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Digital Development: Reimagining Research Beyond ICT4D

Sundeep Sahay¹; Shirish C. Srivastava²; Michael Barrett³; Robert M. Davison⁴; Shirin Madon⁵; Daniel Schlagwein⁶; Irwin Brown⁷; Suprateek Sarker⁸

¹ Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, 0373 Oslo, Norway · ² HEC Paris, 78351 Jouy en Josas Cedex, France · ³ Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge CB22 7QT, United Kingdom · ⁴ Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong · ⁵ Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom · ⁶ Business Information System, The University of Sydney Business School, Darlington, New South Wales 2008, Australia · ⁷ Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa · ⁸ McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903;

This editorial introduces a conceptual framework that reimagines research on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) as “digital development,” recognizing the inseparable intertwining of digital and development trajectories. This framing is aimed at the broader information systems (IS) research community, which includes ICT4D researchers, based both in the Global South and the Global North. Digital development encompasses three dimensions: digital in development (institutional use), digital for development (conscious design for outcomes), and development in a digital world (digital entanglement in development practice.). We argue that this reimagination is necessary for three reasons. First, digital technologies are becoming increasingly entangled with many development initiatives, implying the need to be studied as a duality, not a dualism. Second, we are witnessing the rising complexity of contemporary and emergent development challenges, which are not just limited to the Global South, but to the world at large. Third, the IS and ICT4D research fields have long worked in relative isolation from each other, but they need to synergistically create new theories and methods to address the rising complexities inherent in the “digital” and “development.” We provide a brief overview of the existing ICT4D field to identify critical areas for reconceptualization and expansion. This is then illustrated by examples from four empirical domains, namely humanitarian governance, global health, financial inclusion, and digital nomadism, which are representative of contemporary and emerging digital development challenges. This leads to the development of theoretical, policy and practice, and methodological implications, which provide a basis to formulate a research agenda for digital development.

DOI

10.1287/isre.2025.editorial.v36.n3

Volume

36 (3)

Pages

1269-1292

Language

en

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