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engage in a conversation in a dichotomy between arguments supporting and against ICT4D.
If the variables do not co-relate with one another, the investment priority perhaps should be placed upon other sectors that are more directly related to basic necessities of life such as agricultural, education, or healthcare.
1.3 Research Method
Further research method and organization of chapters and its contents will be as below.
1.3.1 Variable Layout
There would be many candidates for each dependent and independent variable for there are multiple ways to analyze this question.6 For dependent variable, there must be an index to measure socio-economic development. Although there would be many suitable on the list, GDP per capita would be the most direct and easy candidate out of all to measure and compare how much a state has been progress over a period of time. There are two main reasons as to why GDP per capita is a better indicator than others: first, it gives us better opportunity to have an easier glance at increase in average income of each individual that would help us measure how much rough impact it made on the individual level, and also it could be further utilized to see if any wealth distribution curve is on acceptance level to determine income gaps between higher and lower income groups. Therefore the GDP per
6 How should we define “development?” would be the question to begin with. Depending on the definition, many could be the candidate: Changes in GDP, GDP per capita, Unemployment rate, infant mortality rate, level of democracy, gender equality, and the list goes on.
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capita is fixed as dependent variable. This is easily obtainable in multiple sources, extraction from any raw database such as World Bank or IMF would work just fine.
Independent variables are subdivided into two categories, measuring the level of ICT and wireless communication respectively. As mentioned above, ITU provides annual IDI for each member state based on roughly 11 standards and indicators, which is the simplest and most straight forward indicator. If fixed or mobile telephone subscribers are to be taken into consideration, it would miss the information regarding the IT perspective of ICT, such as devices, handsets, software and system. Whereas if penetration rate of personal computers are chosen, it would lack information regarding CT perspectives of ICT, such as the subscribers for fixed, wireless and mobile internet or broadband users. Therefore IDI could be compared with the dependent variable, GDP per capita, to measure how much of an impact it leaves on the economic growth.
It is slightly more complicated for the wireless communication, as there are several major categories to measure this. However I will use the number of unique subscribers in this thesis, because a simple penetration rate could overlap the data of single individual with multiple lines. And as briefly introduced previously, we are only interested in data communication, not conventional voice and SMS as today’s ICT4D and advancement of Internet of Things (IoT) severely focus on usage of internet data based on Internet Protocol (IP) communication, only 3G and LTE subscribers will be taken into consideration. The raw data will be extracted from GSMA Wireless Intelligence as they provide definitive data and analysis for the mobile industry.
Brief flowchart and summary concerning variables are as below.
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- Lacks info regarding IT perspective of ICT (Devices, handsets, software etc…)
Penetration Rate (PC)
- Lacks info regarding CT perspective of ICT (Fixed, wireless/mobile internet, broadband etc…)
IDI
- Level of ICT development
- The simplest and most straight forward
Wireless Internet
Penetration Rate
- Number of users (services) / 100 inhabitants - May have overlaps (single user w/ multiple lines)
Data Traffic
- Activeness of internet usage
- May limit its targets to specific social class
Unique Subscriber
- Number of unique subscribers
- No overlaps (real penetration level of access)
Dependent Variable Economic Development
Total GDP
- Economic capability of a state as a whole - No indicators regarding population
Employment
- Economic vitality of given state
- Modern standards may not apply to developing states
GDP per Capita
- Average economic vitality of each population in a given state
- May be used to have a glance at increase in income of each individual
- Expandability (measuring wealth distribution curves, income caps etc…)
Source: Compiled by Author
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1.3.2 Quantitative Analysis
Because all the variables introduced are numeric and quantifiable, quantitative
research method will be applied thoroughly. The process is straight forward, matching one set of variable to another and generation regression result would give us brief idea of whether there are any linkages between two sets of variables. As target states for analysis are developing and non-OECD member countries, each variable would contain raw data set of approximately 120 entries.
1.3.3 Qualitative Analysis
For the general ICT4D for sake of socio-economic advancement of state, qualitative analysis would be applied. As briefly covered above, there are two major camps in this field:
the Transfer and Diffusion approach and Social Embeddedness approach.7 Because the Transfer and diffusion camp presumes that technologies and associated practices practically flow independent from the social and cultural circumstances and hence automatically leave a positive impact on society, it would be helpful to find some case studies in Africa and South Asia to prove that this is oversimplifying, misleading and hence does not work as a taken-for-granted manner. The result would give us an idea whether the ICT4D in these regions left disruptive transformation impact, broadening the income gaps between social classes and digital divide.
7 Avgerou Chrisanthi, “Discourses on ICT and development“, LSE Research Online 2010. Author suggests that some takes Transfer and Diffusion approach that once ICT is implemented, it will automatically smudge into the society and leave a positive impact over time. Whereas Social Embeddedness approach suggests that we should consider society’s local problematizations into the consideration.
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Chapter Two: ICT for Development and Literature Review
I have briefly discussed technological background of ICT and its development history in the introduction, and it would be worth mentioning its applications and why it is significant in terms of globalization and development. Many IGOs today such as UN and ITU with cooperation from many MNCs participate in numerous projects to pursue its goal. The foremost important outer frame is that the ICT4D aims to offer equitable access to ICT and bridge digital divide, bringing social, economic and political development, especially those marginalized and less fortunate people and societies in least developed countries. Because of its nature of strongly being tied with technology (particularly in engineering and ICT related fields including networks, encryption, construction and signals and data processing),
development studies, and social sciences (sociology, economics and politics), ICT4D covers wide range of theories, knowledge and practices from multiple scholarship and disciplines.