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Syllabus

Course Readings:

  1. Smillie, I. (2000). Mastering the Machine Revisited: Poverty, Aid and Technology. Practical Action.
  2. Course Reader available at Copy Central on Bancroft

About the Optional Readings: typically the optional readings are more challenging readings that may be best suited for students within particular disciplines and/or students at the graduate level. They are also sometimes simply extra readings for students who have a particular interest in the topic that they want to pursue further.

About Case Study Readings: many of our case study readings are accounts filled with detailed descriptions, dates, numbers, and technical specifications. The questions I suggest you address each case study reading with: What is the underlying model of growth or development (either implicit or explicit) in this case? What are the distinctive elements of the technological form of the case under study? How does this form map to issues of poverty? What is the broader system in place that facilitates the diffusion and use of the technology under study?

Aug. 27, Lecture 1: Introduction to the Course

Sep. 1 - Holiday, no class

Sep. 3, Lecture 2: Disaggregating Technology
What is technology? While development institutions frequently refer to technology and ICTs as an entity with generalized impact we will spend our time in the course 'disaggregating' the concept. We will consider technology broadly as artifacts, systems, and as techniques.

Readings:

  • Kammen, D. M. and M. R. Dove “The Virtues of Mundane Science.” Environment, Vol. 39 No. 6 (July/August 1997), p.10-41. (in CR, also see attached)
  • Marx, L. “Technology: the Emergence of a Hazardous Concept.” Social Research, Vol. 64, No. 3 (Fall 1997), p.965-988. (in CR, also see attached)

Sep. 8, Lecture 3: Institutional Perspectives on Poverty
What should we identify as our historical starting point for a discussion of "technology and poverty" - the Marshall Plan? Do we go back to the Industrial Revolution and the writing of Marx? Many discussions of how technology might be applied to alleviate poverty draw implicitly on theories of growth or development. Some key approaches addressed in this lecture include modernization vs. dependency theories, neoliberalism and new institutionalism.

Readings:

  • Smillie, Chapter 2
  • Thomas, A. "Meanings and Views of Development" in T. Allen and A. Thomas (Eds) Poverty and Development: Into the 21st century. Oxford University Press (p.23-48).
  • Sen, A. “What is Development About?” in Meier, G. and J. Stiglitz (Eds) (2001). Frontiers of Development Economics: the future in perspective. Oxford University Press (p. 506-513).

Optional:

  • Sen, A. Development As Freedom

Sep. 10, Lecture 4: Voices of the Poor
A standard institutional approach found in the UN, World Bank and other development agencies seeks to make generalizable claims by defining metrics to be measured statistically and compared cross-nationally. This lecture will explore how poverty is diversely experienced and how cross-national comparisons often conceal other dimensions of what it means to be poor.

Readings:

  • Chambers, R. “Poverty and Livelihoods: whose reality counts?” Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 7, No. 1 (April 1995), p. 173-204.
  • Make yourselves familiar with the the Voices of the Poor project by the World Bank: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK... You will be examining one of the National Reports for your first assignment. See the assignment page for details about the first assignment.

Sep. 15, Lecture 5: Green Revolution in India
It has been convincingly argued that because of the diffusion of High-Yield Varietals (HYVs) and “modern” agricultural practices that India is now a self-sufficient food producer. Yet distribution issues remain. This lecture will introduce the concept of scale-neutral technologies that benefit both small and large-scale farmers. One overall aim of this lecture is highlight the additional resources that are required to make use of a technology. This case study provides a lesson in the institutional and political embeddedness of technology.

Readings:

  • Prahladachar, M. “Income Distribution Effects of the Green Revolution in India: A Review of Empirical Evidence.” World Development, Vol. 11 (1983), p 927–944.
  • Parayil, G. “The Green Revolution in India: A Case Study of Technological Change.” Technology and Culture, Vol. 33 (1992), p. 737–756.

Optional:

  • Lansing, Priests and Programmers: on the engineered landscapes of Bali

Sep. 17, Session 6: 'Voices of the Poor' Presentations

Sep. 22, Lecture 7: Industrialization
(Case: the Akosombo Dam project in Ghana) – This lecture will discuss the push towards industrialization in many developing regions after independence. This emphasis followed from economic growth models that saw capital investment as the key to realizing economic growth and (as a byproduct) improved social conditions.

Readings:

  • Smillie, Chapter 3
  • Rajesh C. (1992). Chapter 1 in Industrialization and Development in the Third World. London; New York: Routledge.
  • Hans Peter Arp and Karsten Baumgärtel (October 1, 2005). Case Study: The Consequences of the Akosombo Dam. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Available Online: http://www.ibp.ethz.ch/research/aquaticchemistry/teaching/watermanagenem... (You can skip or browse Section 3.)

