Abstract

The concept of Strategy-as-Practice has become prevalent in academic discussions on strategy which try to capture the emergent nature of strategizing in social organizations. While this concept offers the potential to explain and inform some of the many challenges that ICT for development researchers and practitioners face when trying to plan and design interventions, little research has focused on it. In this context, strategizing involves several components, and practitioners in the field are involved in developing, implementing or reacting to a range of strategies from a network of stakeholders. In this paper, we first conduct a review of aspects of strategizing and strategic activity in practice in the area of information technology for development. We further explore these processes in the context of the establishment and ongoing development of initiatives to increase access and usage of information and communication technologies, such as telecentres, community access points, and deployments in schools and libraries. Case vignettes of developing such strategy are described, followed by implications for research and practice.

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