Information as “Commons”: Applying Design Principles to ICTD Projects

Valuation of piecewise linear barrier options

This chapter responds positively to Akbari and Masiero’s (2023) call for a more Critical ICT4D. It argues that critical approaches to the use of ICT for Development have always existed within the ICT4D field, in proximate fields, and in ICT4D practice outside the academy. However, within the academic literature, critical approaches have been marginalised by modernisation theory, developmentalism, and concerns to drive technology adoption via techno-solutionism. I argue, therefore, that our task is not to create a new research paradigm from scratch but instead to bring existing critical, but currently marginalised, theory and practice “from the margins to the centre” (hooks, 2000) and to build together upon this already fertile ground. This chapter ‘revisits the field’ by reflecting on three eras of ICT4D, reviewing the critical ICT4D literature and using auto-ethnography to reflect self-critically on the author’s 35 years of repeated errors and follies as an ICT4D practitioner and academic. Auto-ethnography allows the author to use personal experience to reflect on his own naïve White saviourism, techno-solutionism, and sell-out to funders, using this as a reflexive analysis to connect to wider failings and opportunities for the field of ICT4D. The paper charts the authors’ personal journey from a practitioner focused on ‘closing the digital divide’ via a phase devising savvy tech solutions to his current academic focus on digital rights and social justice. This process aims to learn lessons and to recover key elements of critical theory, a feminist approach, and epistemologies of the South in order to construct the basic elements of a Critical ICT4D.

Economic growth in countries like China, whose democratic credentials and human rights records are unimpressive, compels us to question the democracy-development nexus articulated by eminent writers like Amartya Sen. Against this background, this chapter assesses the impact of pseudo-democratic politics on the use of ICTs for development. It is based on research done in Zimbabwe, an electoral autocracy that recovered from being the world's worst economy in 2008 to impressive economic stability post-2009 (i.e. after the formation of a coalition government that, however, did not usher in substantive improvements in political and civic freedoms and liberties). Sen's (1999) capability approach and Illich's (1973) concept of conviviality are used for analysing the banning of the use of short wave radios in Zimbabwe just before elections that will signal the termination of the coalition government before the end of 2013. The research investigates if and how political and civic freedoms affect development. It shows that in a dual political economy like Zimbabwe, the formal (urban) economy may stabilize without political freedoms yet enclaves of poverty may deepen in the informal and rural economies due to lack of human development. A framework for the effect of politics on the role of analogue radio in development is proposed.

Impediments to customer integration into the innovation process: A case study in the telecommunications industry

The article discusses the reasons for the emergence of communication barriers in the anticrisis management of the organization. Various types of barriers are described, their classification is given. The author proposes mechanisms for reducing the communication barriers of the organization in the process of the management of anti-crisis communications.

IntroductionEnvironmental problems are often compared to tragedy of the (Hardin 1968). This perspective has been expanded in the 50 years since Hardin cited shared pastures as an example of the commons. He was alarmed that if access to pasture were unregulated, the pasture would be over-exploited through each individual's intention of maximizing his or her own gains by putting more livestock out to graze; consequently, the shared pasture would go into ruin. According to Hardin, any with a limited carrying capacity that is always open to all, in which those who pursue rational economic activities utilize them to maximize their own gains, inevitably becomes devastated. The individuals' freedom to pursue their own egocentric interests leads to the tragedy of the commons. To prevent this situation, Hardin argued, mutual coercion mutually agreed upon is required in order to constrain each individual's freedom. Thus, the establishment of private property rights or the intervention and expansion of centralized state power over the has been proposed as a way to prevent the tragedy of the (Hardin 1968, 1994, 1998; Ostrom 2003).This argument regarding tragedy of the has been cited widely beyond the boundary of natural science including in ecological anthropology, demography, law, politics, ethics, geography, psychology, sociology, and public administration; the frequency of citation has increased (Burger and Gochfeld 1998). On the one hand, studies supporting Hardin's argument have been carried out by presenting cases about overexploitation of resources, destruction of habitats, and extinction of species resulting from population growth. On the other hand, some studies have criticized this approach, sought cases of successful management of a commons, and tried to find social conditions and mechanisms for it. The work of Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons opened the possibility of sustainable management of common pool resources (CPRs) through local people's autonomous institutions, rather than through privatization or state control.Is Ostrom's understanding of the sufficient and proper? If the design principles Ostrom suggested are maintained, do CPRs remain as they are? What characteristics make CPRs able to be managed sustainably? Is it because of the nature of the resources or due to other causes? If Ostrom's approach is taken, can natural resources be kept healthy as CPRs? While this paper begins with those questions, it seeks to figure out what CPR management is and explores how discussion about CPRs contributes to the reduction of environmental problems and achievement of sustainable conditions. Section 2 describes the achievements of and limits to Ostrom's approach, while comparing Ostrom's understanding of CPRs with previous scholars. Section 3 re-defines the concept of CPRs based on sociological imagination. Section 4 applies the redefined concept of CPRs, with increased focus on social aspects, to real on-going problems with CPRs. Finally, section 5 summarizes and concludes this study.Elinor Ostroms Understanding of CPRsOstrom was awarded the Nobel Prize for her study of CPRs because CPRs are at the center of an essential dispute in economics concerning the role of the market. The concept of CPRs was developed from the concept of public goods, which was conceptualized by Paul A. Samuelson in order to criticize market fundamentalism and libertarianism. Therefore, studies on CPRs incorporated critiques of market fundamentalism and libertarianism from the beginning.1) Discussions related to CPRs before Ostrom's studyBoth natural resources, such as land, water, sunshine, and air, and man-made facilities, including reservoirs and waterways, that are utilized together by a great number of people were traditionally called commons These have been commodified and privatized through the development of capitalism. …

