Dissertation Improvement Award: ICTs and Capabilities in the Kudumbashree Mission of Kerala

这篇论文的改进项目，由科学与社会计划资助，将研究Kudumarree，一个政府赞助的发展倡议，针对妇女在喀拉拉邦，印度的影响。 这项研究与当前最突出的发展观点之一，即阿马蒂亚·森的能力方法特别相关，该方法侧重于商品而不是商品本身产生的自由。 具体而言，本研究报告审查了两类Kudumakiree方案-提供数据输入和硬件组装等服务并在不同程度上依赖政府支助的信息和通信技术企业，以及提供反映当地生产方式的服务并在公开市场上竞争的传统企业，如餐饮和手工艺生产。 核心问题是，这些努力在社会和经济成果以及可持续性方面是否有所不同。 在喀拉拉邦首府特里凡得琅及其周围地区，与库杜姆布里企业团体和个人团体成员以及库杜姆布里高级官员和该组织的社区支持者进行了80次面对面的定性访谈。 对各企业集团的日常活动进行了观察，并对其年度财务报告进行了分析。 本研究报告的学术价值在于，它旨在评估两个经常在理论上讨论但很少在经验上检验的专题：信通技术发展政策和能力增强。 这项研究有助于性别，技术和发展的话语，以及能力的方法的理论理解。 它通过加强我们对发展政策与实践之间关系的理解，包括对在发展中地区的贫穷妇女中培养和维持经济增长方面显示出希望的战略和战术的理解，对发展实践产生更广泛的影响。

This dissertation improvement project, funded by the Science and Society Program, will examine the influence of Kudumbashree, a government sponsored development initiative targeting women in Kerala, India. This research is of particular relevance to one of the most prominent current perspectives on development, Amartya Sen's capability approach, which focuses on the freedoms generated by commodities rather than commodities themselves. Specifically, this study examines two categories of Kudumbashree programs -- information and communication technology (ICT) enterprises that offer services such as data entry and hardware assembly and rely to varying degrees on government support and traditional enterprises that offer services reflective of indigenous modes of production such as catering and craft production and compete on the open market. The central problem is whether these efforts differ in terms of social and economic outcomes and sustainability. Eighty face-to-face qualitative interviews are conducted in and around Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, with Kudumbashree enterprise groups and individual group members as well as top Kudumbashree officials and community supporters of the organization. Observations of daily activities of each enterprise group also are made and their yearly financial reports are analyzed. The intellectual merit of this study lies in its aim to provide an assessment of two topics frequently addressed theoretically but seldom tested empirically: ICT development policy and capability enhancement. This research contributes to gender, technology, and development discourse as well as to the theoretical understanding of the capability approach. It has broader impacts on development practice by enhancing our understanding of the relationship between development policy and practice, including the strategies and tactics that show promise in cultivating and sustaining economic growth among poor women in developing areas.