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Ugo Vallauri

BA&MA (University of Bologna, 2002)

ICT4D and grassroots rural community development

Supervisor: Professor Tim Unwin
Advisor: Dr Dorothea Kleine
email: u.vallauri@rhul.ac.uk 

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is continuously redefining the ways in which people across the world communicate, access information, produce and share knowledge. The potential for an interconnected, global society, and the reduction of the divide between societies and regions with very different access to ICT is behind the current boom of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) sector. While access to technology is a fundamental prerequisite, interventions often focus more on technological issues than on local needs or appropriate, practical solutions addressing the underlying social, environmental and gender issues facing target users. Rather than concentrating on the technological aspects of implementation, or on direct correlations between access and economic growth, my main interest in ICT4D lies at the intersection of communication, community and development.

My research explores the role of ICT in rural agricultural development in Kenya. I combine my personal experience living in Kenya as an ICT4D researcher with an interest in the role played by smallholder farming communities in sustainable agricultural development. I am particularly interested in the role played by ICT in fostering new networks of agricultural knowledge sharing, blending traditional indigenous knowledge with innovations coming from both research centres and grassroots farming communities. The main emerging questions of my work involve the conditions and opportunities for ICT to contribute to new forms of agricultural extension services, and the emergence of new voices and new horizontal support networks in agricultural development.

From a technological perspective, I am less interested in a specific device, and more in the communication formats and practices. For instance, I prefer to reflect on the wider range of portable ICT tools rather than on mobile devices in the context of agricultural development and communication.

This research is part of the activities of the ICT4D Collective.

Some of my work can be followed on Twitter: @ugomatic