Arul Chib

• Professor
• Professor of Technology and Development at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Transnational mothers working in foreign countries face the challenges of providing ?intensive? mothering to their children from a distance, and risk being subject to the ?deviancy? discourse of mothering. This paper investigates the role of mobile phone usage, via voice, text messages, and social networking sites, in dealing with the tensions and...

Mobile phones were introduced to rural midwives in tsunami-affected Indonesia, allowing them to contact medical experts and communicate with patients. Ninety-two interviews were conducted with midwives, coordinators, doctors, and village representatives. This study applies a dialectical perspective to supplement the analytical frame of the ICT for...

Information and communication technologies have long promised to provide quality education, improve health care, allow open government, and solve environmental issues. To realize this potential and influence policy-making and program design, the Singapore Internet Research Centre, supported by IDRC, created an innovative research capacity-building...

The unabated influx of transnational labour migrants has been accompanied by complex societal fissures, from differential policies to the creation of isolated cultural geographies. In Singapore, citizens voice their aggravation caused by transients’ lack of acculturation, and the resultant risks posed to the cosmopolitan vision of the state. We exa...

Global migrations are often associated with, indeed motivated by, upward social mobility. However, the new mobilities paradigm emphasizes structural inequalities of migration mobilities that allow movement for some and stasis for others. This paper studies the realities of marginalized marriage migrants engaged in the simultaneities of mobilities a...

Introduction The discourse on immigration and immigrants is central to contemporary political and public discussions. Analyzing online conversations about immigrants provides valuable insights into public opinion, complemented by data from questionnaires on how attitudes are formed. Methods The research includes two studies examining the expressiv...

The application of wearable technology for health purposes is a multidisciplinary research topic. To summarize key contributions and simultaneously identify outstanding gaps in research, the input-mechanism-output (I-M-O) framework was applied to synthesize findings from 275 relevant papers in the period 2010–2021. Eighteen distinct cross-disciplin...

Mobile scholarship has highlighted the embeddedness of mobile media practices within power hierarchies and sociostructural conditions. We enrich the critical approach by examining how trust, as a future-oriented disposition that deals with uncertainty and social vulnerability, conditions mobile practices and vice versa. We interviewed 29 Syrian ref...

This study examines factors related to the adoption of mobile phones by healthcare workers in Indonesia. A total of 122 rural midwives participated in the study where each was given a mobile phone for health information sharing and communications. Their adoption was compared with a control group of 101 midwives in the same region. The results show...

Mobile health (mHealth, m-health) technologies are poised to transform healthcare service delivery and self-care in low-resource environments of developing countries. Originally conceived of as a range of mobile, sensor, and wireless technologies for healthcare delivery, these technologies improved information exchange and communication services in...

An emerging narrative on social media challenges the premise that the repertoire against immigrants is caused by xenophobia. We identify and propose the phenomenon of co-opted marginality, or the claims of being victimized by dominant groups that are not conventionally at the margin. We examine how a controlled media environment in Singapore influe...

The number of falls among older adults is rising due to an ageing population worldwide. An integrated communication campaign utilizing mHealth (mobile health) encouraged older adults to perform strength, balance, and flexibility exercises to reduce their risk of falling. Campaign development was guided by a mixed-method approach which incorporated...

A common view is that marginalized groups benefit substantially from strategic use of digital technologies. An intersectionality perspective, however, suggests that these outcomes may vary depending on individuals’ social positionality. We propose the concept of “subverted agency” to emphasize that use of digital technologies may be personally empo...

This article studies the stereotypes of co-ethnic versus other-ethnic foreign immigrant groups based on the stereotype content model. An online survey (N = 424) was conducted to examine Singaporean citizens' perceptions of two prominent migrant groups (co-ethnic Chinese nationals and other-ethnic Caucasians) and the influence of social media on ste...

The literature on mobile media and marginalized groups has focused on the use of mobile media as an agentic, visible, and varied process related to individual empowerment. Conversely, non-use is often presupposed to be a passive, invisible condition imposed by sociostructural forces. Our paper challenges this binary, positing that mobile media (non...

