Transformative force of Digitalisation
How does the digital transformation affect development cooperation and politics?
The presence of digital technology in all aspects of human society is rapidly changing the way individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and cultures interact.
Digital tools can lead to greater efficiency in institutional efforts to provide public and collective services, including by facilitating exchanges and collaboration across long distances, but they also create new challenges and risks. Digitalisation will change the global economic division of labour and working conditions around the globe. Social media acts as an important resource for popular mobilization against regimes; yet, it can also be used by those same regimes to target dissidents and wage information warfare. Trade policy 4.0 offers the chance to make globalisation more participative and inclusive – but so far much potential goes untapped. Technologies like blockchain could provide low-income individuals with easier access to the financial system, but technical factors like energy demands and digital security are still a large hurdle for development actors to overcome. In areas such as climate change mitigation, new technologies offer opportunities to rethink how we power our homes and economies, but governments struggle to develop equally forward-looking energy policies.
The tension between our digital potential and current politics and procedures poses opportunities and challenges to development policy and cooperation. The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) addresses this tension through innovative, policy-relevant research.
Team
Publications
Synergising digital public infrastructure and digital commons for sustainable development: the governance of digital resources in India and the EU
Dang, Vy / Aliasger Bootwalla / Eva Maria Lynders / Wulf Reiners (2024)
published on gatewayhouse, 28 March 2024
Los costos ambientales de la digitalización
Lucatello, Simone / Wulf Reiners (2024)
in: El Universal, 24 March 2024
Agenda and coalitions beyond techno-fix illusions
Lucatello, Simone / Wulf Reiners (2024)
Bonn: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), The Current Column of 13 February 2024
Urban refugees and digital technology
Martin-Shields, Charles (2024)
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press
The European Union’s governance approach to tackling disinformation – protection of democracy, foreign influence, and the quest for digital sovereignty
Kachelmann, Matthias / Wulf Reiners (2023)
in: L'Europe en Formation 396, 11-36
Was macht eine gute Digitalpartnerschaft mit Afrika aus?
Erforth, Benedikt (2023)
published on www.megatrends-afrika.de, 20.11.2023
Human subjects, digital protocols: the future of institutional review boards (IRBs) and digital research in vulnerable communities
Martin-Shields, Charles / al Achkar, Ziad (2023)
in: Colette Mazucelli / James Felton Keith / C. Ann Hollifeld (eds.), Personal data collection risks in a post-vaccine world, New York: Anthem Press, 25-47
Do information communication technologies (ICTs) support self-reliance among urban refugees? Evidence from Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia
Martin-Shields, Charles / Katrina Munir-Asen (2022)
in: International Migration Review, first published 25.12.2022
Ride-sharing apps for urban refugees: easing or exacerbating a digital transport disadvantage?
Martin-Shields, Charles (2022)
in: Trialog (140/141), 58-62
E-government and democracy in Botswana: observational and experimental evidence on the effect of e-government usage on political attitudes
Bante, Jana / Felix Helmig / Lara Prasad / Lea Deborah Scheu / Jean Christoph Seipel / Helge Senkpiel / Markus Geray / Armin von Schiller / David Sebudubudu / Sebastian Ziaja (2021)
Discussion Paper 16/2021
Digitalising the fiscal contract: an interdisciplinary framework for empirical inquiry
von Haldenwang, Christian (2020)
Discussion Paper 20/2020
Strengthening the digital partnership between Africa and Europe
Daniels, Chux / Benedikt Erforth / Rob Floyd/ Chloe Teevan (2020)
ETTG-Paper, October 2020
Information and communication technology in the lives of forcibly displaced persons in Kenya
Eppler, Mirko / Stella Gaetani / Francy Köllner / Jana Kuhnt / Charles Martin-Shields / Nyat Mebrahtu / Antonia Peters / Carlotta Preiß (2020)
Discussion Paper 15/2020
How the EU and rising powers can shape their future sustainably
Grimm, Sven / Wulf Reiners / Benjamin Stewart (2020)
The Current Column of 6 April 2020
Digitalisierung in aufstrebenden Mächten: Trends und Strategien
Reiners, Wulf / Sven Grimm (2019)
in: Susanne Luther (Hrsg.), Digitaler Wandel in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit: zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit (Argumente und Materialien der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit 24), München: Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, 18-27
Why digital services for refugees often fail to achieve their objectives
Preiß, Carlotta (2019)
The Current Column of 13 May 2019
Potential of blockchain technology for trade integration of developing countries
Schwab, Jakob / Jan Ohnesorge (2019)
Briefing Paper 4/2019
The impact of information and communication technologies on jobs in Africa: a literature review
Melia, Elvis (2019)
Discussion Paper 3/2019
Creating wealth without labour? Emerging contours of a new techno-economic landscape
Lütkenhorst, Wilfried (2018)
Discussion Paper 11/2018
The potential of ICT‐supported participatory communication interventions to challenge local power dynamics: Lessons from the case of Togo
Breuer, Anita / Laura Blomenkemper / Stefan Kliesch / Franziska Salzer / Manuel Schädler / Valentin Schweinfurth / Stephen Virchow (2018)
published on Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 84 (3)
A primer on blockchain technology and its potential for financial inclusion
Ohnesorge, Jan (2018)
Discussion Paper 2/2018
Will blockchains become the new banks for the poor??
