Exploring and synthesising community informatics, community and Ubuntu
Udo Richard Averweg · 2010
There is a concerted effort to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) for beneficial social change in communities. In the emerging discipline of Community Informatics (CI), one of its primary terms of reference, the 'community', has been critically examined by Averweg and Leaning (2009). They contend that the term 'community' has become used in an unspecific and general manner and that this may dilute and divert the attention of practitioners in the field. In making their argument, they provide a critical account of the term 'community'. They argue that the term is almost always used positively and, moreover, has been deployed in differing discursive frameworks and political projects in Western society. While their research has a Western focus, they note that there may be a need also to explore and review interpretations of 'community' in developing countries - such as those in Southern Africa. In this article a proposed questionnaire is developed in English and then translated into isiZulu to explore the term 'community' from a Southern African perspective. The classical African philosophy of Ubuntu is incorporated in the survey instruments of the term 'community'. It is argued that there is a need to explore the term 'community' within the philosophy of Ubuntu in southern Africa, since such exploration and research may yield new insights which will benefit practitioners in the field of CI and may serve to influence the future direction of community development. There is a need to create a Southern Africa society where ICT empowers all individuals to create, access, utilise, share and communicate information, thereby enabling the community around the individual to improve the collective community.