Negotiating New ICTs in the Education Sector in Afghanistan

268 Pages·2015·8.31 MB·English

Negotiating New ICTs in the Education Sector in
Afghanistan - Participation, Adoption and
Appropriation
Melanie Stilz
Magistra Artium (M.A.) in European Ethnology and Computer
Science
Dublin City University
School of Communications
Supervisor: Prof. Paschal Preston
A thesis submitted for the award
of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
October 2014
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DECLARATION
Iherebycertifythatthismaterial,whichInowsubmitforassessmentontheprogramme
of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, and that
I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the
best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the
work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged
within the text of my work.
Signed: (MelanieStilz) IDNo:
Date:
i
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank my supervisor Paschal Preston for keeping me on track and offering me
so much thoughtful advice and feedback when I was at risk of getting lost in the
literature and data collection. I am grateful for his understanding when I decided to
leave my “regular” life at Dublin City University to work again in Afghanistan and for
offering me the right combination of freedom in my work and critical comments that
never tried to push me in any direction. I also want to thank Barbara O’Connor, who
was my second supervisor in the first two years of my PhD, and who was of tremendous
help in shaping the empirical part of this research and was an inspiration in the joy of
doing field work.
I would like to thank all the people in Afghanistan that helped making this research
possible. It wasn’t easy at times, but without their support it would have been simply
impossible. Some of them I have known for years, others I met for the first time when
visiting different places and sites, and I was generously welcomed wherever I went.
And finally I want to thank my friends that celebrated my achievements with me, got
me through my doubts and endured me in stressful times. All my wonderful colleagues
at DCU and friends in Ireland that made me quickly feel at home and made it
particularly hard to leave again. Namely Franziska Fehr, my rock in stormy Dublin,
who offered moral and academic support during the whole time. As well as my friends
in Berlin who sent me survival packages with German wholegrain bread to Dublin and
patiently waited for the power to come back during Skype-calls from Kabul. Special
thanks goes to Wanda Hummel who became my personal coach, cook and counsellor in
the tough last weeks before submission.
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Contents
Declaration i
Acronyms and Glossary vii
List of Figures x
Abstract xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 (Re-?)Constructing Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Deconstructing ICT projects in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Approaching development and technology 12
2.1 Concepts of ‘technology’ and ‘development’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Development theories - by whom and how is development defined? . . . 14
2.2.1 Modernization Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2 Dependency Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.3 Alternative development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4 Participatory development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.5 Post-modern critique of development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.6 Neoliberalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3 Social Change by Communication and Technology 25
3.1 Communication for Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1.1 The Dominant Paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1.2 Participatory Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1.3 Orientalism and Post-Colonialism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1.4 Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.5 Multiplicity or the ‘Alternative Paradigm’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2 Information and Communication Technologies for Development . . . . . 40
3.2.1 The birth of ICT4D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.2 “ICT4D 2.0” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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Contents iv
4 Investigating the instruments 47
4.1 Technological Determinism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2 Constructing Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.1 The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.2.2 Actor-Network Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.2.3 Media and Technology in STS today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.4 STS and human development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.5 Appropriation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.3 Research Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5 Afghanistan 64
5.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.2 Media & technology in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.3 The education sector in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6 Methodology 74
6.1 Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.2 Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.3 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.3.1 Participation and Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.3.2 Listening and asking questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.3.3 Field diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.4 Actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.5 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.6 Data analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.7 ICT4D in Afghanistan - three examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.8 Setting the scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.8.1 First impressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.8.2 Daily routines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7 ICT for the Poor 101
7.1 Project initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1.1 Sonatec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1.2 Laptops for schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1.3 The Ministry of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.2 Project design and conceptualisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.2.1 The laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.2.2 The wireless school-network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.3 Project implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.3.1 Technical skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.4 Project operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.4.1 The schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.4.2 Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.4.3 Laptops at schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.5 Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.5.1 Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