Ohnesorge, Jan (2018)
The Current Column of 5 February 2018
Global trade at your fingertips: The granular revolution of the platform econome
Weizsäcker, Franz von (2018)
The Current Column of 22 January 2018
Peacekeeping's digital economy: the role of communication technologies in post-conflict economic growth
Martin-Shields, Charles P. / Nicholas Bodanac (2017)
published on International Peacekeeping 28 Nov 2017, 1-26
Hacking for the climate
von Weizsäcker, Franz / Clara Brandi (2017)
The Current Column of 13 November 2017
Handelspolitik im digitalen Zeitalter
von Weizsäcker, Franz / Axel Berger / Clara Brandi (2017)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 03.04. 2017
Digitalisation and flight: how can donors leverage digital technologies to support refugees?
Martin-Shields, Charles (2017)
Briefing Paper 18/2017
Peace tech: the liminal spaces of digital technology in peacebuilding
Firchow, Pamina / Charles Martin-Shields / Roger Mac Ginty / Atalia Omer (2017)
in: International Studies Perspectives 18 (1), 4-42
Proving (digital) peace
Martin-Shields, Charles (2015)
published on Build Peace Forum March 2015
Digital technologies for democratic governance in Latin America: opportunities and risks
Breuer, Anita / Yanina Welp (eds.) (2014)
Abingdon: Routledge (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
Facebook, Twitter & Co.: Enablers of participatory democracy or henchmen of the digital surveillance state?
Breuer, Anita / Sergio Burns (2013)
The Current Column of 5 August 2013
Events
MGG-PRODIGEES Authors Workshop
Digitalisation Towards Sustainable Development
Nice, France, 21 September 2022 until 24 September 2022
PRODIGEES Roundtable Discussion
Enabling Narratives Towards a Green Digital Transformation
Instituto Mora, Mexico, 4 May 2022
Panel
Digital revolution
Bonn, 16.10.2019
Workshop
Taxation and digitalization
Bonn, 01.10.2019 bis 02.10.2019
Event Series
The Imperative of Responsibility-Understanding Hans Jonas
Bonn, 25 April 2019 - 11 December 2019
Kick Off Event
Understanding Hans Jonas‘s Main Opus in the Field of Ethics of Responsibility
Bonn, 25 April 2019
Conference
MGG National Alumni Conference Mexico: A Digital Agenda for Sustainable Development – Perspectives from Mexico
Mexico City, 24-25 July 2018
Workshop
Industry 4.0: Challenges for productivity, employment and inclusion
Bonn, 28-29 May 2018
WBGU-Gesprächsrunde
Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit – Welche Zukunft wollen wir gestalten?
Berlin, 20 June 2018
Contact
Sven Grimm
E-mail Sven.Grimm@idos-research.de
Phone +49 (0)228 94927-201
Charles Martin-Shields
E-mail Charles.Martin-Shields@idos-research.de
Phone +49 (0)228 94927-160
E-government for urban migrants
Highlight
Urban refugees and digital technology
Martin-Shields, Charles (2024)
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press