Africa's Information Revolution: technical regimes and production networks in South Africa and Tanzania by James T. Murphy and Pádraig Carmody (review)

The concept of disintermediation posits that information and communications technologies (ICTs) weaken intermediaries and flatten global markets. In global debates about this idea, a handful of studies, notably Jensen's 2007 work on South Indian fishermen and Aker's 2010 work on Niger farmers, are repeatedly cited to argue for a broad applicability. However, by tracking the impacts of ICTs on small-scale producers in the tourism and wood product industries of South Africa and Tanzania, Jim Murphy and Pádraig Carmody paint a much more nuanced picture of ICT-enabled economic change in contemporary Africa.

Chapter 1, written with Bjoern Surborg, examines the evidence base behind the idea of ICT4D: that is, information and communications technology for development. They cite a World Bank study that reveals a 75 per cent failure rate in the Bank's attempts to grow ICT sectors in developing economies. Despite this depressing figure, proponents continue to push ICTs as the key to growth. Murphy and Carmody explain that ICT4D may serve as a Trojan horse for e-business and suggest that ICT is part of a broader effort, along with micro-finance and 'bottom of the pyramid' business models, to open up African markets to global capital.

Chapters 2 and 3 set out the theoretical foundations of the book. One of the book's strongest contributions is its differentiation between imminent and immanent development. Imminent development refers to productivity improvements at the individual or firm level. This is the focus of most ICT4D programmes. If such impacts are indeed transformative, development becomes a matter of access, thus placing ICT4D into a broader 'inclusive markets' paradigm in which poverty is imagined to be the result of market disconnection. Yet, the authors suggest, this understanding may be misleading, as imminent development often results in a 'double movement' of capital, with some profits flowing 'downwards to direct producers' but others 'upwards to global corporations' such as telecommunications and payment companies (p. 20).

In contrast, Murphy and Carmody join a growing group of scholars who argue that African economies need deeper, structural transformation. They term this development 'immanent' and describe how it requires 'thicker' forms of ICT integration. In their analysis, the main vehicle for such structural change is strategic coupling: attachments between well-organized local industries and global lead firms that result in learning, local innovation and eventually greater domestic value capture. Although firmly situated in economic geography, their analysis shares terrain with political economists interested in state-led industrial policy. For example, in reference to the tourism industry, Murphy and Carmody stress the importance of destination management organizations (DMOs) in advancing the collective interests of local tourism firms. Although their theoretical chapters focus on the importance of more strategic intervention, the empirical chapters somewhat lack detail on how this might be accomplished. Nevertheless, Chapter 2 will be a useful resource for teachers seeking more critical approaches to ICT4D, while Chapter 3 offers a more technical analysis for economic geographers.

Chapters 4 and 5 document overall impacts in the cases examined in this book. They argue that, while there have been wide-scale imminent economic improvements (in terms of efficiency and productivity increases), producers have struggled to coordinate and to use ICTs for economic upgrading. The next two chapters zoom in on two sectors in turn, demonstrating that ICTs 'do not have any independent causative power' across sectors (p. 131). Chapter 6 focuses on wood sectors in Dar es Salaam and Durban. Liberal trade policies have spurred competition from Asian imports and have led to downgrading within local industries. These changes have been partly facilitated by ICTs, as importers have been able to better coordinate with their Asian counterparts. One response by local producers has been differentiation into higher-end markets. Here, face-to-face interactions...