Sunday, December 13, 2009

significance

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of ICT in facilitating democracy. A primary goal is to develop a theoretical basis for analysis of the democratic process in the context of ICT. The study draws on structuration theory, critical social theory and actor-network theory while formulating the model of structuration-emancipation. In order to illustrate the theoretical basis and its value in analyzing real situations, empirical evidences were presented from a survey data of South Korea. This research makes a new contribution to the body of IS knowledge by showing general applicability of proposed theory for the role of ICT in facilitating democracy. 1.1 STRUCTURATION THEORY AND ICT The theoretical basis for this paper draws firstly on structuration theory (Giddens 1979, 1984). The attention is on how structuration theory can offer a new way of looking at societal change and ICT. A summary of key points is presented in Table 1 from Walsham (2002)'s paper whose focus was on crosscultural issues of ICT implementation. In this paper we focus on the last key point of the summary which is about reflexivity and change. TABLE 1: SOME KEY CONCEPTS: STRUCTURATION THEORY AND ICT Structure Structure as memory traces in the human mind Action draws on rules of behavior and ability to deploy resources and, in so doing, produces and reproduces structure IS embody systems of meaning, provide resources, and encapsulate norms, and are thus deeply involved in the modalities Reflexivity and change Reproduction through processes of routinization But human being's reflexivity monitor actions and consequences, creating a basis for social change By defining structure as rules and resources, recursively

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