Mark Thompson

ICT, Power and Developmental Discourse: A Critical Analysis

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how information and communications technology (ICT) has become deeply involved in the conception and practice of socio‐economic development within so‐called less‐developed countries (LDCs). A recent speech on ICT by the president of the World Bank Group is examined, which shows the role of the discourse surrounding such technologies in replicating and extending a markedly North American worldview into the developmental sphere. The ability of critical discourse analysis to expose the involvement of ICT in normalising a dominant set of political and economic assumptions confirms its usefulness as a tool within which to approach the critical study of information systems.

ICT Research in Africa: Need for a Strategic Developmental Focus

This paper argues the need to expand the research agenda on the use of ICT in African countries to include a stronger strategic developmental focus than is evident in much of the literature to date. Four strategic dimensions are identified, where ICT arguably has potential as a significant enabler for transformational development in Africa: institutional infrastructure; governance, accountability, and civil society; service production and economic activity; and access to global markets and resources. A representative set of literature on IS in Africa is classified along these dimensions, but an explicit focus on development is found to be lacking in most of this work. The four dimensions are then discussed in turn to describe their importance in the African context, to discuss some pathfinding research examples to date and to identify some directions for future research. The paper concludes with a call for IS researchers working on Africa to become involved in debate on national and international policy from an ICT perspective and to engage with other research communities in doing this, notably with those concerned with the field of African development.

Cultivating meaning: interpretive fine-tuning of a South African health information system

Abstract A recently conducted piece of micro-level, interpretive IS action research has enabled the delivery of direct user benefits through the adoption of a methodological approach which focuses specifically on the interpretive generation of meaning by authorial individuals. Drawing on recent debates concerning knowledge and identity within social anthropology, IS and social psychology, this approach derives from a theoretical position which acknowledges social constraints on individual behaviour whilst according primacy to individuals’ biographically determined interpretive work. Use of this approach in the field revealed layers of interpretive interaction between users and technology which had hitherto remained invisible and problematic, and allowed several simple practical interventions which strengthened the ability of users to generate their own meanings at critical junctures in the system. It is suggested that such sensitive, low-level ‘fine tuning’ represents a new way forward for those seeking a practical, focused alternative to the more commonplace, high-level research approach within current interpretive IS literature.

Some Proposals for Strengthening Organizational Activity Theory

This paper seeks to highlight a perceived ‘drift’ of organizational activity theory: from an original concern with the social mediation of human consciousness through intersubjective interaction, to a focus on networked relations between organizational communities through intercollective interaction. It is argued that such a drift threatens the explanatory power of Vygotsky’s original formulation, which offers an explanation for the social conditioning of meaning, but which nonetheless acknowledges its location within individual human beings, not groups. In an attempt to address this perceived situation and to contribute to the further development of organizational activity theory, the paper draws upon two ideas from the Russian semiologist Bakhtin, incorporating these within a proposed framework for the application of activity theory within organizational settings that remains consistent with Vygotsky’s original ideas.

The social potency of affect: Identification and power in the immanent structuring of practice:

We address the centrality of affect in structuring social practices, including those of organizing and managing. Social practices, it is argued, are contingent upon actors’ affectively charged involvement in immanent, yet indeterminate social relations. To understand this generative involvement, we commend a temporally-sensitive, critically-oriented theoretical framework, grounded in an affect-based ontology of practice. We demonstrate the relevance and credibility of this proposal through an analysis of the interactions of Board members in a UK consulting company.

ICT, Power, and Developmental Discourse: A Critical Analysis

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how information and communications technology (ICT) has become deeply involved in the conception and practice of socio-economic development within so-called less-developed countries (LDCs). A recent speech on ICT by the president of the World Bank Group is examined, showing the role of the discourse surrounding such technologies in replicating and extending a markedly North American worldview into the developmental sphere. The ability of critical discourse analysis to expose the involvement of ICT in normalizing a dominant set of political and economic assumptions confirms its usefulness as a tool with which to approach the critical study of information systems.

Appraising the impact and role of platform models and Government as a Platform (GaaP) in UK Government public service reform: towards a Platform Assessment Framework (PAF)

The concept of “Government as a Platform” (GaaP) (O’Reilly 2009) is coined frequently, but interpreted inconsistently: views of GaaP as being solely about technology and the building of technical components ignore GaaP’s radical and disruptive embrace of a new economic and organisational model with the potential to improve the way Government operates – helping resolve the binary political debate about centralised versus localised models of public service delivery. We offer a structured approach to the application of the platforms that underpin GaaP, encompassing not only their technical architecture, but also the other essential aspects of market dynamics and organisational form. Based on a review of information systems platforms literature, we develop a Platform Appraisal Framework (PAF) incorporating the various dimensions that characterise business models based on digital platforms. We propose this PAF as a general contribution to the strategy and audit of platform initiatives and more specifically as an assessment framework to provide consistency of thinking in GaaP initiatives. We demonstrate the utility of our PAF by applying it to UK Government platform initiatives over two distinct periods, 1999-2010 and 2010 to the present day, drawing practical conclusions concerning implementation of platforms within the unique and complex environment of the public sector.

Performing accountability in health research: A socio-spatial framework

The article explores how spaces aimed at improving accountability in health systems are socially produced. It addresses the implications of an initiative to promote patient involvement in government-funded research in the context of a large cancer research network in England. We employ a socio-spatial theoretical framework inspired by insights from Henri Lefebvre and Judith Butler to examine how professional researchers, doctors and patients understand and perform accountability in an empirical context. Our data reveal fundamental tensions between formally required and routinely enacted dimensions of accountability as these are experienced by patients. Consequently, our analysis argues for a need to challenge abstract, professionalized discourse about accountability in health services by acknowledging embodied spaces of representation, in which patients themselves can contribute to making participatory accountability a reality. We suggest that such a shift will provide a more rounded appraisal of patient experiences within health research, and health systems more widely.

The Social Spaces of Accountability in Hybridized Healthcare Organizations

UK healthcare organizations are undergoing progressive changes to become more flexible and cost-effective (Kernaghan, 2000). Recently, the government’s latest incarnation of New Public Management, ‘open public services’ (Cabinet Office, 2012), has articulated a shift from traditional organizational forms to a more indeterminate organizational landscape of shifting social and spatial relations (James and Manning, 1996; McNulty and Ferlie, 2004; Dunleavy et al., 2005). As a result, formulation and execution of public health policy occurs increasingly in complex networks featuring multiple, overlapping coordination between government, third sector organizations and the citizen/service user, so that ‘accountability… gets lost in the cracks of horizontal and hybrid governance’ (Ferlie et al., 2007: 240; also see Frolich, 2011). It is to an interrogation of accountability within such increasingly hybridized healthcare organizations that we address ourselves in this chapter.