South African, Rural ICT Implementation: a critical retrospective application of Latour's due process model

Authors

• Jo RhodesFollow

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

The potential developmental role of ICTs can pressurise governments to engage in ‘catch up’ and ‘leapfrog’. Consequently, analysis of the accompanying socio-political dimensions and risks can be, disastrously, neglected. This paper examines a specific technology implementation – a South African government sponsored telecentre using Latour’s Due Process model, an analytical tool grounded in Actor-Network Theory, where technology implementation is viewed as a symmetrical treatment of technology and society within a single collective. It is used here, retrospectively, to make sense of why the telecentre both failed to institutionalise within a successful actor-network, and, contributed to the destabilization and partial destruction of a successfully established women’s development organisation.

Recommended Citation

Rhodes, Jo (2004) "South African, Rural ICT Implementation: a critical retrospective application of Latour's due process model," The Australasian Journal of Information Systems: Vol. 11: No. 2, Article 6.
DOI: 10.3127/ajis.v11i2.115
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/ajis/vol11/iss2/6