Planning and Development Research

Abstract Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play a key role in development and poverty reduction. ICTs can help promote economic growth, expand economic and social opportunity, make institutions and markets more efficient and responsive, and make it easier for the poor to obtain access to resources and services. In fact nearly all areas of life in the cities are affected by ICT, for example administrational and political processes, business workflows and short and long distance communication between people. The effects of these developments are often not clear from the beginning. Technical products that were thought to revolutionize communication and processes turned out to be economical flops, in other cases exactly the opposite happened. The same applies to the field of urban development. The question if ICT leads either to a more or less far-reaching transformation or to reinforcement of existing structures is a general question that concerns nearly all ar