Sep. 24, Lecture 8: Prof. Ashok Gadgil
Will talk about Improved Cook Stoves for the Darfur region. This will lead into our discussion of the Appropriate Technologies Movement.

Background Reading:

Sep. 29, Lecture 9: Consequences
Leading into a discussion of the 'appropriate technologies' movement, this lecture will talk about the awakening realization of the environmental and social costs of modern farming and industrialization projects. These include high short-term yields, but long-term non-sustainability of farming practices and new economic dependencies for farmers. In the case of industrialization projects there are social consequences such as population displacement and rapid urbanization and the growing urban slums in developing regions.

Readings:

  • Pimentel, D. and M. Pimentel “Comment: adverse environmental consequences of the Green Revolution," Population and Development Review, Vol. 16, Supplement: Resources, Environment and Population-Present Knowledge, Future Options, (1990), p. 329-332.
  • Shiva, V. (March-April 1991). The Green Revolution in Punjab. The Ecologist, Vol. 21, No. 2. (reproduced by permission of the Editor) Available Online: http://livingheritage.org/green-revolution.htm
  • review the Arp and Karsten Baumgärtel reading from last session

Optional:

  • Dwivedi, R. “Environmental movements in the global south”. International Sociology 16/1 (2001): 11-31

Oct. 1, Lecture 10: Appropriate Technologies Movement
a movement in the wake of some of the consequences of large-scale, capital intensive projects. Schumacher, an economist writes the seminal text Small is Beautiful promoting a philosophy of accommodating indigenous cultures and producing benefits for the rural poor through direct access to ‘appropriate’ technologies. We will discuss how this philosophy has been translated into some specific artifacts such as improved cook stoves and water pumps.

Readings:

  • Schumacher, E. F. (1973)."Buddhist Economics" and "Social and Economic Problems Calling for the Development of Intermediate Technology," in Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. Harper and Row Publishers. (p. 50-59, 161-179).
  • Smillie, Chapter 9 "Energy and Power" (also Chapter 6 for a bit more background on Schumacher)

Optional:

  • the rest of Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

Oct 6, Lecture 11: Appropriate Technologies Today
In this lecture we will ask, what has become of the appropriate technologies movement? Current trends in this line of thinking have come to address issues of environmental sustainability more directly. The initial movement, by contrast, was primarily concerned with the potentially dehumanizing and dominating effects of technology on humans rather than their capacity for environmental degradation.

Readings:

Oct. 8, Lecture 12: The Digital Divide and the Information Society
The two concepts of the 'Digital Divide' and the 'Information Society' have been central in arguments for the necessity of providing digital technologies to poor and marginalized societies. These concepts rework some of the institutional themes of development and growth that we covered in the third lecture. In this lecture we will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages (rhetorical and pragmatic) of framing problems of poverty and social exclusion in these particular ways.

Readings:

  • Keniston, K. (2004). “Introduction: The Four Digital Divides.” in K. Keniston and R. Kumar (Eds) Experience in India: Bridging the Digital Divide, Sage Publications. (p. 11-36).
  • Webster, F. (2002). "The Information Society Revisited." in L. Lievrouw and S. Livingstone. (Eds) The Handbook of New Media. (p. 443-457).
  • WSIS, Geneva Declaration of Principles. Available Online: http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html (to get a taste of the discourse about digital technologies currently being produced by development institutions)

Oct. 13, Lecture 13: Telecommunications
This lecture is about the political economy of telecommunications infrastructure. Many have argued for deregulation by telling tales of the inefficiencies of monopolistic state-owned phone companies. There are additional challenges for data networks. For example, to date much of the network traffic for Africa is routed through the U.S.

Readings:

  • Pitroda, S. “Development, Democracy and the Village Telephone.” Harvard Business Review, (Nov-Dec 1993), p.66-79.
  • Wilson, E. J. I. and K. Wong, "African Information Revolution: a balance sheet." Telecommunications Policy, Vol 27, (2003), p. 155-177.

Optional:

Oct. 15, Lecture 14: Telecenters and Cybercafes
(Case: Internet kiosks in India) - Contrasting aid-funded telecenters with entrepreneurial Internet cafes. What is the vision of aid-funded telecenter programs? What is the on-the-ground reality? This lecture will consider varying mechanisms through which technology access is provided – through donor funds, local business efforts, or social enterprise (or some combination).

