Instrumentalising the digital: adolescents' engagement with ICTs in low- and middle-income countries. Issue 3 (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Banaji, Shakuntala; Livingstone, Sonia; Nandi, Anulekha; Stoilova, Mariya
• Is Part Of: Development in practice. Volume 28:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 432
• Page End: 443
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: Aid – Development policies -- Gender and diversity – Youth -- Technology – ICT, Media -- Civil society – Participation; Technical assistance -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Economic assistance -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 338.91091724
• DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2018.1438366
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0961-4524

Abstract

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.