Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Media, Culture & Society
This Article
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Leye, V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

UNESCO, ICT corporations and the passion of ICT for development: modernization resurrected

Veva Leye

GHENT UNIVERSITY, BELGIUM RESEARCH FOUNDATION-FLANDERS (FWO), veva.leye{at}ugent.be

This article critically examines the partnerships between ICT (information and communication technology) corporations, focusing on Microsoft, and UNESCO. These partnerships are situated within the information society discourse and within the trend of increased private sector cooperation in the United Nations system. The ‘ICT for development’ paradigm, which is seen as the conceptual linchpin of these cooperative activities, is considered to be a new version of the modernization paradigm. It is argued that, in many ways, UNESCO’s partnerships with ICT corporations and its ethical approach of the information society/knowledge societies, turn a blind eye to structural political, economic and political economic inequalities. This ignorance is then related to UNESCO’s turbulent history regarding the questioning of inequities in communication, media and information.

Key Words: development theory • ICT • international communication • public-private partnerships • United Nations

Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 29, No. 6, 972-993 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0163443707081711
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?