Bentley, C.M. orcid.org/0000-0002-2602-601X and Chib, A. (2017) The impact of open development initiatives in lower- and middle income countries : a review of the literature. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 74 (1). pp. 1-20. ISSN 1681-4835
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the field of open development in lower and middle income countries (LMIC) through a review of the literature. We examined 269 articles between 2010 and 2015, that were retrieved through keyword searches of the Scopus database and four ICT4D journals. This article adopts the pathway of effects model to analyze contributions according to inputs, mechanisms and outputs of open initiatives in LMICs. The review finds a fairly even spread of articles across the three stages of effects. Studies that disentangled reasons why or why not openness makes a difference provided the most insight to underlying mechanisms and impact of open initiatives. We found very little evidence that research within this area is concerned with the perspectives of poor and marginalized people – notably women. We therefore question the normative value of open development as a means to transform power relations. However, we argue that a more concentrated vision within this field is needed to exploit the full potential of digitally enabled openness for development.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 John Wiley & Sons. |
Keywords: | Open development; open educational resources; open government data; open source software; crowdsourcing; peer production; ICT4D research |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 21 Aug 2020 13:16 |
Last Modified: | 21 Aug 2020 13:17 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00540.x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:164730 |