Readings:

  • DIT, Government of India (July 2005). Information and Communications Technologies for Development: A Comparative Analysis of Impacts and Costs from India. A report. (Read: Introduction, Chap. VIII. (Bhoomi and the political economy of land, Peri-urban Bangalore, Karnataka), and the Conclusion) Availiable Online: http://www.iiitb.ac.in/Complete_report.pdf
  • Rangaswamy, N. (2006). “Social Entrepreneurship as Critical Agency: A Study of Rural Internet Kiosks.” ICTD Conference. Berkeley, CA.

Oct. 20, Lecture 15: Guest Speaker, Joyojeet Pal on the MultiMouse Project

Readings:

Oct. 22, Lecture 16: Shared Use Model
(Case: mobile phones in Uganda) -- While personal ownership of computers and mobile phones is the norm in developed countries, shared use models of technology access in resource-constrained areas make better economic sense. In rural Uganda access to mobile phones is provided through processes outside of the market economy such as through gift-giving. They are also shared between neighbors, husbands and wives, employers and employees, etc.

Readings:

  • Patra, Rabin et. al. “Usage Models of Classroom Computing in Developing Regions” ICTD 2007. Bangalore, India.
  • Spitulnik, D. (2002). “Mobile Machines and Fluid Audiences: Rethinking Reception Through Zambian Radio Culture.” in Ginsburg, L. Abu-Lughod and B. Larkin (Eds) Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press. (p. 337-354).

Oct. 27, Lecture 17: Microfinance
(Tapan Parikh, guest lecturer) This lecture will emphasize the point that the rural poor can benefit from financial services, but that these services must be configured in a different way. Technology comes into play in MIS systems that support microfinance record-keeping and practices. There is also growing excitement about the potential convergence of mobile phones (that are increasingly diffusing into rural regions) and financial services.

Readings:

  • Rutherford, The Economics of Poverty: How Poor People Manage Their Money -- see attached
  • (The following readings are in your reader, but are after the Geertz and Overa readings for the next lecture).
  • Batchelor, S. “Mobile phone-enabled payment systems - transformation 2008.” Enterprise Development and Microfinance Vol. 19, No 1 (2008), p. 13-30.
  • Parikh et al. (2003) “Design Studies for a Financial Management System for Micro-credit Groups in Rural India.” in Proceedings of ACM Conference on Universal Usability 2003, November 10-11, 2003, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Oct. 29, Lecture 18: Mobile Phones and Trade
Economists are especially interested in how mobile phones may reduce price asymmetries and drive down the overall price for certain commodities (grain, fish) in markets in developing regions. This lecture will examine the evidence for this argument and relate it to important supporting points and counterpoints made by Sociologists and Anthropologists who suggest that beyond information trust between traders is also essential.

Readings:

  • Geertz, C. "The Bazaar Economy: Information and Search in Peasant Marketing." American Economic Review, Vol. 68 (1978); p.28-32.
  • Overa, R. "Networks, Distance, and Trust: Telecommunications Development and Changing Trading Practices in Ghana." World Development,Vol. 34, No. 7 (2005), p. 1301-1315.
  • Browse: Jensen, parts of his paper on mobile phones in Kerala (worth browsing and possibly reading in more depth for students with a background in economics) (see attached)

Optional:

  • Horst, H. and D. Miller (2005). "From Kinship to Link-up: cell phones and social networking in Jamaica." Current Anthropology 46(5): 755-778.

Nov. 3, Lecture 19: Rajesh, guest speaker
Video and Agricultural Extension

Background Reading:

Nov 5, Lecture 20: The Politics of Digital Production and Representation
(Case: 'counter-mapping' in Indonesia) - This lecture is about the potential for 'empowerment' via new and old media technologies and their use within social movements. One pragmatic example is where GPS and GIS systems are used to capture and formalize on-the-ground knowledge about land use and ownership to do advocacy work (usually via NGOs) for indigenous groups before their national governments.

Readings:

  • Peluso, N. “Whose Woods are These? Counter-Mapping Forest Territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia.” Antipode, Vol. 27. No. 4 (1995), p. 383-406.
  • Prins, H. E. L. “Visual Media and the Primitivist Perplex: Colonial Fantasies, Indigenous Imagination, and Advocacy in North America.” in Ginsburg, F. D., L. Abu-Lughod and B. Larkin (Eds). Media Worlds: anthropology on new terrain. Berkeley, University of California Press. (p. 58-74).

Optional:

Nov. 10, Lecture 21: Low-Cost Computing
(Case: the One Laptop Per Child project) – Adopting some part of the appropriate technologies philosophy, several low-cost computing projects for the developing world have been undertaken. The One Laptop Per Child program (formerly the $100 PC) is one very high-profile effort in this space.

