BSc Global Development

This course unit focuses on the role of digital technologies within global development discourses and interventions. It draws on development studies, information systems, political economy and digital geographies to chart the growing popularity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and, more recently, digital platforms, big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) among policymakers and development practitioners as tools to bring about socio-economic transformations in the Majority World. It discusses theoretical perspectives and practical applications of various digital technologies to different development goals, including health, financial inclusion, agriculture, and humanitarianism, presenting in-depth case studies and exploring synergies and tensions among policymakers, the private sector, and local communities. It also introduces subaltern, feminist, indigenous, and decolonial approaches to digital development to encourage a critical evaluation of the design and implementation of digital development interventions. 

The unit aims to:

Introduce different perspectives on digital technologies in the context of global development; 

Provide an overview of current applications of digital technologies to specific development goals, including health, financial inclusion, agriculture, and humanitarianism;

Examine the role of different actors (the state, international bodies, the private sector, local communities) in designing, implementing and governing digital development interventions; 

Explore the organisational transformations induced by digital technologies across different development areas and geographical contexts; 
  
Encourage a critical approach to the evaluation of hegemonic discourses of digital development

Apply transferable skills, including building and defending an argument, participating in group discussions and delivering ideas both verbally and in writing

The course will be divided into two parts. The first part will provide students with the conceptual foundations of digital development and present theoretical perspectives challenging dominant interpretations and applications of digital development. The second part will illustrate how digital technologies are currently designed, implemented, and governed to bring about socio-economic change and support the work of development agencies, humanitarian organisations, NGOs, and grassroots organisations through an overview of applications of digital technologies to specific development goals.

Indicative weekly lecture and tutorial schedule

Week 1: Introducing digital technologies for global development;
Week 2: Key concepts and theories to understand digital development;
Week 3: Digital platforms between development and extraction;
Week 4: Decolonizing digital development; 
Week 5: Digital technologies and gender;
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: Digital health;
Week 8: Digital financial inclusion;
Week 9: Digital agriculture;
Week 10: Digital humanitarianism;
Week 11: Digital labour in the global South;
Week 12: Digital activism

Learning and teaching will be centred around 12 weekly lectures and three tutorials.

Lectures will combine presentation of the learning material with interactive activities. Reading lists and slides for each lecture will be posted on Blackboard. The tutorials will be oriented to the group assignment (four students per group) and provide transferable skills to communicate relevant knowledge and insights on different aspects of digital technologies for development to a non-academic audience. Specifically, the tutorials will encourage students to engage critically with the learning material, including media stories related to digital development, through group activities, presentations, and debates.

Instructions for each tutorial (including how to upload the assignments) will be posted on Blackboard.
 

• Describe current trends at the intersection of digital technologies and global development;
• Compare different theoretical perspectives on digital technologies in the context of global development;
• Identify the role of different actors in shaping and governing digital development.

• Critically assess academic and grey literature on the developmental potential of digital technologies;
• Critically evaluate policy approaches to the design and implementation of digital development initiatives;
• Use scholarly reviews and primary sources to appraise policy and civil society approaches to the design and implementation of big data and AI-driven initiatives to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• Draw on subaltern, feminist, and decolonial approaches to deconstruct hegemonic discourses on digital development and identify forms of adverse digital incorporation;
• Connect the debate on digital development and AI for Social Good to the broader SDGs agenda

• Use online resources to find cases of digital technologies applied to the SDGs;
• Analyse case studies of digital technologies applied to specific development goals;
• Analyse the design-reality gap in the application of digital technologies to different development goals;
• Produce a poster to describe the application of digital technologies to a specific SDG;

• Develop and defend an argument in academic and specialist discussions;
• Engage constructively in teamwork by recognising and identifying views of others and understanding group dynamics;
• Communicate ideas in a variety of formats, including verbally, in writing and on a poster, to specialist and non–specialist audiences.

Tailored feedback on both assessments will be in Turnitin via Blackboard

Adams, R. (2021) Can artificial intelligence be decolonized? Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 46:1-2, 176-197.

Al Dahdah, M. (2022) Between Philanthropy and Big Business: The Rise of mHealth in the Global Health Market. Development and Change. 53, 2: 376-395

Bateman, M., Duvendack, M., & Loubere, N. (2019). Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development ? Contesting Suri and Jack ’ s M-Pesa findings published in Science. Review of African Political Economy, 0(0), 1–16.

Birch, K. (2020). Automated Neoliberalism? The digital organisation of markets in technoscientific capitalism. New Formations, 1–112.

Bonina, C., Koskinen, K., Eaton, B., & Gawer, A. (2021). Digital platforms for development: Foundations and research agenda. Information Systems Journal, 31(6), 869–902.

Dauvergne, P. (2021). The globalization of artificial intelligence: consequences for the politics of environmentalism. Globalizations, 18(2), 285–299.

Dencik, L., Hintz, A., Redden, J., & Treré, E. (2019). Exploring Data Justice: Conceptions, Applications and Directions. Information Communication and Society, 22(7), 873–881.

Duncombe, R. (2012). An evidence-based framework for assessing the potential of mobile finance in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Modern African Studies, 50(3), 369–395.

Heeks, R. (2018) Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). Routledge

Heeks, R. (2022). Digital inequality beyond the digital divide: conceptualizing adverse digital incorporation in the global South. Information Technology for Development, 28(4), 688–704. 

Madianou, M. (2021). Nonhuman humanitarianism: when “AI for good” can be harmful. Information Communication and Society, 24(6), 850–868.

Iazzolino, G. (2021). ‘Going Karura’: colliding subjectivities and labour struggle in Nairobi’s gig economy. Environment and Planning A.

Jiménez, A., Roberts, T. (2019). Decolonising Neo-Liberal Innovation: Using the Andean Philosophy of ‘Buen Vivir’to Reimagine Innovation Hubs. In International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries (pp. 180-191). Springer, Cham.

Mann, L., & Iazzolino, G. (2021). From Development State to Corporate Leviathan: Historicizing the Infrastructural Performativity of Digital Platforms within Kenyan Agriculture. Development and Change, 52(4), 829–854.

Masiero, S. (2022). Should we still be doing ICT4D research? The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 88(5), 1-12.

Mejias, U. A., & Couldry, N. (2019). Datafication. Internet Policy Review, 8(4), 1–10.

Ricaurte, P. (2019). Data epistemologies, the coloniality of power, and resistance. Television & New Media, 20(4), 350-365.

Walsham, G. (2017). ICT4D research: reflections on history and future agenda. Information Technology for Development, 23(1), 18–41.