Tim Unwin
Emeritus Professor of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London
Tim Unwin (born 1955) is a British academic and public figure, specialising in the uses of digital technology by the world’s poorest and most marginalised peoples. Trained as a geographer, he believes in crossing boundaries between disciplines and sectors, as well as in the importance of international understanding between peoples and governments.
He was Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation from 2011-2015, was Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission from 2009-2014, and over the last decade has worked closely with UN agencies, and particularly the ITU, UNESCO and UNICEF. He has written or edited 16 books and more than 250 other publications, with his influential edited book Information and Communication Technologies for Development,being published by CUP in 2009, and his latest single authored book Reclaiming ICT4D being published by OUP in 2017. His research focuses on the inequalities caused by the use of digital technologies, and he has worked especially with people with disabilities, out of school youth, migrants, and women in patriarchal societies, seeking to help them overcome exploitation and the increasing inequalities caused by the design and propagation of digital tech. In recognition of his services to the Commonwealth he was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St George in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2016.
Recent publications include:
- Unwin, T. (2022) On language, gender and digital technologies, in: Fiormonte, D., Ricaurte, P. and Chaudhuri, S. (eds) Global Debates in the Digital Humanities, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 298-304.
- Unwin, T. (2021) “Cyber security” and “development”: Contested futures, Chapter 47 in: Cornish, P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Cyber Security, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 769-784.
- Unwin, T., Naseem, A., Pawluczuk, A., Shareef, M., Spiesberger, P., West, P. and Yoo, C. (2020) Education for the Most Marginalised post-COVID-19: Guidance for Governments on the Use of Digital Technologies in Education, London: UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and EdTech Hub, 200 pp.
- Hassan, B. Unwin, T. and Gardezi, A. (2018) Understanding the darker side of ICTs: gender, harassment and mobile technologies in Pakistan, Information Technologies and International Development, 14, 1-17.
- Unwin, T., Weber, M., Bruga, M. and Hollow, D. (2017) The Future of Learning and Technology in Deprived Contexts, London: Save the Children International, 51 pp.
- Unwin, T. (2017) ICTs, sustainability and development: critical elements, in Sharafat, A. and Lehr, W. (eds) ICT-Centric Economic Growth, Innovation and Job Creation, Geneva: ITU, 37-71.
- Hassan, B. and Unwin, T (2017) Mobile identity construction by male and female students in Pakistan: on, in and through the ‘phone, Information Technologies and International Development, 13, 87-102.
- Unwin, T. (2015) Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in Information and Communication for Development Interventions, in International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, Chichester:Wiley,1-10
- Unwin, T. (2015) ICTs and the dialectics of development, in Cantoni, L. and Danowski, J.A. (eds) Communication and Technology, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 193-214
- Unwin, T. (2013) The Internet and Development: a critical perspective, in Dutton, W. (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 531-54.
- Unwin, T. and Wong, A. (2012) Global Education Initiative: Retrospective on Partnerships for Education Development 2003-2011, Geneva: World Economic Forum
- Unwin, T. (2007) No end to poverty, Journal of Development Studies, 45(3), 929-953.
- Unwin, T. (2005) Towards a framework for the use of ICT in teacher training in Africa, Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Education, 20(2), 113-129 ISSN 0268-0513
ICT4D Collective 