Ict and development studies: Towards development 2.0

This paper calls for a more committed engagement between ICT practitioners and the development community, and seeks to make two contributions. The first is to show how it has never been more important, as the more mature discipline, for development studies to critique the operation of developmental ICT at policy level, as well as to inform and educate the increasing numbers of, usually foreign, ICT investors and practitioners who are involving themselves in these emerging markets. The second contribution is a description of the fundamental challenge that recent Web 2.0 models of networked social interaction are increasingly likely to pose to more established approaches and debates within development studies itself. Having outlined the challenge, the paper looks at how such thinking, conceived as 'Development 2.0', may contribute to four of the most pressing current debates within development studies today. Finally, the paper concludes with an acknowledgement of some of the immediate constraints to the transformational potential of Development 2.0, and outlines some work that will be required to develop these ideas further. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.