Instrumentalising the digital: adolescents' engagement with ICTs in low- and middle-income countries

Banaji, Shakuntala; Livingstone, Sonia; Nandi, Anulekha und Stoilova, Mariya (2018): Instrumentalising the digital: adolescents' engagement with ICTs in low- and middle-income countries. In: Development in Practice, Vol. 28, No. 3: pp. 432-443

Abstract

In development agendas regarding children in low-income communities, both older and emerging media are typically ignored or assumed to have beneficial powers that will redress social and gender inequality. This article builds on a recent rapid evidence review on adolescents' digital media use and development interventions in low- and middle-income countries to examine the contexts of children and adolescents' access to, and uses of, information and communication technology(ICT). Noting that only a handful of studies heed the significance of social class and gender as major axes of inequality for adolescents, the article scrutinises the gap between the rhetoric of ICT-based empowerment and the realities of ICT-based practice. It calls for a radical rethinking of childhood and development in light of the actual experiences, struggles, and contexts.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures
• Subjects: 900 History and geography > 900 Geschichte
• ISSN: 0961-4524
• Language: English