Structurational explication of technology adoption In ICT4D: a throwback to Giddens

This chapter examines how Giddens’ social theory of structuration, which reconciles the classical dichotomy between structure and agency in sociology, can explicate success and failure of ICT for Development (ICT4D). Information Systems (IS) has keenly adopted structurational concepts from sociology to formulate a theoretical basis for understanding technology adoption and use in society. In its wake the original theory of structuration has been creatively re-interpreted. This chapter considers how technology adoption or rejection in developing societies can be explained through a faithful interpretation of the structuration theory, in terms of the characteristics of structure in Giddensian terms and agent–structure interaction. In a deliberate throwback to Giddens, specific IS questions oftechnology adoption are shown to be explained well by the original theory of structuration.