Theoretical Perspective to the Internet and Community Development In addition to the theories discussed above, Lie (2001) distinguishes between two perspectives on the Internet in relation to community development. The first, and most dominant perspective is the technological-economic perspective. The second is the culturalistic perspective. A summary of these two perspectives is provided in Figure 4.1. below. Figure 4.1: Characteristics of a culturalistic and technological-economic perspective on community development
Characteristics of a technological-economic Perspective on community development | Characteristics of a cultural perspective on community development | - Close association with political development, policy and regulatory reform
| - Close association with social development, processes of democratisation and human rights
| - Technological development is a necessity for economic development
| - Technological development is a necessity for economic development and economic political development should serve socio-cultural development
| - The perspective is "from outside in" and "top down". Human beings are primarily seen as economic factors
| - The perspective is "from the inside out" and "bottom up". Human beings are seen as socio-cultural factors
| - The guiding objective is to media forms and ICTs to bridge the digital divide and thus close the information gap between and within communities
| - The guiding objective is to offer relevant, cultural, and social sensitive information. The media is chosen to fit the society. The perspective is information/software and social-cultural centred
|
Adopted from: Lee, 2001 The approaches in Figure 4.1 above can be used in various development
projects in developing countries that have utopian views of the role of ICTs
in development. |