The smart city rhetoric stresses both citizens’ well-being and urban efficiency; however, critical perspectives suggest a worsening of existing societal inequalities for less-productive citizens, posing implications for how urban planners should incorporate smart technology. We examine the perceptions of elderly residents regarding Singapore’s Smar...

Social media has a role to play in shaping the dynamic relations between immigrants and citizens. This study examines the effects of threat perceptions, consumptive and expressive use of social media, and political trust on attitudes against immigrants in Singapore. Study 1, based on a survey analysis (N = 310), suggests that symbolic but not reali...

This study examines the relationship between social media use, disease risk perception, social and political trust, and out-group stereotyping and prejudice during a social upheaval. Analyses of primary data collected during the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore found that disease risk perception is positively related to stereotyping and prejudice aga...

Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these innovations empower poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public shar...

Cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and analyses examine how open innovations in international development can empower poor and marginalized populations. Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these...

Cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and analyses examine how open innovations in international development can empower poor and marginalized populations. Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these...

Purpose – This paper presents a framework to measure the digital divide by considering amore comprehensive index of ICT predictors. We also address the conceptual and methodological problems in the digital divide field, given that its focus has shifted from technological access to higher order divides over the years. The proposed framework is hypot...

Transcending the #MeToo movement, our study gives voice to socially marginalized women from the Global South. We investigate the largely invisible digitally-mediated negotiation of sexual harassment experiences by rural-urban migrant Chinese women (n=41) in their workplaces. An intersectionality lens reveals nuances in comparing the impact of mobil...

Fluid performances of gender online by gender-diverse individuals facing discrimination and fetishization raises questions about whether these acts are a source of empowerment or reinforce prevailing prejudice. We combine virtual ethnography and interviews with transwomen sex workers in Singapore (n=14) to explore the dynamic between sociostructura...

Social media provide a platform for groups that are not conventionally ostracized to claim marginality. This study proposes a working definition for the phenomenon of "co-opted marginality" within the context of communication on social media. The phenomenon is examined in the Singaporean context; 17 Singaporean citizens were interviewed about their...

This review evaluated transdisciplinary empirical research on wearable health technologies and addressed the major concern relating to their invasiveness using the input-mechanism-output model. The dataset consisted of 250 published papers derived from two databases that investigated wearables for health-related purposes. Papers focused on technolo...

Background: Recent studies increasingly examine social support for diabetes self-management delivered via mHealth. In contrast to previous studies examining social support as an outcome of technology use, or technology as a means for delivering social support, this paper argues that social support has an impact on the use of diabetes mHealth apps....

Background Previous research has investigated the impact of social support on diabetes self- management and health outcomes (Rosland et al., 2008; Strom & Egede, 2012). Studies show that both the support by healthcare professionals (Patel et al., 2018; van Dam et al., 2003) and by the private social patient network (e.g., relatives/friends) (Armour...

The authors coin the term mGender to refer to the strand of mobile communication research concerning the role of mobile phone use in gender construction processes. From a gender lens, they map out the landscape of extant scholarship, categorizing its historical progression into four phases. In general, the research focus has evolved from mobile pho...

Background The impact of social support on diabetes management and health outcomes has been investigated comprehensively, with recent studies examining social support delivered via digital technologies. This paper argues that social support has an impact on the use of diabetes technologies. Specifically, we postulate differences between the impact...

Background The impact of social support on diabetes management and health outcomes has been investigated comprehensively, with recent studies examining social support delivered via digital technologies. This paper argues that social support has an impact on the use of diabetes technologies. Specifically, we postulate differences between the impact...

Background Recent studies increasingly examine social support for diabetes self-management delivered via mHealth. In contrast to previous studies examining social support as an outcome of technology use, or technology as a means for delivering social support, this paper argues that social support has an impact on the use of diabetes mHealth apps. S...

Over the past two decades, increasing attention has been drawn to gender impacts arising from adoption and usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the mobile phone especially, by marginalized women in the Global South. Grounded in the theory of structuration, our study challenges techno-determinism and structural functionalism e...

This chapter introduces an empowerment approach for understanding mHealth usage behaviors in the context of chronic disease self-management, with a focus on diabetes. Empowerment, a multidimensional approach including both psychological and social support dimensions, has been proven a fundamental motivational antecedent of self-management. This app...

