Competing institutional logics and sustainable development: the case of geographic information systems in Brazil's Amazon region

This paper examines the possibilities that information and communication technology (ICT) provides for the achievement of environmental sustainable development – one of the key millennium development goals (MDGs). We base our paper on primary and secondary empirical data pertaining to the history of the governance of the Brazilian Amazon and the role of geographic information systems (GISs) in the region. Specifically, we argue that in order for the MDG to be achieved what is required is a thorough understanding of the differing institutional logics that have surrounded the past and current use of GIS in the Amazon region. We will argue that due to conflicting institutional logics the changes that have taken place in relation to the MDG of sustainability should be understood as being both emergent and contested. We will claim that the design and use of ICTs reflects the ways in which these conflicting logics are worked out at any moment in time. We conclude that in order for ICT to contribute to the MDGs, it is important to attend to the historical and contested institutional context and the potential for ICTs to be enacted in unanticipated ways.