Why Participation for Development?
With the title ‘Participation for
Development’, we aim at opining up for a discussion on the premises of both
Participatory Design and ICT4D. What is participation? How does it look like in
different contexts? What is the rationale behind involving participation? What
is development? Designing with underprivileged communities challenge the
assumptions around the objective of participatory design processes. Technology
is but a means in this context. What is at stake is the where to and how of the
development of livelihood.
Development is often understood as
bringing underprivileged communities up to the living standard of the high
income countries. Development researchers have however for decades argued that
the Western development trajectory is not a sustainable and desirable one. Not
only the goals of development in underprivileged communities, but also life
standards and technology development in and for the privileged countries are up
for discussion. However, not introducing technology will not improve the
situation either: The
fast technology advances leave more and more people without access to
technologies excluded from the digital connected global world (Heeks, 2009).
This includes imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the
resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen
(Mechal & Searle, 2010:44).
‘Participation for
Development’ points to a much-needed discussion in the so-called developed
countries as well. The development in the currently low and middle income
countries might point to alternatives that are valid in the high income
countries as well, if the now as problematic recognised aspects of the
privileged societies can be avoided. Understanding development as human
development brings in unifying theories like the Capability Approach (Sen 1999)
that can be applied similarly in countries of any level of income.It is then important to approach the
co-design sessions as that of socially embedded action rather than transfer and
diffusion, i.e. to acknowledge that something that already works somewhere
cannot necessarily be transferred to work in the same way elsewhere (Avgerou,
2010).
Why at the Participatory Design Conference?
Participatory design in resource-restricted contexts
is more complex because the users of the envisaged technology solution may have
limited access to technology as well as to the design process. Careful planning
is necessary to adapt the design methods and design probes to ensure active
participation by all. Winschiers-Theophilus
(2006) indicated that not only the result of design needs to be considered,
taking the different cultural context into account; also the design process and
the tools and methods need to be designed and adapted to fit to different
cultural contexts. Furthermore, the gap between current technologies and the
usage of ICT is often much wider than in e.g. in Scandinavian countries with a
rather equal, highly educated and technology savvy population. This in turn
requires the development of more comprehensive socio-technical prototypes,
(Gonsalves et al. 2011) addressing
not only the interfaces of the intended beneficaries but also the wider
organisational context and socio-technical infrastructures, addressing issues
like connectivity, economic sustainability, training possibilities, policies
and legal regulation. Sustainability
and capacity development needs to be thought into the development from the very
beginning.
References
Avgerou, C. (2008). Discourses on ICT and development. Information Technologies and International Development, 6(3), pp1-18 (2010)
Heeks, R. (2009). The ICT4D 2.0 Manifesto: Where next for ICTs and International Development? Working Paper Series, Paper No.42. Development Informatics Group. Institute for Development Policy and Management.
Mechael, P. & Searle, S., (2010). Barriers and Gaps Affecting mHealth in Low and Middle Income Countries : Policy White Paper. pp. 1-79.
Sen A (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books.
Winschiers, Heike. "The Challenges of Participatory Design in a Intercultural Context: Designing for Usability in Namibia." PDC. 2006.