Understanding women’s mobile phone use in rural Kenya: An affordance-based approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wyche ◽  
Nightingale Simiyu ◽  
Martha E. Othieno

Increases in mobile phone ownership and Internet access throughout Africa continue to motivate initiatives to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)—in particular, mobile phones—to address long-standing socioeconomic problems in the “developing world.” While it is generally recognized that mobile phones may help to address these problems by providing pertinent information, less widely known is exactly how (and if) a handset’s human–computer interface—that is, its software and hardware design—supports this form of communication. The concept of “affordances” has long been used to answer such questions. In this paper, we use Hartson’s definition of affordances to qualitatively investigate rural Kenyan women’s interactions with their mobile phones. Our detailed analysis provides empirically grounded answers to questions about the cognitive, physical, and sensory affordances of handsets used in our field sites and how they support and/or constrain mobile communication. We then discuss the implications of our findings: in particular, how this affordance-based approach draws attention to mobile phones’ design features and to the context in which they and their users are embedded—a focus which suggests new design and research opportunities in mobile communication.

Author(s):  
Stephen Lwasa ◽  
Narathius Asingwire ◽  
Julius Juma Okello ◽  
Joseph Kiwanuka

As the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is embraced in Uganda, determinants of awareness of ICT based projects remain unknown. The intensity of use of mobile phones among smallholder farmers in the areas where such projects operate is unclear. To address this knowledge gap, 346 smallholder farmers in two ICT project sites in Mayuge and Apac districts were subjected to econometric analysis using bi-variate logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regression models to ascertain determinants of projects’ awareness and intensity of use of mobile phones. The authors find that education, distance to input markets, and membership in a group positively influence awareness. The decision to use a mobile phone for agricultural purposes is affected by distance to electricity and land cultivated and negatively influenced by being a member of any farmer group. Lastly, intensity of mobile phone use is affected by age, farming as the major occupation, and distance to an internet facility, being a member of a project, having participated in an agricultural project before, value of assets, size of land cultivated, possession of a mobile phone, and proximity to agricultural offices. The paper discusses policy implications of these findings.


Author(s):  
Stephen Lwasa ◽  
Narathius Asingwire ◽  
Julius Juma Okello ◽  
Joseph Kiwanuka

As the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is embraced in Uganda, determinants of awareness of ICT based projects remain unknown. The intensity of use of mobile phones among smallholder farmers in the areas where such projects operate is unclear. To address this knowledge gap, 346 smallholder farmers in two ICT project sites in Mayuge and Apac districts were subjected to econometric analysis using bi-variate logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regression models to ascertain determinants of projects’ awareness and intensity of use of mobile phones. The authors find that education, distance to input markets, and membership in a group positively influence awareness. The decision to use a mobile phone for agricultural purposes is affected by distance to electricity and land cultivated and negatively influenced by being a member of any farmer group. Lastly, intensity of mobile phone use is affected by age, farming as the major occupation, and distance to an internet facility, being a member of a project, having participated in an agricultural project before, value of assets, size of land cultivated, possession of a mobile phone, and proximity to agricultural offices. The paper discusses policy implications of these findings.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew David Smith ◽  
Jo Hanisch

This paper presents findings from an investigation of the poverty-reduction impacts of mobile phone use by subsistence farmers in the Kaleo Traditional Area (KTA) in rural north Ghana. The mobile phone can benefit poor people engaged in commercial activities in developing countries, yet it remains unknown whether the mobile phone affords poverty-reduction impacts on livelihoods where commercial activity is secondary to self sustenance. Our findings suggest that comparative advantages exist for phone-owning farmers in the KTA. However, phoneless farmers who ‘free-ride’ on their phone-owning neighbours also accrue gains. Hence, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can benefit not only phone-owners with poverty-reduction impacts, but encouragingly (albeit, more subtly), phoneless farmers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Tai-Quan Peng ◽  
Jonathan J H Zhu

Abstract Mobile phone use is an unfolding process by nature. In this study, it is explicated as two sequential processes: mobile sessions composed of an uninterrupted set of behaviors and mobile trajectories composed of mobile sessions and mobile-off time. A data set of a five-month behavioral logfile of mobile application use by approximately 2,500 users in Hong Kong is used. Mobile sessions are constructed and mined to uncover sequential characteristics and patterns in mobile phone use. Mobile trajectories are analyzed to examine intraindividual change and interindividual differences on mobile re-engagement as indicators of behavioral dynamics in mobile phone use. The study provides empirical support for and expands the boundaries of existing theories about combinatorial use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Finally, the understanding on mobile temporality is enhanced, that is, mobile temporality is homogeneous across social sectors. Furthermore, mobile phones redefine, rather than blur, the boundary between private and public time.


