Jenna Burrell Assistant Professor my CV: (pdf) (html)

I am an assistant professor in the School of Information at UC Berkeley.

Research Agenda:

• to study the impact of large-scale technology diffusion on individuals, families, and societies in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world.
• to employ a ground-level perspective on such trends by spending time with African technology users to capture a rich, local commentary on technology and development issues.
• to evaluate how socio-cultural dimensions of everyday life shape who has access to these technologies and under what conditions.

Projects:

• 2007-2008, currently underway: research on mobile phones, financial flows, and livelihoods at rural sites in Uganda
• 2008, planned: technology and transnationalism - West Africans in the East Bay
• 2004 to 2005: 8-month ethnographic study of Internet cafe use in Accra, Ghana
• 2007: local production and international circulation of videos by urban, middle class Ghanaian families
• 2005: study of technology use patterns of young women in A, B, and C classes in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• 2004: technology and transnationalism - Ghanaians living in London
• 2003: connecting to the homeland - technology practices of Indian High-Tech Workers in the U.S.

Journal Articles:

Problematic Empowerment: West African Internet Scams as Grassroots Media Production
(Information Technology and International Development (revised version), forthcoming)

*** winner of the 2008 Nicholas C. Mullins Award *** given by the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) for "an outstanding piece of scholarship by a graduate student in the field of Science and Technology Studies."

ABSTRACT: Internet scamming strategies associated with West Africa typically involve the creation and deployment of fictional narratives depicting political turmoil, corruption, violence, poverty, and personal tragedy set in a variety of African nations. This article examines Internet scammers complicity in promoting these creatively dramatic and yet stereotyped representations of Africa and Africans. Their approach is an example of what De Certeau describes as a 'tactic' where scammers manipulate the space of representations produced by hegemonic forces in the West to realize subversive ends. The attempts of Internet scammers highlight the difficulties of creating self-representations that are both 'authentic' and persuasive underlining the complexity inherent in efforts by marginalized communities to be heard by those they perceive as powerful. This remains the case despite new mechanisms of communication, such as the Internet, that make connecting (in a purely functional sense) much easier and less expensive.
(Updated February 2006 - pdf file)

The Fieldsite as a Network: a strategy for locating ethnographic research
(Field Methods, forthcoming)

ABSTRACT: Through the work of constructing a fieldsite, researchers define the objects and subjects of their research. This article explores a variety of strategies devised by researchers to map social research onto spatial terrain. Virtual networked field sites are among the recent approaches that are challenging conventional thinking about field-based research. The benefits and consequences of one particular configuration, the fieldsite as a network, that incorporates physical, virtual, and imagined spaces will be explored in detail through a case study. I will focus in particular on the logistical issues involved and practical steps to constructing such a field site. This article includes suggestions for ways of studying social phenomena that take place on a vast terrain from a stationary position.
(pdf file)

Burrell, J. and K. Anderson (2008). "I have great desires to look beyond my world:" trajectories of information and communication technology use among Ghanaians living abroad. New Media and Society, 10(2):203-224.

ABSTRACT: Using an ethnographic approach we sought to understand how the personal aspirations and social landscapes of Ghanaians living in London shaped their use of a constellation of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as camcorders, digital cameras, the Internet, and mobile phones. Among the individuals we interviewed we discovered two trajectories of ICT use. One trajectory fit with the expected transnational practices of cultural continuity and "looking homeward." This was evident in the way ICTs such as camcorders supplemented or were incorporated into Ghanaian social events held in London. A second trajectory was evident when Ghanaians enrolled the Internet in attempts to realize migratory aspirations, using it to explore the world, broadly searching for opportunities, information, contacts, and new ideas. The use of the Internet for these exploratory activities revealed how ICTs are relevant to the migration experience beyond attempts to maintain a connection with the homeland.
(Available at Sage Online)

Working Papers:

Telling Stories of Internet Fraud

ABSTRACT: the study of accounts as they relate to the activities accounted for is an established area of interest in social theory. This article is an analysis of rumors about Internet scamming told by Internet cafe users in the West African capital city of Accra, Ghana. Rumors served as accounts of how the Internet can be effectively operated by young Ghanaians to realize 'big gains' through foreign connections. Yet these accounts were contradicted by the less promising direct experiences users had at the computer interface. By considering how these contradictions are maintained, this analysis contributes to models of technology diffusion and adoption as they apply to a developing world context. Rumors amplified evidence of wildly successful as well as especially harmful encounters with the Internet. Rather than simply transferring information, through the telling of rumors Internet users reclaimed a social stability that was disrupted by the presence of the Internet. These stories cast young Ghanaian Internet users as both good and effective in relation to the Internet.
(pdf file)

Technology and Transnationalism: on the Ambivalence of Belonging

ABSTRACT: Recent research on transnationalism has begun to question communalist visions of transnational belonging and solidarity arguing that the orientations of migrants are more complex and ambivalent than previously depicted. In light of this theoretical shift, the relevance of communication technologies to the migration experience must be reconceived. Drawing from ethnographic research on Ghanaians living in London, this article argues that communication technologies were often employed by transnationals not simply to connect to the homeland, but more broadly to realize new, often idiosyncratic configurations of social terrain. Underlying these efforts were diverse and conflicting logics of status attainment, risk management, social support, and personal realization demonstrating the heterogeneity of orientations to home and host countries within the group defined by Ghanaian nationality. Through these configurations many transnationals sought not only to maintain ties to the homeland, but to expand their social networks in order to traverse greater social and geographic distances.
(pdf file)

