Navarra, Diego D

The Governance Architecture of Global ICT Programmes: A Case Study of E-Government in Jordan

(2006)

The present thesis introduces global ICT programmes, defined as new and universal modes of organising mediated by technology and enacted through a novel mix of policy instruments, international institutions, business interests and techno/managerial concepts. This research offers a distinctive perspective on the role played by the transfer of the technology of e-government and international development policy as it brings into being a new global governance architecture and the broader context of the interplay of technology, geography and politics in Jordan, which is redefining the nature of the state and driving its glocalisation.

We untangle these initiatives in relation to: a) the governance of the large scale information infrastructure that support such redefinition, including national and international regulatory, legislative and institutional requirements for e-government systems; and b) the conceptualisation of the theoretical and empirical challenges associated with the governance and development of such large scale information infrastructures as Jordan tries to fulfill the ambition to develop both the necessary organisational capacity to integrate its economy and society within the global architecture of trade and finance.

To be sure, global ICT programmes are not neutral. Instead, they constitute the scene of new conflicts over the regulation, appropriation, access and management of sensitive information and knowledge resources as well as critical infrastructure. Thus the case study of e-accounting and e-procurement initiatives (traditionally a crucial area of government’s resource management), shows that the capacity of the government to retain control within the changing boundaries and governance of the state should not to be addressed just by looking at how the government can control and regulate directly its development, rather to steer and enable networks that can achieve the goals of state governance.

The contribution this research develops is twofold. One, the theoretical framework for the study and analysis of such programmes, which is designed to appreciate the emergence of a new dialectic encompassing issues of governance at the global and local levels. The other, oriented towards policy makers and practitioners, is to flesh out a new understanding of the governance of technological innovations and their relationship with global economic integration. These could transcend the problems associated with the governance model connected with the present governance architecture and provide workable technical, institutional and organisational mechanisms facilitating the conceptualisation, analytical frameworks and policy direction also for other global ICT programmes, such as e-Science, e-Learning, e-Health and e-Commerce.

Read the full thesis: The Governance Architecture of Global ICT Programmes: A Case Study of E-Government in Jordan (PDF)

Supervisor: Tony Cornford, PhD

Diego Navarra is currently an Assistant Professor of Geo-Information and Governance in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information Management at the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in Enschede, The Netherlands

page last updated 26 November 2007