sdi ontology and implications for research in the developing world

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1 sdi ontology and implications for research in the developing world yola georgiadou beyond sdi september 20, 2006 INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

2 Structure Cycle of debates Current SDI ontology Traditional International Development discourse Alternative SDI ontology Cultivation view Research paradigms Examples for research in GI and governance

3 The SDI debate The cycle of policy debates for technology driven subjects (e.g. energy, environment, transportation, telecommunications etc), consists of four main phases: Phase 1: Technical Phase 2: Mythical Phase 3: Socio-technical Phase 4: Multi-disciplinary

4 The SDI debate Technical phase: is dominated by engineers & scientists assumes the neutrality of technology defines policy problems in technical terms needing a technical solution Mythical phase is dominated by journalists and futurists with grand, apocalyptic visions and hyperboles emphasizes economic competitiveness

5 The SDI debate Socio-technical phase: is dominated by experts tackling institutional, political and distributional issues Multi-disciplinary phase: the discussion opens up for scholars to test the concepts rigorously and reflect from multiple perspectives

6 Multi-perspective reflection The four aspects of sciences Observation Analysis Synthesis Multi-perspective reflection: The study of how changes inroduced according to one point of view, affect properties of phenomena when regarded from another viewpoint.

7 Survey of GI Science Journals Georgiadou and Blakemore (2006)

8 SDI ontologies Concepts Current understanding Alternative understanding Information Standardised, formal, quantitative Contingent, informal, qualitative Decision Processes Stable, straightforward and formal based on logical criteria Flexible, complex, based on ideology and power games People Universal rationality Diverse rationalities, culture, values Management methodologies Social Structure Information Technology Formal objective processes and structures Dualism of social structure and managerial agency Dualism of social structure and SDI implementation A value-neutral, globally enabling mechanism, ending history. Muddling through and tinkering Mutually reinforcing social structure, managerial agency and SDI implementation A complex, value laden, socially shaped, historically contingent entity

9 SDI construction = assembly of artifacts People & Institutions Public-Private Partnerships Communications Network Legal Framework Information Policy Discovery Fundamental data Access Metadata Standards Processing Clearinghouse Services Thematic Data

10 International Development discourse UNDP 2001: Human Development Report, Making New Technologies Work for Human Development World Bank 2002: World Development Report, Building Institutions for Markets Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University 2002: The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World Porter et al 2002: Global Competitiveness Report C. Avgerou, 2003

11 A tautology for development The West has historically developed an institutional setting that sustains the mutual re-enforcing of market economic activity and ICT innovation Such process has not been set in motion in the Rest The Rest is now advised to simultaneously: acquire the ICTs that served the advanced economies well emulate the institutions of developed countries engage in innovation-driven free market competition Hence, you are developed, if you are developed! C. Avgerou, 2003

12 SDI ontologies Concepts Current understanding Alternative understanding Information Standardised, formal, quantitative Contingent, informal, qualitative Decision Processes Stable, straightforward and formal based on logical criteria Flexible, complex, based on ideology and power games People Universal rationality Diverse rationalities, culture, values Management methodologies Social Structure Information Technology Formal objective processes and structures Dualism of social structure and managerial agency Dualism of social structure and SDI implementation A value-neutral, globally enabling mechanism, ending history. Muddling through and tinkering Mutually reinforcing social structure, managerial agency and SDI implementation A complex, value laden, socially shaped, historically contingent entity

13 SDI ontologies Concepts Current understanding Alternative understanding Information Standardised, formal, quantitative Contingent, informal, qualitative Decision Processes Stable, straightforward and formal based on logical criteria Flexible, complex, based on ideology and power games People Universal rationality Diverse rationalities, culture, values Management methodologies Social Structure Information Technology Formal objective processes and structures Dualism of social structure and managerial agency Dualism of social structure and SDI implementation A value-neutral, globally enabling mechanism, ending history. Muddling through and tinkering Mutually reinforcing social structure, managerial agency and SDI implementation A complex, value laden, socially shaped, historically contingent entity

14 Pervasiveness of culture (language) Demosios (demos-ios) = public man in Greek δηµόσιος Idiotis (idiot-is) = a private man in Greek ιδιώτης Privacy correponds to idiocy for me the concept of privacy has a negative aura

15 Real world of public policy making several types of information: high quality research, manipulated statistics, gossip, editorial comments, evaluation reports, corridor analysis; information pathologies: faulty receptors, failures in communication, information overload, systematic biases information politics: manipulation, non-registration, withholding, biased presentation, adding other information, timing, leaking etc

16 SDI cultivation interfere with and support a dynamic socio-technical material that possesses its own logic of growth! recognise that information systems and human agency are constitutive of and constituted by each other in the process of implementation

17 SDI Research paradigms Positivist Research Interpretivist research Critical research Ontological assumptions An (objective) reality exists, driven by immutable natural laws. True nature of reality can be obtained by testing theories about actual objects, processes and structures in the real world. The social world is produced and reinforced by humans through their action and interaction Social reality is historically constituted; human beings, organisations and societies are not confined to existing in a particular state Epistemological assumptions Verification of hypotheses through rigorous empirical testing Search for universal laws and principles Tight coupling among explanation, prediction and control Understanding of the social world from the participants perspective, through interpretation of their meanings and actions; Researchers prior assumptions, beliefs, values and interests always intervene to shape investigations Knowledge is grounded in social and historical practices Knowledge is generated and justified by a critical evaluation of social systems Adapted from Khazanchi and Munkvold (2000)

18 Governance in SSCI Governance (SSCI) Jahr 0.80% 0.70% 0.60% 0.50% 0.40% 0.30% 0.20% 0.10% 0.00% Series2 Series1 Zahl der Publikationen Anteil an Gesamtpublikationen [Werner Jann, 2004]

19 Global governance in SSCI Global Governance SSCI % 0.02% 0.02% 0.01% 0.01% 0.00% Global Gov. rel. GloGov Zahl der Publikationen Anteil an Gesamtpublikationen [Werner Jann, 2004]

20 Governance Political Sphere Public Administration Sphere Societal Sphere

21 GI & geo-ict and Public Policy Political Sphere Public Administration Sphere Societal Sphere

22 Service-driven information architectures Political Sphere Public Administration Sphere Societal Sphere

23 Making things public: Res publica Political Sphere Public Administration Sphere Societal Sphere

24 Questions?

Edgewood College General Education Curriculum Goals

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