting neocolonial/neoliberal agendas and techno-deterministic approaches to development in what is often referred to as the developing world. More recently, scholars have been drawing upon theories and ideas from postcolonial and decolonial schools of thought to 're-imagine' ways in which ICTs can be harnessed to transform and encourage development practices that are more sensitive to local cultures and contexts. By hosting this event, we would like to provide a platform for scholarly debate, discussion and engagement around how ICT4D may inadvertently reproduce colonial legacies, as well as how we can 're-imagine' the field to avoid this.

Speakers and Abstracts:

Pitso Tsibolane

Affiliation: University of Cape Town

Title of presentation: Indigenous IS Research: Centring the voices from the margins

Short Bio: Pitso Tsibolane is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and an associate of the Centre for IT and National Development in Africa (CITANDA). His broad research interests lie at the intersection of technology, culture and labour. His doctoral research focusses on how societies outside the dominant European and North American metropole interact with digital technologies through critical developmental lenses that centre their indigenous ways of being and voice. His other research interests are ‘Information Systems and Education’ as well as Southern Theories, particularly the indigenous sub-Saharan relational philosophy of Ubuntu.

Silvia Masiero

Affiliation: University of Oslo

Title of presentation: Subaltern Studies: Advancing Critical Theory in ICT4D.

Short bio: Silvia Masiero is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the University of Oslo, Department of Informatics. Her research operates within the area of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D), with a focus on the role of digital platforms in socio-economic development processes. She has conducted extensive work on the computerisation of India's main food security programme, the Public Distribution System (PDS), and on the adoption of ICTs in core aspects of the Indian public sphere including elections, rural employment guarantees and programmes of social protection. Silvia is Secretary of the IFIP 9.4 Working Group on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, a member of the Association fo Information Systems and a member of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D.

Gertjan van Stam

Affiliation: independent researcher, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Title of presentation: Decolonising digital tech, matters of perspective.

Short bio: Professional and academic with broad exposure within many contexts, cultures, communities and governance systems. Global experience in

cultures, technologies, social systems, and sustainable progress. At present, Gertjan van Stam is engaged in postgraduate research and development in Southern Africa in many volunteering positions. He has been involved with strategic developments in Information and Communication Technologies, the Build Environment, and culture studies in Africa since 1987, holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Tilburg University, the Netherlands, in Humanities (PhD, Cultural Studies) and a Master of Technology (MTech, Information and Communication Technologies) from Nelson Mandela University) and an engineering degree in telecommunications. In his endeavours, Gertjan deploys ethnographic analysis on the displacement of technology and meaning making in an African place.

Being involved in African communities while deploying extended case studies, he discusses the importance of studying the cognitive and epistemological connection between technology and culture in a holistic manner, developing theory using embedded methods. Gertjan’s goal is to engender recognition of progress in disenfranchised communities and to identify and inspire local talent. He proposes conceptual frameworks that move the discourse on technology and culture to a more nuanced continuum harvesting inclusive narratives that celebrate diversity/pluralism in meaning-making and knowing.

Florence Piron

Affiliation: Université Laval

Title of presentation: Decolonising publication in Francophone Africa: from research to action

Shot bio: Florence Piron is an anthropologist and ethicist, Full Professor in the Department of Information and Communication at Université Laval where she teaches critical thinking through courses on ethics, democracy and methodology. Founding president of the Association science et bien commun and the science shop Accès savoirs at Université Laval, director of the Éditions science et bien commun, which publish in open access, she is interested in the links between science, society and culture (ethics), both as a researcher and as an activist for a more open, inclusive, socially responsible science. She intervenes orally and in writing in a wide variety of settings, both within and outside the academic world. She is currently at the heart of several research-action projects aimed at promoting and disseminating academic knowledge from sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti and developing endogenous research capacity in these parts of the Global South. She is involved in several networks of action researchers in community health and epistemic injustices.

Nabeela Ahmed

Affiliation: University of Sheffield

Title of presentation: Development, digitisation and decoloniality - making meaning of catchy buzzwords

Short Bio: Dr. Nabeela Ahmed is a geographer interested in the intersections of urban studies and digitisation in post-colonial contexts. Currently a postdoctoral fellow at SIID, she is looking at the role of digitisation in Indian governance on shaping precarity and citizenship rights among labourers in Delhi, India, with a focus on gender. She is particularly interested in developing decolonial theories through research practice, ethics and methodology. Nabeela is involved in organising a series of events at SIID that engage with questions of decoloniality and development.