You are invited to the doctoral defence of Mr Jerry Mashinini which will take place on Wednesday 28 January 2015 at 13:15  in IT5-56.

 

 

ICT policies instituted over a number of years by the South African Government have clearly failed to establish ICT4D initiatives amongst rural communities in South Africa.  The author of this thesis argues that for rural South African communities to reap the benefits of ICT4D initiatives, it would be necessary for the communities to enable themselves and to take ownership of initiatives to participate in the planned South African Information Society. Furthermore, the author argues that the success of the ICT4D initiatives depends very strongly on an understanding of the interaction of such initiatives with the social context at local community level.  Some of the significant aspects of the social context at community level include the understanding of the role of leadership, technology, economy, governance, social welfare, and stakeholders in these communities. 

Through a grounded methodology approach a theory of context was developed for the rural community in the Dr J.S. Moroka Municipality in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The elements of the framework that emerged were Leadership, Stakeholders, Governance, Social welfare, Economics and Technology (LSGSET). The resulting framework is proposed as a tool that can be used by the community members to interact with the role players that intend to implementICT4D projects or policies that have an impact on the community. It should also assist policymakers while they develop contextualized policies and also improve project managers’ understanding of the developmental impact of the implementation of ICT4D projects on communities. One of the contributions made by this thesis is to “bridge” this divide between policymakers and communities by explicitly framing the developmental discourses of the community as a framework for ICT4D engagement by policymakers and communities at local level.

 

RSVP: Monday, 26 January 2015

Email: [email protected]