A Multi-method Text Analysis Approach for Studying ICT4D Projects in Developing Countries: A Case of Agricultural Commissioning in India

The current farmer protests in India involve different power groups. Commission agents are essential stakeholder groups in these protests. The critical research approach is suited to situations characterised by power differences. This research studies the implementation of the Indian government’s agricultural marketing information systems project. It uses two methods to analyse the interview data. The interview data were collected from four stakeholder groups: farmers, traders, government officers, and private vendors implementing the information systems project. First, I analyse the data using thematic analysis, followed by an n-gram word cloud analysis. While the thematic analysis does not identify commissioning as a core theme, the n-gram analysis identifies the commission agent as a dominant word in the data corpus. The findings suggest that using two different text analytical methods on the same data corpus enhances knowledge and reveals otherwise hidden aspects.