Author(s):  
Jun Liu

Over the past decades, waves of political contention involving the use of information and communication technologies have swept across the globe. The phenomenon stimulates the scholarship on digital communication technologies and contentious collective action to thrive as an exciting, relevant, but highly fragmentary and contested field with disciplinary boundaries. To advance the interdisciplinary understanding, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age outlines a communication-centered framework that articulates the intricate relationship between technology, communication, and contention. It further prods us to engage more critically with existing theories from communication, sociology, and political science on digital technologies and political movements. Given the theoretical endeavor, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age systematically explores, for the first time, the influence of mobile technology on political contention in China, the country with the world’s largest number of mobile and Internet users. Using first-hand in-depth interview and fieldwork data, it tracks the strategic choice of mobile phones as repertoires of contention, illustrates the effective mobilization of mobile communication on the basis of its strong and reciprocal social ties, and identifies the communicative practice of forwarding officially alleged “rumors” as a form of everyday resistance. Through this ground-breaking study, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age presents a nuanced portrayal of an emerging dynamics of contention—both its strengths and limitations—through the embedding of mobile communication into Chinese society and politics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 01144
Author(s):  
Liudmila Reshetnikova

The article is devoted to e-diplomacy (also known as digital diplomacy) which is a component of public diplomacy. Digital diplomacy is a one of the new tools of foreign policy that is aimed to solve the problems of international and interethnic relations. The article examines the concept and definition of digital diplomacy that concentrates on the use of social networks and digital media in the field of foreign policy. Some risks and threats of e-diplomacy are also considered. The use of opportunities of information and communication technologies for solving the problems of foreign policy and influence on mass consciousness by means of the Internet, social networks is analyzed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Matveeva ◽  
M. Cherkasova

The changes taking place in the modern Russian labor market with regard to the organization of labor of employees, the content of freelancing have been considered. The socio-economic essence of freelancing has been revealed. A сharacteristic of self-employed, including the number, their social affiliation and economic activities has been given. The prerequisites, that caused the development of freelancing in Russia, have been determined. Based on the data of a number of studies, the positive aspects of freelance have been analyzed and problems in its development have been named. The main attention has been paid to the definition of the prospects of freelance development in modern Russia in the conditions of wide application of information and communication technologies.


Author(s):  
A. Hafiiak ◽  
O. Shefer ◽  
E. Borodina ◽  
S. Alyoshin

The article explores modern information and telecommunication technologies, which are the basis of information processes in education. The fundamentals of improving the quality of student training from the point of view of the development of a vocational education system are investigated. The authors explore the definition of an innovative educational environment. It is proved that professional IT education is the basis for improving its quality level and has certain advantages over other types of knowledge, providing flexibility due to modern technological features, including the use of QR coding information.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Stambulska

The article analyzed the peculiarities of the interpretation of the «communication culture» in the context of scientific researches of the past and contemporary domestic researchers. An analysis was carried out to define the concept of «communication culture of a person», the approaches to the definition of this concept are singled out. The positions of scientists concerning the role of eloquence in the formation of the linguistic personality are analyzed, the language is analyzed as a «social and psychological phenomenon», historical conditions of the formation of the concept of «communication culture» are characterized, in particular, attention is focused on the formation of the linguistic personality. It was found out that studies of the ancient traditions of the formation of the language of culture make it possible to better understand modern trends in the development of the person's communication culture. Modern studies have shown that in linguistics for a long time there was no unity in the interpretation of the concepts of «language» and «communication». Problems of the formation of the culture of broadcasting have become the object of research by eminent thinkers, beginning with the period of Antiquity. The question of the formation of a culture of speech has long traditions. Note that in European linguistics, the first decades of the twentieth century. Theoretical study and approval of the concept of «culture of language» in the scientific circulation is underway. It should be noted that in connection with the introduction of information and communication technologies in all spheres of society life has increased interest in the theory and practice of eloquence. This is explained by the fact that the active use of information and communication technologies involves the search for ways of speaking influence, both on the interpersonal and on the public level. According to authoritative experts in rhetoric, L. Matsko, O. Matsko, N. Mykhailychenko, V. Poltupets, etc., there are also communicative reasons that ensure the actual and further development of the theory and practice of oratory in the XX-beginning of the XXI century.


Author(s):  
Brasilina Passarelli ◽  
Alan César Belo Angeluci

The contemporary hybridism has led new generations to a connected-based society in which relations among individuals are even more mediated by the arising Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Some aspects of these mediations need to be deeply understood since new and different usages, habits, and practices with media are being observed among those born since the nineties – the digital natives. Aiming to investigate this context, a study was carried out to better understand how children and teenagers interact with four screens: computers, TV, games, and mobile phones. From a quantitative methodological approach, data was collected using a survey applied in Brazilian schools. A theoretical framework on digital literacy concepts was used as base for two-layer of data analysis on these four media, and the results were organized in five topics that show the main outcomes. They can be the basis of further educational policies grounded in real diagnosis.


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