How do Smart Device Apps for Diabetes Self-Management correspond with Theoretical Indicators of Empowerment? An Analysis of App Features—CORRIGENDUM - Volume 35 Issue 3 - Nicola Brew-Sam, Arul Chib

Current discourse in the digital divide field have focused on the roles which technology access and usage play in achieving economic well-being in the developing countries. The phenomenon of rising global inequality has given rise to a sub-class of citizens in the developed economies, classified as the working poor, for whom the impact of digital i...

Objectives Smart device apps for diabetes have the potential to support patients in their daily disease management. However, uncertainty exists regarding their suitability for empowering patients to improve self-management behaviors. This paper addresses a general research gap regarding theoretically based examinations of empowerment in diabetes re...

Background: To achieve clarity on mobile health's (mHealth's) potential in the diabetes context, it is necessary to understand potential users' needs and expectations, as well as the factors determining their mHealth use. Recently, a few studies have examined the user perspective in the mHealth context, but their explanatory value is constrained b...

El rol de los medios digitales y el aprendizaje a menudo ha sido sinónimo del uso de recursos educativos abiertos en entornos institucionales formales. Además, el aprendizaje abierto y a distancia (ODL) ha sido criticado por centrarse estrictamente en los objetivos educativos, ignorando las cuestiones sociopolíticas de acceso y de participación de...

Resumen El rol de los medios digitales y el aprendizaje a menudo ha sido sinónimo del uso de recursos educativos abiertos en entornos institucionales formales. Además, el aprendizaje abierto y a distancia (ODL) ha sido criticado por centrarse estrictamente en los objetivos educativos, ignorando las cuestiones sociopolíticas de acceso y de participa...

Based on intergroup contact theory, we conducted a social media campaign to improve the relationship between Chinese sojourners and Singaporeans. We found that perceived discrimination fully mediated the effects of face-to-face contact as well as imagined contact on intergroup prejudice. An investigation of joint effects showed that, for the campai...

There are now few hundred thousand healthcare apps, yet there is a gap in our understanding of the theoretical mechanisms for which, and how, technological features translate into improved healthcare outcomes. In particular, the technological convergence, within mobile health (mHealth) apps, of the processes of mass and interpersonal communication,...

This research presents an ecological view to understand how disparities in mobile technology use reflect existing vulnerabilities in communities for disaster preparedness. Data (n=1603) were collected through a multi-country survey conducted in rural and urban areas equally in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar, where mobile technolog...

Openness has become an important, all‐encompassing term denoting activities facilitated by sharing, using, producing, and redistributing information and communication resources within digital information systems. We compare theoretical advancements that emphasize processes and characteristics of openness with the limitations of extant approaches th...

This study was motivated to investigate social inequality in developed nations, by studying the impact of ICTs upon the vulnerable unemployed and under-employed in Singapore. First, drawing upon the capability approach (Sen, 1999), we operationalize the dependent variable as self-perceived employability, conceptualized as both a measure of well-bei...

This study focuses on the role of mobile communication in the migratory experiences of North Korean women as they journeyed to South Korea. We examine how mobile telephony plays into their transition from perhaps the world’s most digitally-disconnected country to one of the most digitally-oriented societies. Based on the interviews with 20 North Ko...

Openness has become an important, all-encompassing term denoting activities facilitated by sharing, using, producing and redistributing information and communication resources within digital information systems. We compare theoretical advancements, which emphasize processes and characteristics of openness, with the limitations of extant approaches...

This study employs a structuration view to examine how the use of mobile phones by healthcare staff affected, changed, or modified the existing patient referral system in rural Thailand. Findings from the interviews (n = 31) indicate that healthcare staff used their personal mobile phones for patient referral because they could quickly reach specif...

Open educational resources (OER) have traditionally examined the use of digital technologies such as computers in institutional environments such as formal classrooms, finding evidence of student participation but also significant pedagogical barriers. This study broadens the examination by (a) including access to OER via mobile phones, and (b) und...

