The Value of Extended Networks: Social Capital in an ICT Intervention in Rural Peru

This interpretive case study discusses the implications of an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention in a remote village located in the northern Peruvian Andes. An integrated sensitizing framework, bringing together human capital, social capital, and institution theories in the presence of ICT, is used for this exploratory research. Using grounded theory method as a vehicle for the analysis of the stories of two villagers, this article describes how the ICT deployment enabled two people to act as key connectors between their village and the outside world. The paper then discusses implications of these individual stories for the actual and potential consequences of ICT interventions in rural areas in developing countries. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.