Paper short abstract:

This study explores how digital technologies reshape informal rural markets in Africa. Drawing on institutional theory, we show how a digital tractor-sharing app disrupts existing practices in Ghana, undermining established informal arrangements. We discuss the unintended consequences of ICT4Agr.

Paper long abstract:

How do digital technologies impact informal economies in rural African settings? This in-depth, mixed-method study from Ghana’s Volta region explores how smallholder farmers access tractors through commoning—a social practice of shared resource governance that builds on relational ethics, indirect reciprocity, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Drawing on institutional theory, we show how commoning changes the nature and taxonomy of social goods (here: tractor services), challenging the defining features of goods in classical economics: rivalry and excludability.

We build on this analysis by examining how a digital tractor-sharing app disrupts these informal markets and the social institutions that underpin them. While the app promises efficiency through algorithmic matching and geo-location, it individualizes farming practices and undermines the collective dynamics of commoning. A digitally optimized, remotely tracked tractor becomes a private good—excludable, rivalrous, and accountable only to the highest bidder within its range. This disruption highlights how digital technology can undermine existing practices in informal economies, eroding their ability to foster equitable resource sharing.

Our findings contribute to debates on the ‘ICT revolution’ in African agriculture, demonstrating the unintended consequences of technological change. From a policy perspective, we emphasize the need for institutional diversity and adaptability to sustain equitable and sustainable resource management.