Financial vs. social sustainability of telecentres: mutual exclusion or mutual reinforcement?

Abstract

The debate on development-led telecentre projects revolves around the concept of sustainability. Although it is accepted that telecentre sustainability has both a financial and a social dimension, the relationship between these two sides is sometimes axiomatically defined as one of mutual exclusion. Through the case study of the Akshaya Telecentre Project in Kerala, southern India, we problematize this logic: we individuate a set of mechanisms through which the social dimension of telecentre sustainability feeds the financial one, rather than obstructing it. As such, we propose a new paradigm for telecentre studies, in which social and financial sustainability are interlinked by mutual reinforcement.