The research reported here evolved from the researcher’s ethnographic immersion in an ICT for
Development (ICT4D) project in a deep rural part of South Africa. During ethnographic immersion,
three key issues emerged from fieldwork. Firstly, the researcher realised his limited understanding of
the worldview of research participants. Secondly, he realised his inability to appropriately and
ethically do community entry and implement the ICT4D artefact (e.g. ICT4D training and policy),
especially because of his limited understanding of the cultural context, underlying values,
emancipatory concepts and interests, as well as incomplete insight into the oppressive
circumstances that the people in the research setting find themselves in. The third issue relates to an
inability to interpret and explain the collisions and conflicts that emerged from introducing, aligning,
and implementing the ICT4D artefact. Through critical ethnographic methods and a critical
orientation to knowledge, the researcher shows how these inabilities, collisions, and false
consciousnesses emerged to be the result of cultural entrapment and ethnocentricity that he and
the research participants suffered from.
A key argument throughout this thesis is that the emancipation of the researcher is a precursor for
the emancipation of the researched. The researcher thus asks: In what ways should ICT4D
researchers and practitioners achieve self-emancipation, in order to ensure the ongoing
emancipation and empowerment of the deep rural developing community in South Africa? The
study subsequently argues the link between the topic of this thesis, namely the issue of ethical
research practice, and the primary research question. A unique perspective on these problems is presented as the study looks at emancipatory ICT4D research and practice in context of a deep rural
Zulu community in South Africa, and specifically the journey of social transformation that the
researcher himself embarked on.
The study retrospectively applies Bourdieu’s critical lineage to reflect on the research contribution
and how the researcher was eventually able to construct adequate knowledge of the ICT4D social
situation. Building onto the idea of critical reflexivity, the researcher argues that critical
introspection should also be part of critical ICT4D research in South African contexts. Through
confessional writing, the researcher describes experiential knowledge of the worldview collisions
that emerged from ICT4D research and practice. In particular, manifestations of the collisions
between the typical task-orientated or performance-orientated value system of Western-minded
societies and the traditional loyalty-based value system or people-orientated culture of the Zulu
people are described.
The research contributes by challenging dominant ICT4D discourses and by arguing for an end to a
line of ICT4D research and practice where outsiders with a Western task-orientated worldview, like
the researcher himself, make unqualified and inadequate assumptions about their own position in
ICT4D practice, and about their own understanding of how to “develop” traditional communities in
South Africa through ICTs. Following Bourdieu, the researcher argues that one can only build an
adequate understanding of the social situation through critical reflexivity, by making the necessary
knowledge breaks, and by allowing oneself to be carried away by the game of ICT4D practice. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Informatics / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/39923 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Krauss, Kirstin Ellard Max |
| Contributors | Alexander, Patricia Margaret |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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