Discourse, ‘Development’ & the ‘Digital Divide’: ICT & the World Bank

Abstract

Information and communication technology(ies) (ICT) is tipped to play an increasingly enabling role in the inclusion and exclusion of groups from participation in the discourse of ‘development’, with material consequences. In affecting how ‘development’ is framed, discussed and practised, the conception and use of such technologies itself thus becomes an important field of discourse for the analysis of power relations in the ‘developmental’ field. This paper shows how a recent ICT-related initiative by the World Bank Group can be seen as an attempt to replicate its position of strength within the predominant, technocratic discourse of development, to the exclusion of alternative views of technology, and even of ‘development’ itself. Using a method of critical discourse analysis, the paper then examines a recent speech on ICT by the Bank’s president, which provides a detailed example of the way in which existing, macro-level power structures are replicated at the micro-level of discursive practice.