BACKGROUND To achieve clarity on mobile health’s (mHealth’s) potential in the diabetes context, it is necessary to understand potential users’ needs and expectations, as well as the factors determining their mHealth use. Recently, a few studies have examined the user perspective in the mHealth context, but their explanatory value is constrained bec...

This study focuses on the role of mobile communication in the migratory experiences of North Korean women as they journeyed to South Korea. We examine how mobile telephony played into their transition from perhaps the world’s most digitally disconnected country to one of the most digitally oriented societies. Based on interviews with 20 North Korea...

This study analyzes the migratory experiences of North Korean women who crossed the Sino-Korean border and found their way into South Korea. Transposed from the world's most digitally-disconnected societies to one of the most digitally-oriented societies, these North Korean migrants make an interesting case for scholars in the field of ICTs for Dev...

The role of mobile phones in healthcare improvement in Asia, particularly in resource-constrained contexts, is a significant topic, and there has long been a need for quality research to develop the field regionally. In this pursuit, this volume is a timely contribution, focusing our shared interests on the importance of sociocultural influences on...

In this article, we examine the outcomes of employability given the current social inequalities for workers in a developed Asian economy, Singapore, situating the discussion within the digital divide paradigm. A hierarchical technology model for assessing employability outcomes through the access, usage and appropriation of ICTs is proposed. We val...

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative has been at the forefront of introducing low-cost computers in developing countries. We argue that the problem is not as much as a focus on the provision of affordable technologies, but the lack of consideration of deeply contextualized implementation design and the lack of understanding of psychological m...

The capability approach has been criticized as individualistic, being reframed in alignment with dominant social structures. We situate individual agency within the frame of power structures, examining empowerment gained from mobile phone use by Vietnamese foreign brides [n 33] in Singapore. Applying an intersectionality perspective suggested that,...

Globalisation and technological advances have affected workers' livelihoods. This study analysed how capital investment in ICTs at the workplace affected marginalised low wage workers in a large sample of firms (n=632) in Singapore. We found that social investment by the state for ICTs investments in workplaces led to a significant negative, albeit...

The Capability Approach, as developed by Amartya Sen, has been criticized for an overly individualistic approach, while simultaneously being re-framed in alignment with the dominant social structure. We situate individual agency within the frame of social power structures, examining agency and empowerment gained by mobile phone usage from 26 Vietna...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the field of open development in lower and middle income countries (LMIC) through a review of the literature. We examined 269 articles between 2010 and 2015, that were retrieved through keyword searches of the Scopus database and four ICT4D journals. This article adopts the pathway of effects model to analyze...

The study takes an indirect approach towards the intercultural experience of migrants and explores how they perceive discrimination from host society and in turn stereotype it. Previous studies have highlighted how interculturality facilitates the adaptation of migrants in the host country. This study explores (i) how face-to-face (FTF) and mediate...

The study takes an indirect approach towards the intercultural experience of migrants and explores how they perceive discrimination from host society and in turn stereotype it. Previous studies have highlighted how interculturality facilitates the adaptation of migrants in the host country. This study explores (i) how face-to-face (FTF) and mediate...

Based on the imagined contact theory, we designed and conducted a social media campaign to improve the relationship between PR China (PRC) sojourners and the host nationals, Singaporeans. In the end, we examined how the interactions with our campaign account on the social networking site affect PRC sojourners’ perceived discrimination and finally t...

This research explores how the mobile phone appropriation patterns of an Indian migrant group in Singapore are linked to acculturation strategies. The circular model of mobile phone appropriation was adopted to investigate aspects of usage and handling, prestige and social identity, and metacommunication. Following a pluralistic-typological approac...

After more than two decades of research on technological interventions in the transition to information societies, the burgeoning of mobile phones in developing countries has shifted the information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research lens to the different domains of mDevelopment. While advances have been made in domains...

The age of globalisation has been defined in terms of access to modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) by some scholars (Hutton and Giddens 2001; Castells 2000; Rantanen 2001). Scholarly debate about the role of ICTs as an agent of social organisation and transformation has raged on before and since, from discussions about the net...

