Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Reference Hub2
A Concept ‘Vandalised': Seeing and Doing e-Planning in Practice

A Concept ‘Vandalised': Seeing and Doing e-Planning in Practice

Amin Y. Kamete
Copyright: © 2018 |Volume: 7 |Issue: 1 |Pages: 14
ISSN: 2160-9918|EISSN: 2160-9926|EISBN13: 9781522546450|DOI: 10.4018/IJEPR.2018010101
Cite Article Cite Article

MLA

Kamete, Amin Y. "A Concept ‘Vandalised': Seeing and Doing e-Planning in Practice." IJEPR vol.7, no.1 2018: pp.1-14. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEPR.2018010101

APA

Kamete, A. Y. (2018). A Concept ‘Vandalised': Seeing and Doing e-Planning in Practice. International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), 7(1), 1-14. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEPR.2018010101

Chicago

Kamete, Amin Y. "A Concept ‘Vandalised': Seeing and Doing e-Planning in Practice," International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR) 7, no.1: 1-14. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEPR.2018010101

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite Full-Issue Download

Abstract

The article attempts to explain how there can be contestation and uncertainty over something that should be as ‘obvious' as e-planning. It tries to make sense of stakeholders' conflicting interpretations of e-planning in a real-life case. It uses the social shaping of technology perspective as an analytical framework and draws on semiotics and post-structural theories to provide a more nuanced explanation. Drawing on research in ‘Tektown', a Zimbabwean urban centre that had embarked on an e-planning project, the paper confirms the SST argument that contrary to technological determinism, the appropriation of technology does not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant. But it also reveals that there are limitations in the explanatory power of SST when confronted with questions of contestation, uncertainty, and outcome. The paper argues that e-planning is fraught with conflicts and disagreements precisely because it is an empty signifier. It contends that the population of this vacuous concept can be explained in terms of power/knowledge.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.