Reading Group May 4th 2006

"Interpreting e-government and development: Efficiency, transparency or governance at a distance?," Information Technology & People (18:3) 2005, pp 260-279. by Claudio Ciborra. "The paper aims to show, through the case of Jordan, how e-government is difficult to implement, given the characteristics of the local administration, the socio-economic context and the dynamics of the technological infrastructure. It also aims to ascertain more generally whether the marketisation of the state, embedded in e-government, makes sense as the paramount approach to improve democracy and foster development." The author presents the rather complicated environment for e-government development and operation and problematic aspects for small states in periphery regions (when considered in relation to much larger and more powerful central states). In particular the role of changing ICT in organisational and broader societial social relations is considered through this case study of the application of e-government initiates and innovation in the Kingdom of Jordan. n.b. Claudio Ciborra died before he could make the final revisions to this paper, Mike Cushman of the Department of Information Systems at the LSE prepared the final version for publication.