Readings:

  • Ananny, M. and Winters, N. “Designing for Development: Understanding One Laptop Per Child in its Historical Context.” ICTD 2007. (2007).
  • GLORY: laptop/river road/USA for Africa/textese/forgotten vegetables/NGOs, by Binyavanga Wainaina, Bidoun.com online magazine, Issue 10, Spring 2007. See attached.

Nov. 12, Lecture 22: Guest Speaker: Rose Shuman of Open Minds on the Question Box Project (http://www.questionbox.org/)

Nov. 17, Session 23: Critique of the One Laptop Per Child project using De Bonos’ 6 Hats Technique

Special Topics:

Nov. 19, Lecture 24: Globalization I - Media Technologies and Social Imagination, Guest Speaker, Joyojeet Pal
(Case: Depiction of Computers in Bollywood movies) – Photo studios, movies, music production and consumption, etc. are often valued within poor communities. This lecture explores how, through media consumption, people formulate aspirations and envision pathways out of poverty. For this reason and others, these practices represent something more than a meaningless diversion or a form of escapism.

Readings:

  • Jua, N. "Differential Responses to Disappearing Transitional Pathways: Redefining Possibility among Cameroonian Youths." African Studies Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (2003), p. 13-26.
  • Castells, M. (1997). “Social Movements Against the New Global Order,” in The Power of Identity. Blackwell Publishers. (p. 69-83).

Optional:

  • Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" in Modernity at Large: cultural dimensions of globalization.
  • James Ferguson (2006) Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order (especially introduction, Chapters 1 and 6)

Nov. 24, Lecture 25: Globalization II - Technology and International Migration
Widely dispersed families are an ordinary reality in many developing countries where certain segments of society migrate to urban centers, to factories and mining towns, or internationally seeking to earn a living. New communication technologies have eased the expense and difficulty of keeping in touch with the homeland. The migration paths of white-collar workers in the high-tech sector has also played a notable and interesting role in the economic growth of certain developing countries (India in particular).

Readings:

  • Saxenian, A. "From Brain Drain to Brain Circulation: Transnational Communities and Regional Upgrading in India and China" Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 40 No. 2 (2005), p. 35-61.
  • Horst, H. "The Blessings and Burdens of Communication: cell phones in Jamaican transnational social fields" Global Networks, Vol. 6, No. 2 2006), p. 143-159.

Nov. 26, Lecture 26: Health (Case: Jaipur Foot)

Readings:

  • Malkin, R. "Design of Health Care Technologies for the Developing World," Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, 9 (2007), p. 567-587.
  • Macke, S., R. Misra and A. Sharma under the supervision of C.K. Prahalad (December 12, 2003). Jaipur Foot: Challenging Convention. From the Department of CORPORATE STRATEGY AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS. Case Study Series, Michigan Business School. Available Online: http://www.nextbillion.net/files/JaipurFoot.pdf

Background Reading:

Dec.1 , Lecture 27: City Planning and Transportation
(Case: urban planning in Curitiba) - This lecture picks up the thread from the industrialization lecture at the beginning of the term. We will return to thinking about technological systems rather than artifacts.

Readings:

  • Rabinovitch, J. and J. Leitman (1996). "Urban Planning in Curitiba." Scientific American Magazine. (see attached)

Methods and Approaches:

Dec. 3, Lecture 28: Participatory Development
Ways of engaging the targeted beneficiaries in the creation of projects and programs for poverty-alleviation will be discussed as they relate to technology projects.

Readings:

  • reread - Chambers, 'Poverty and Livelihoods: whose reality counts?'
  • Tacchi, Slater, and Hearn (2003). Ethnographic Action Research, Chapter 3 - Ethnographic Action Research and ICTs (see attached)

Dec. 8, Lecture 29: Social Entrepreneurship
This lecture will address new thinking about how entrepreneurial and business approaches can serve a social mission and provide innovative and economically sustainable goods and services to the poor. The "Bottom of the Pyramid" concept will be introduced and explored.

Readings:

Optional:

  • Prahalad, C.K., and A. Hammond. (2002). "Serving the World's Poor, Profitably." Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80, No. 9, p. 48-57.

Dec. 10, Lecture 30: wrap up and review, if there is time topic of student's choice
In this lecture we can pick up some of the topics we glossed over that the students express interest in covering. This could also potentially involve inviting one more guest speaker. Or we could talk about some more general themes – such as environmental sustainability, women and poverty, urban vs. rural poverty, etc.