How do development actors do 'ICT for development'? A strategy-as-practice perspective on emerging practices in Ghanaian agriculture

摘要

This paper examines how development actors within the Ghanaian agricultural sector enact information and communication technology (ICT) in their day-to-day outreach practices with smallholder farmers. We draw on an in-depth qualitative case study, informed by the theoretical perspective of "strategy-as-practice" to answer the research question: "what ICT-mediated strategic practices are used by development actors in the Ghanaian agriculture sector?" The research findings reveal that (1) the activities of development actors are meshed within a network of interdependencies; (2) the enacted strategic practices reflect the trade-off between novelty of content and novelty of the technologies used to deliver it; and lastly, (3) the praxis of development actors for doing ICT for development consists of hybrid strategies, combining bottom-up approaches consistent with farmers' indigenous smallholder logic, with top-down imperatives framing agriculture "as a business" and nurturing value-chain integration. Consequently, our research points to the impact of ICT initiatives as step-wise and attained over the long term, rather than disruptive and attained in the immediate term.