Internet Studies and Development Discourses: The Cases of China and India

Weiyu Zhang; Arul Chib

doi:10.1080/02681102.2013.796546

Internet Studies and Development Discourses: The Cases of China and India

Weiyu Zhang^*
, Arul Chib

^*Corresponding author for this work

National University of Singapore
Nanyang Technological University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

22 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper investigates Internet studies in two leading developing countries (i.e. China and India) and finds that the Chinese scholarly community relies on the discourse of liberation from the state as a form of critique, whereas Indian Internet studies question the discourse of modernization to contemplate about the success and failure factors of information and communication technologies in development. The difference generally reflects the academic responses to the development discourses embraced by the two governments. We suggest that Internet studies should not only respond to the realities but also transcend the contextual constraints to direct attention to the often neglected dimensions of development, which are to make actual impacts through allowing the people and the communities to define their own development discourses as well as building research institutions that are oriented to influence policy-making.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	324-338
Number of pages	15
Journal	Information Technology for Development
Volume	20
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2013.796546
Publication status	Published - 25 Oct 2014
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Three sources were used for the review of Internet studies on China and India: area studies, communication research, and ICTD research. Whereas the previous two were identified as the research disciplines that have prioritized attention to the Internet (Kluver & Yang, 2005), ICTD research is an emerging field that fully devotes itself to the topic of using ICTs for the purpose of development (Gomez, Baron, & Fiore-Silfvast, 2012). Area studies were obtained by searching the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The keywords used included “China and Internet”, “India and Internet”, “China and cyber∗”, “India and cyber∗”, “China and web∗”, “India and web∗”, “China and ICT∗”, and “India and ICT∗” in abstracts. Only books and peer-reviewed journal articles were included. No time limit was imposed. The search generated 95 articles related to China and 34 related to India (see Table 2 for a summary). Communication-oriented Internet studies were obtained from the Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) with the same settings as in SSCI. The search generated 182 articles related to China and 62 related to India. ICTD research was obtained via a full-text search of ICTD journals (all peer-reviewed) compiled by Richard Heeks4 using the keywords “China” or “India”. Sixty-seven articles were found about China and 125 about India. Transnational organizations’ publications on their funded projects (e.g. International Development Research Center, United Nations Development Programme, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank) were also included as sources for ICTD research.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013, Commonwealth Secretariat.

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Cite this

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title = "Internet Studies and Development Discourses: The Cases of China and India",

abstract = "This paper investigates Internet studies in two leading developing countries (i.e. China and India) and finds that the Chinese scholarly community relies on the discourse of liberation from the state as a form of critique, whereas Indian Internet studies question the discourse of modernization to contemplate about the success and failure factors of information and communication technologies in development. The difference generally reflects the academic responses to the development discourses embraced by the two governments. We suggest that Internet studies should not only respond to the realities but also transcend the contextual constraints to direct attention to the often neglected dimensions of development, which are to make actual impacts through allowing the people and the communities to define their own development discourses as well as building research institutions that are oriented to influence policy-making.",

author = "Weiyu Zhang and Arul Chib",

note = "Funding Information: Three sources were used for the review of Internet studies on China and India: area studies, communication research, and ICTD research. Whereas the previous two were identified as the research disciplines that have prioritized attention to the Internet (Kluver \& Yang, 2005), ICTD research is an emerging field that fully devotes itself to the topic of using ICTs for the purpose of development (Gomez, Baron, \& Fiore-Silfvast, 2012). Area studies were obtained by searching the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The keywords used included “China and Internet”, “India and Internet”, “China and cyber∗”, “India and cyber∗”, “China and web∗”, “India and web∗”, “China and ICT∗”, and “India and ICT∗” in abstracts. Only books and peer-reviewed journal articles were included. No time limit was imposed. The search generated 95 articles related to China and 34 related to India (see Table 2 for a summary). Communication-oriented Internet studies were obtained from the Communication \& Mass Media Complete (CMMC) with the same settings as in SSCI. The search generated 182 articles related to China and 62 related to India. ICTD research was obtained via a full-text search of ICTD journals (all peer-reviewed) compiled by Richard Heeks4 using the keywords “China” or “India”. Sixty-seven articles were found about China and 125 about India. Transnational organizations{\textquoteright} publications on their funded projects (e.g. International Development Research Center, United Nations Development Programme, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank) were also included as sources for ICTD research. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2013, Commonwealth Secretariat.",

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Internet Studies and Development Discourses: The Cases of China and India

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