Recent Conference Papers

upcoming, Persuading a Foreign Audience: Internet Scamming Strategies in Ghana and the West Africa Region
Conference on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance, Sep. 2008


invited panel participant, Subversive Youth and Self-Determination at Internet Cafes in Accra, Ghana, Panel: Sex in the Media and the Market in Accra, Ghana
African Studies Association Annual Meeting 2007


invited panel participant, "New Social Spaces, Mobility and Technology in Africa"
European Conference on African Studies 2007


invited panel participant, "Technology in Transnational Social Worlds"
American Anthropological Association annual conference 2006

Designing for "Success" in the Developing World - workshop proposal for the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry (EPIC) conference 2006


Telling Stories of Internet Fraud: how word-of-mouth shapes Internet use in Accra, Ghana - presented at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference 2005
(October 2005 - doc file)

Recent Talks

upcoming, May 2008, "West African Internet Scams as Grassroots Media Production," African Studies Center Seminar, UC Berkeley.

October 2007, "Emerging Technology Cultures in the Developing World," Berkeley Institute of Design (BiD) weekly lunch seminar.

March 2007, "Cultures of ICT4D: how Internet cafe users in Accra, Ghana define the link between technology and development" UC Berkeley, School of Information.

November 2006, "Mental Models, Migration, and Microsoft: how Internet cafe users in Accra, Ghana define the link between technology and development," presented at Intel Research Berkeley.

November 2006, "Technology Access Outside of Development Initiatives: the case of Internet cafes in Accra, Ghana," presented at University of Washington, undergraduate course - Basic Concepts in New Media, Department of Communications

Summer 2006, "Technology Access Outside of Development Initiatives: the case of Internet cafes in Accra, Ghana," presented at London School of Economics, Masters Level Course, IS475: Information Technology and Development

Spring 2006, "Telling Stories of Internet Fraud: how youth in Accra, Ghana appropriate the Internet through performance and speech," presented at London School of Economics, Africa Seminar Series

Winter 2006, "Internet fraud and problems of connectivity and power in marginalized societies," presented at Workshop on 'Researching Ghanaian Networks', 10-11 February, 2006, hosted by the London School of Economics Anthropology department

Other Projects:I developed the Ethnobase website under the guidance of my advisor Don Slater who conceived of and initiated the project. I did the website design and programming and developed the bibliography and list of researchers and resources for the site. Ethnobase is web resource for ethnographic approaches to studying Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The site is based at the London School of Economics, Department of Sociology, and aims to network the growing ranks of ICT ethnographers, increasing communication and awareness of our work.

Older Work and HCI Research:

Formerly, I worked at Intel in the People and Practices Research Group as an application concept developer. This job was a combination of technical work and ethnographic research. My co-workers were (and still are) doing some fascinating studies of patterns of technology adoption in the domestic spaces of Asian nations, and alternative forms of technology access in places like Canar, Ecuador and Santiago, Chile to extend PC and Internet access beyond the 10% of the world that currently has it.

I personally did research that was a little closer to home. I observed the work practices of factory technicians in Intel's microprocessor plants, studied general contractors on construction sites, and agricultural production work on Oregon vineyards all with an eye on developing new computing technologies for mobile, collaborative workers. I also did a study of Indian high-tech workers and their use of ICTs at home to maintain connections with family, friends, and cultural practices while abroad.

Papers Published While at Intel

Journal Articles
J. Burrell, T. Brooke, and R. Beckwith. Vineyard Computing: sensor networks in agricultural production. IEEE Pervasive Computing 3(1): 38-45.
(pdf)

Conference Papers
J. Sherry, S. Mainwaring, J. Burrell, R. Beckwith, and T. Salvador. 'This all together hon?' Ubicomp in non-office work environments. Proceedings of the Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Nottingham, UK. 2004.

J. Burrell, G.K. Gay, K. Kubo, and N. Farina. Context-Aware Computing: a test case. Presented at the Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Gothenburg, Sweden. 2002.
(pdf)

Short Papers
J. Burrell, T. Brooke, and R. Beckwith. Extending Ubiquitous Computing to Vineyards. Presented at the Computer-Human Interaction Conference. April, 2003.

Previous Education: I majored in computer science at Cornell University where I attended from 1997-2001. While there I did research on context-aware computing with the HCI group. Most of the publications listed below are the result of that research.

Papers Published While at Cornell

Journal Articles
J. Burrell and G.K. Gay. E-graffiti: evaluating real-world use of a context-aware system. Interacting with Computers (Special Issue on Universal Usability) 14(4), July, 2002. pp. 301-312.
(pdf)

Conference Papers
J. Burrell, P. Treadwell, and G.K. Gay. Designing for Context: Usability in a Ubiquitous Environment. Presented at the Conference on Universal Usability. Arlington, VA. 2000.

Short Papers
J. Burrell and G.K. Gay. Collectively Defining Context in a Mobile, Networked Computing Environment. Short Paper. Presented at the Computer-Human Interaction Conference. May, 2001.
(conference slides - PowerPoint)

Patents

• K. Kubo, N. Farina, and J. Burrell. (patent pending) "System for Connecting Users with Location Specific Information From Official and Unofficial Sources."

Press Coverage

New York Times, 14 August 2003, "Among the Ivy, a Campus Tour Guide that Beeps." By Jim Carrier

Cornell Chronicle, 16 May 2002, "Students transform PDAs into Electronic Visitor Tour Guides" By Bill Steele

Other Stuff: My del.icio.us bookmarks and my Flickr photos