The World is Bumpy: Power, Uneven Development and the Impact of New ICTS on South African Manufacturing

Abstract

Numerous academics and policy makers now assert Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) marginalization in the global economy is being reversed by an information technology revolution. However, while many claims are made for new ICTs - and mobile phones in particular - very little research has been done on the precise ways in which firms use these technologies and their developmental impacts. Drawing on over fifty firm-level interviews, this paper examines evidence of the uses and impacts of new ICTs in the wood products industry in Durban, South Africa and its surrounding region. In contrast to assumptions in much of the literature, it finds that rather than primarily being used to connect to global markets, they are most commonly used as technologies of local labour control and inter-firm competition. Consequently the use of these technologies may deepen existing inequalities and uneven development, and in some instances disinformationalisation, rather than reduce or overcome them.