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Contents v
7.6 Project succession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.6.1 School Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.7 The International Development Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8 ICT infrastructure development 135
8.1 The broader infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.2 Project initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.2.1 The Ministry of Higher Education Computer Department . . . . 140
8.2.2 The University IT staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.3 Project framework and implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3.1 MPD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3.2 CDMH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.3.3 CCKU and CNC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.4 Project continuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9 ICT capacity building 156
9.1 Kabul University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.2 Computer literacy - enabling technology integration . . . . . . . . . . . 160
9.3 Institutional capacity building – solving real world problems . . . . . . . 162
9.3.1 The Management Platform for Higher Education (MPHE) . . . . 163
9.3.2 Private sector ICT capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9.3.3 ICT as change makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
9.4 ICT capacity as a goal – innovation and knowledge production . . . . . 169
9.4.1 The Computer Centre at Kabul University (CCKU) . . . . . . . 171
9.5 Capacity, authority and local conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.5.1 Change and context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.5.2 Cooperation and competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
10 Modernization, Manipulation, Determinism - long overcome? 177
10.1 I don’t mean to be patronizing, but . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
10.2 Adapting the user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
10.2.1 Alignment and Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
10.3 Locally owned dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
10.4 Hard-earned partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
10.5 Relevant groups, opinion leaders and champions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
10.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
11 Participation in ICT projects 192
11.1 Dimensions of participation in the three cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
11.2 Token Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
11.3 Proxy Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
11.4 Alibi Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
11.5 Participation and Technology Appropriation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
11.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
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Contents vi
12 Conclusion and Outlook 205
12.1 Main findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
12.2 Looking back... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
12.3 Scholars and practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
12.4 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
12.5 Concluding statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Bibliography 214
Interview References 236
A Quotes 240
B Conflicts 250
C History 253
D Master Thesis 256
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Acronyms and Glossary
ACRONYMS
ANT Actor-Network Theory
BNA Basic Needs Approach
C4D Communication for Development / Development Communication. To
differentiate from the tradition of modernization theory and associate with
more inclusive, participatory approaches the field is today also often called
Communication for Social Change
CS Computer Science
CIO Chief Information Officer
DSC Development Support Communication
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
GIRoA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
GOA Government of Afghanistan
HDI Human Development Index
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
ICT4D Information and Communication Technologies for Development
IDE integrated development environment
IS Information Systems
ISI Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan’s intelligence service)
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Acronyms and Glossary viii
ISP Internet Service Provider
ITU International Telecommunication Union
MCIT Ministry of Communication an Information Technology
MDC More Developed Countries
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MoE Ministry of Education
MoHE Ministry of Higher Education
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
ODA Official Development Assistance
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OPEC Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
PDPA People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan
PPP Private-public-partnership
SCOT The Social Construction of Technology
SLAP School Laptop Project
SME Small and medium enterprises
STS Science and Technology Studies
SST Social Shaping of Technology
UDon U.S. donor organisation
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
UNICTTF United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force
VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal
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Acronyms and Glossary ix
WITFOR World Information Technology Forum
WSIS World Summit on the Information Society
GLOSSARY
Actant Akrich & Latour (1992) define “an actor is an actant endowed with a character”
Concour The Afghan university entrance exam
Hezb-e Islami Islamist organisation and political party founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Hijab A veil that covers the head and chest, worn by Muslim women
Jamiat-e Islami Islamist political party founded by Burhanadin Rabbani
Jihad “A struggle against enemies of Islam” (Morgan: 2010:87)
Loya Jirga Grand assembly of community leaders from across the country
Madrasa Arabic for educational institution, often referring to religious schools
Mujahideen Holy warriors
Mullah Islamic religious teacher or leader
Rote learning A learning technique based on repetition
Shari’a Islamic religious law
Shura Consultative council in Islamic societies
Ulema Muslim legal scholars
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