| Summary: | This thesis focuses on the electronic network and its transformation in relation to women's organizations and their social context. Despite the fact that an expansion of electronic networking among women's organizations has been occurring for the last decade, there is little evidence to indicate how in practice information and communication technologies (ICTs) may be contributing to the advancement of women. The thesis investigates this issue by examining the transformation in a women's electronic network. It asks whether, how and to what extent the use of the computer-mediated communication (CMC) has transformed the goals, activities and members of the electronic network of women's organizations. The study investigates the potential that new ICTs offer to women who would otherwise be excluded from aspects of decision-making and global governance processes. The main focus of the theoretical development is derived from social constructivism. However, in view of the absence of a well-established theoretical framework that embraces ICTs, gender and development, the conceptual framework for this thesis is supplemented by several theoretical constructs. These are theoretical reflections on a technology-context framework as proposed by Houston and Jackson, a communication perspective drawn from collective action theory, and a perspective on gender and technology derived from Wajcman's technofeminism construct. A case study of an electronic network of women's organizations called the Asian Women's Resource Exchange serves as the focus for the empirical research which is principally based on a qualitative interview-based method. The results of the study indicate that the transformation of a women's electronic network is not a straightforward process and does not necessarily generate the expected results. Rather, the transformations that occur are the result of complex interactions between technology and the social context whereby women change their practices and norms by working collectively through the electronic network which, in turn, leads to often unexpected changes in their activities and their membership. Highlighting the electronic network as defined in this thesis as an agent of change yields insight into the dynamic nature of the network and offers a more comprehensive understanding of the reciprocal interactions between actors and their activities that are enabled by CMC.
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