Dr Shirin Madon CON.8.09

This course is available on the MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Management (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Economic Policy for International Development, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation, MSc in Media, Communication and Development and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students will be allocated places to courses with priority to ID and joint-degree students.  If there are more ID and joint-degree students than the course can accommodate, these spots will be allocated randomly.  

Non-ID/Joint Degree students will be allocated to spare places by random selection with the preference given first to those degrees where the regulations permit this option.

This is an interdisciplinary course about understanding the role played by Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) in promoting development focusing on underserved sections of the population in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs).  We interrogate the rationale found in much of the policy discourse about how ICT can solve complex historical developmental challenges based on empirical evidence to date.  Throughout the course, we consider a range of ICTs that are currently prevalent in LMICs countries from basic computers/mobile phones to digital identity platforms and artificial intelligence whilst considering alternative policy options. 

We begin by reviewing dominant theoretical perspectives on development and key ideas they embody regarding the role of information, knowledge accumulation and communication.  Using this as our critical frame of reference, we study the extent to which ICT applications have promoted economic, social and political development.   The topics we cover include global software outsourcing, e-commerce/m-commerce, digital technologies and smallholder agriculture, ICT and education, e-governance, health informatics, social media and collective action, ICT and humanitarianism.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars in the WT. Seminars will be at or upwards of 45 minutes duration and lectures will be at or above 60 minutes duration. 

Student on this course will have a reading week in Week 6.

Students will be invited to submit an abstract of their summative essay for written comments.

Taylor, L. and Schroeder, R. (2015) Is Bigger Better? The emergence of big data as a tool for international development policy, GeoJournal, 80, pp. 503-518.

Essay (90%, 4000 words) in the ST.
Class participation (10%) in the period between WT and ST.

Class participation 10% (evaluated based on a combination of seminar attendance, active participation in discussions, and presentation)