The aim of behavior analysis has always been to apply technologies rooted in basic behavioral principles to problems of societal importance (e.g., Skinner, 1948; 1953; 1987). One such problem is the Tragedy of the Commons - a phenomenon arising from systemic failures among a community, leading to the total collapse of a critical resource (Hardin, 1968). Elinor Ostrom's Eight Design Principles were developed to provide a framework for the self-management of common pool resources (CPRs; Ostrom, 1990/2015). When applied as an independently manipulated variable, Ostrom's design principles have shown strong effects in the management of CPRs within the context of a tabletop board game Catan® (Smith & Becker, 2023). This preparation included both rewards (i.e., positive reinforcement) and sanctions (i.e., positive punishment) as a feature of the independent variable. However, it has been well documented that punishing and coercive contingencies can lead to problematic outcomes for individuals and societies (e.g., Sidman, 2001; Skinner, 1976). This study evaluated the effects of utilizing only rewarding consequences in lieu of sanctions in an effort to produce the previously observed control over self-management of a CPR, utilizing the previously adapted rules of the Catan® board game.

Asian economies are often characterized as having bank-dominated financial systems and underdeveloped capital markets, in particular with regard to venture capital. In economies that banks are the main source of funding, the main obstacle for financing infrastructural projects including renewable energy (RE) projects is lack of access to long-term finance. The second obstacle for development of RE energy projects is their lower rate of return comparing to fossil fuel projects as more subsidies are globally going to fossil fuels. For larger RE projects insurance and pensions are sustainable financing alternatives. Pension funds and insurance companies hold long-term savings, so these institutions could be a proper alternative for financing mega-size RE projects. In addition, utilizing the spillover effects originally created by energy supplies in form of tax revenues refund to RE projects will increase their rate of return and make them interesting for private investors. For smaller-size RE projects, the paper provides a theoretical model for combining utilisation of carbon tax and a new way of financing risky capital, i.e., Hometown Investment Trust Funds (HITs). The paper theoretically shows that by environmental taxation and allocating these tax revenues to HITs, RE projects will become more feasible and more interesting for private investors; hence the supply of investment money to these funds will increase.

CS-related issues are becoming an increasingly pervasive and powerful force in shaping international trades and investments. The existing literature lacks concepts and theory to explain this phenomenon. This chapter explores in substantial details the various types of barriers to trade and investment that are associated with CS. It also tackles the question of how the natures of CS-related barriers to trade and investment are changing in recent years. Also provided is an illustrative discussion of factors that contributed to the trade and investment barriers to firms from major world economies. It also analyzes the causes and mechanisms associated with CS-related barriers, profile of companies are likely to be affected and characteristics of and relationships between the home and the host country that are likely to lead to such barriers.

Various measures were undertaken to internalize the state-owned common pool resource (CPR) based public open space’s (POS) externalities which arisen from the perennial commons’ dilemmas, yet, to date, not a single adaptive governance strategy has been discovered. Thus, a review of trans-disciplinary analytic perspectives is required, which thereof, highlights the objective of the paper i.e., to propose Ostrom’s common-property-based self-organizing eight design principles by examining how can they be adaptably applied in governing the residential commons, POS (particularly landed property) in the Malaysian context. Two study areas: states of Sabah and Selangor, of different institutional POS governance, were a priori fleshed out. Succinctly, Ostrom’s principles are basic, insightful, well-defined, organized, and widely-applicable, which have enabled us to consent that there is certainly a void for both states to adapt her oeuvre as a dynamic panacea in POS governance. This paper infers that Ostrom’s principles are a means to improve the status quo of POS’ quality (as POS rejuvenation) which postulates stakeholders to reckon it as a new paradigm in the urban design and planning perspective

Importance and ranking evaluation of delay factors for development construction projects in Benin

ABSTRACTThis study examines farmers’ perceptions of fairness regarding an agricultural water use policy change in Idaho: the 2015 settlement agreement, a compromise between ground- and surface water farmers in Idaho’s Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA) that requires reductions in groundwater withdrawals of about 13% for all groundwater farmers. We characterize the agreement as an attempt to solve a common-pool resource social dilemma and draw on Elinor Ostrom’s seven ‘design principles’ as a conceptual framework. Using data from 43 interviews and 265 mail surveys, we find a split between farmers who grudgingly accept the agreement as necessary to keep the region’s agricultural productivity sustainable, and those who consider it unnecessary, unfair, or even illegal. A belief in the importance of protecting groundwater resources and support for local control was cited by farmers backing the agreement, whereas dissenting farmers believed outside interests had exerted too much influence throughout the negotiation process and generally mistrusted the state’s groundwater data. Given that residents of the American West are likely to continue having to address declining water availability in the future due to climate change, our findings can help policymakers design effective and equitable water policies in a way that advances rural environmental justice.

Online communities contribute to weave the social fabric of the Internet. Practices, norms, and governance arrangements emerge out of individual behaviours and interactions. This paper analyses the case of computer-mediated communities of mutual help within the framework of the core design principles of common-pool resources (CPR) as initially proposed by Elionor Ostrom. First, we suggest conceptualising the notion of help as a human-produced, commons-based resource that can be enjoyed within a community. Second, we present u-Help, a mobile application supporting mutual help for social networks. Third, we examine Ostrom’s design principles and assess the extent to which u-Help aligns with them. We then transform the core principles into requirements for a computer tool that can be used to support CPR groups such as time banks or bartering communities. Finally, we conclude by outlining future development plans to make the application fully aligned with Ostrom’s design principles.

Aqualyng secures US$31.4mn in funding

Outcomes of participatory fisheries management: An example from co-management in Zambia's Mweru-Luapula fishery