Freedom of Information and the Developing World: The Citizen, the State and Models of Openness

Colin Darch · Peter G Underwood

Dec 2009 · Elsevier

About this ebook

Rather than simply summarising the state of play in African countries and elsewhere, Freedom of Information and the Developing World identifies and makes explicit the assumptions about the citizen’s relationship to the state that lie beneath Freedom of Information (FoI) discourse. The book goes on to test them against the reality of the pervasive politics of patronage that characterise much of African practice.

• Develops a discourse about the concept of FoI
• Discussion of the human rights claim appropriates the concepts of Hohfeldian analysis for more radical purposes in support of the idea that the state has a duty to implement FoI practices

About the author

Dr Colin Darch is based at the African Studies Library at the University of Cape Town as a researcher, and his current research interests include the role of intellectual property laws in relation to development issues in less developed countries, the functioning of such research quality controls as peer review in the LIS environment, and FoI issues in Africa.

Professor Peter G. Underwood is Director of the University of Cape Town Centre for Information Literacy and Professor of Librarianship at the University of Cape Town, having occupied this position since 1992. Prior to this he spent twenty years as Lecturer in the Department of Information and Library Studies, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is the author of many books and articles.