Authors : Bahaman Abu Samah and Mohammad Badsar
Abstract: Empowering the target groups of Medan InfoDesa (MID) telecentres who are local community members, including youth, schools, farmers, disabled people and women requires paying attention to the component of ownership and empowerment for different groups at the same time. The present conceptual lens using Zimmerman Theory of empowerment and Hur empowerment models identified the components of empowerment as interpersonal and interactional which are act as exogenous factors. Further, collective empowerment found to be a mediating factor on the relationships of aforementioned exogenous factors and telecentre ownership as endogenous variable. The theoretical contribution of present study is on designing a conceptual framework that extends the knowledge on the components of empowerment in the context of telecentre ownership as a behavioral component of empowerment as telecentres ownership. Application of present conceptual lens is beneficial to various groups that are directly or indirectly involved in the planning, execution and evaluation of ICT projects as well as enhancing individual empowerment in rural community. Further, recommendations on how to apply the provided framework in the future research have been presented.
Bahaman Abu Samah and Mohammad Badsar, 2013. Factors Influencing Rural Community Empowerment to Achieve Telecentres’ Ownership. The Social Sciences, 8: 461-465.