Scholars have argued that information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer many benefits for educational systems. These include innovative instruction, enhanced access to educational materials that allows for the reformulation of teaching through more flexible and interactive methods and facilitation of communication between stakeholders. IC...

The study takes an indirect approach towards the intercultural experience of migrants and explores how they perceive discrimination from host society and in turn stereotype it. Previous studies have highlighted how interculturality facilitates the adaptation of migrants in the host country. This study explores (i) how face-to-face (FTF) and mediate...

The second volume in the SIRCA book series investigates the impact of information society initiatives by extending the boundaries of academic research into the realm of practice. Global in scope, it includes contributions and research projects from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The international scholarly community has taken a variety of approach...

This project is conducted in response to Global Disaster Preparedness Center’s (GDPC) initiative of developing flood hazard preparedness mobile apps in the four target countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam). In particular, this project aims to accomplish the following objectives: 1. Establish effective ways of using mobile tec...

This paper investigates Internet studies in two leading developing countries (i.e. China and India) and finds that the Chinese scholarly community relies on the discourse of liberation from the state as a form of critique, whereas Indian Internet studies question the discourse of modernization to contemplate about the success and failure factors of...

The acknowledged potential of using mobile phones for improving healthcare in low-resource environments of developing countries has yet to translate into significant mHealth policy investment. The low uptake of mHealth in policy agendas may stem from a lack of evidence of the scalable, sustainable impact on health indicators. The mHealth literature...

Revisiting the medical and social models of disability, this study adopted the integrated biopsychosocial approach to examine experiences of 25 mobility-impaired respondents in Singapore with using mobile phones. We found that mobile phones provided respondents a greater degree of mobility, a sense of control, and opportunities to escape the stigma...

The aim of the study was to find out how visual art could be effectively used in a social integration campaign among youth in Singapore. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods with the aim of evaluating an art campaign " s effect on Singaporean tertiary students " (N=113) attitude towards migrant workers in their country. Three fa...

The focus on abstinence-only sex education in conservative countries (Chamratrithirong & Richter, 2009; Lou, et al., 2006) has made it difficult for youth to obtain information about reproductive health issues from scholastic and traditional mass media sources. This problem is compounded in developing countries with limited health personnel and res...

HIV prevalence in Uganda has leveled off, however trends indicate that incidence is on the rise and disproportionately affects certain vulnerable groups, such as women. There is growing support for using mobile health (mHealth) programs to reach vulnerable populations. Using the Extended Technology-Community-Management model for mHealth, we examine...

In China, rural healthcare systems have been neglected in favor of the development of market-driven, largely urban health information systems (HIS). We investigated the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to develop a healthcare model within the rural healthcare system. We investigated information needs, existing heal...

The mHealth field understandably arose from a base of practice, developed a nascent, yet ever-expanding, body of inter-disciplinary scholarship, and currently hopes for recognition by, and establishment on, national and trans-national policy bodies and agendas respectively. However, to justify public investment, policymakers require a body of theor...

International migrants often need social support to deal with an unfamiliar environment and reduce stress caused by prevailing attitudes in their host country , as well as that induced by distance and separation from their family. This study investigates whether mobile phones facilitate or inhibit migrants' ability to seek the social support needed...

This research aims to understand the factors that lead to social exclusion among foreign wives in Singapore and the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) plays in social inclusion and empowerment. There has been a rising trend of migration through marriage in Singapore, especially between foreign brides and Singaporean men. Pr...

This research paper evaluated the use of mobile phones by rural community healthcare workers under India's National Rural Health Mission scheme, in particular Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), primarily women whose main role is to aid pregnant women in childbirth. In-depth interviews with ASHAs (13), other rural healthcare workers (14), p...

There is a growing interest in the effect of mobile phones in health care (mHealth) service delivery, but more research is needed to determine whether short message service (SMS)-based campaigns are appropriate for developing countries. This pilot study explored the efficacy of an mHealth campaign using SMS as a platform to disseminate and measure...

Community healthcare workers (CHW) are an important component of rural healthcare service delivery to remote rural communities in developing countries. The field of mHealth proposes that mobile technologies will have a beneficial impact on rural healthcare development. Current analyses advance the proposition that the utilization of mobile technolo...