Jenna Burrell

This months issue of the journal Information Technology and International Development contains an article I coauthored with Kentaro Toyama of Microsoft Research India. It is titled, ‘What Constitutes Good ICTD Research?.’ Find it here.

My article titled “Evaluating Shared Access: social equality and the circulation of mobile phones in rural Uganda” is now officially forthcoming in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Abstract: This article examines forms of shared access to technology where some privileges of ownership are retained. Sharing is defined as informal, non-remunerative resource distributing activities where multiple individuals have a relationship to a single device as purchaser, owner, possessor, operator and/or user. In the specific case of mobile phones in rural Uganda, dynamics of social policing and social obligation were mediated and concretized by these devices. Patterns of sharing mobile phones in rural Uganda led to preferential access for needy groups (such as those in ill health) while systematically and disproportionately excluding others (women in particular). The framework for sharing proposed in this article will be useful for structuring comparisons of technology adoption and access across cultural contexts.

My article titled “The Field Site as a Network: a strategy for locating ethnographic research” is being translated into Vietnamese by the Journal Donation Project which is based at The New School in NYC. This is the first time I’ve heard about this group and I find their mission to be very worthwhile. They aim to “assist in rebuilding major research and teaching libraries in countries that have fallen victim to political or economic deprivation.” For more on this project go to: http://www.newschool.edu/centers/jdp/

I have an article coming out in the fall issue of ITID (Information Technology and International Development) Vol. 5, Issue 3 that I co-authored with Kentaro Toyama at Microsoft Research India.  It is titled ‘What Constitutes Good ICTD Research?’ and represents our attempt to reach across methodological and disciplinary divides in the field of ICTD (Information and Communication Technology and Development).

An article of mine just came out in the journal Field Methods.  It deals with the logistical and epistemological challenges inherent in research that attempts to study phenomena that unfold on vast and unbounded spatial terrain.  This includes work concerned with diasporic groups, cyberspace, in urban settings, etc.  The article is titled The Fieldsite as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research.

My journal article titled “User Agency in the Middle Range: Rumors and the Reinvention of the Internet in Accra, Ghana” is now officially forthcoming in the journal Science Technology, & Human Values.  A draft version is also available here.

Now Available: Mobile Phones: The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa

Edited by Mirjam de Bruijn, Francis Nyamnjoh and Inge Brinkman.
Langaa Publishers / ASC, 2009. Available on amazon.com and ABC Books.

‘We cannot imagine life now without a mobile phone’ is a frequent comment when Africans are asked about mobile phones. They have become part and parcel of the communication landscape in many urban and rural areas of Africa and the growth of mobile telephony is amazing: from 1 in 50 people being users in 2000 to 1 in 3 in 2008. Such growth is impressive but it does not even begin to tell us about the many ways in which mobile phones are being appropriated by Africans and how they are transforming or are being transformed by society in. This volume ventures into such appropriation and mutual shaping. Rich in theoretical innovation and empirical substantiation, it brings together reflections on developments around the mobile phone by scholars of six African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan, and Tanzania) who explore the economic, social and cultural contexts in which the mobile phone is being adopted, adapted and harnessed by mobile Africa

I have a chapter in this book titled - “Could Connectivity Replace Mobility?  An Analysis of Internet Cafe Use Patterns in Accra, Ghana“

I’ve just posted a new working paper titled, “Evaluating Shared Access: social equality and the circulation of mobile phones in rural Uganda“ 

ABSTRACT: This article examines forms of shared access to technology where some privileges of ownership are retained. I propose a framework for evaluating the equality in access concerns that arise from a multitude of sharing configurations. This analytical lens employs a definition of sharing as informal, non-remunerative resource distributing activities where multiple individuals have a relationship to a single device as purchaser, owner, possessor, operator and/or user. In the specific case of mobile phone gifting and sharing in rural Uganda, dynamics of social policing and social obligation were mediated and concretized by these devices. Patterns of sharing mobile phones in rural Uganda yielded preferential access for needy groups (such as those in ill health) while systematically and disproportionately excluding others (women in particular). The framework for sharing proposed in this article will be useful for revising survey design work on technology adoption and access as well as for structuring comparisons across cultural contexts.

Available in pdf format