Looking Critically at ICT4Dev: The Case of Lincos

Abstract

This article is based on a master's thesis presented in 2003, the objective of which was to demonstrate how theoretical insights inherited from critical social research traditions could inform the assessment of ICT projects in marginalized regions. While mainstream assessment models are devoted to infrastructure issues, and further fit well within a technologically determinist and often neoliberal conceptual framework, alternatively minded movements have begun to explore more socially oriented instruments. The thesis set out to contribute to this process, elaborating investigational themes that drew from critical perspectives on technology and development. It then applied these themes to the Lincos telecenter project in the Dominican Republic. In this article the observations from the field are recounted with the aim of showing the relevance and applicability of a critical social approach to ICT-for-Development.