Content uploaded by Lotte Pelckmans
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Lotte Pelckmans on Jun 05, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Phoning anthropologists: The mobile phone's (re-)shaping of anthropological research
Figures
Figures - uploaded by Lotte Pelckmans
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Lotte Pelckmans
Content may be subject to copyright.
... • Apart from the above resources, a large body of interesting field-based research exists, on the use of ICTs in poor developing regions, for example: [115,110,167,229,227]. This body of research is focused on the use and impact of technologies on local communities, rather than on its design and engineering. ...
... She described innovative ways in which the phone is used in Mali: "... an example of local contextshaping phone use in, for example, West Africa is the practice of 'flashing' (in French: biper). It entails calling someone with the sole purpose of making the phone ring, without expecting the other person to answer" [227]. ...
... The entanglement of technological innovation with culture and symbolic meaning has been shown in various studies (e.g. [57,173,38,229,227,294]). ...
The concept of ICT4D: Information and Communication Technologies for Development refers to the policy and ensuing efforts to make the advantages of modern ICTs available to “unconnected”, less privileged communities and regions in the world. However, despite decades of development programs and projects, it has still not been successful in serving the poorest and least privileged.
As exemplified by many cases from literature, ICT4D policy and ensuing practice are based on the idea of intervention. This is operationalised through transfer of technologies and knowledge to developing regions, rather than through an inclusive process of deliberation with envisaged beneficiaries. Moreover, common project management approaches in (donor-driven) ICT4D projects do in general not take into account the contextual complexities of low-resource environments.
Still, the contemporary development discourse claims to be participatory and user-centred. “Be collaborative” and “Design with the user” are two of the key principles, formulated by the community of international development donors for ICT4D practitioners. When reflecting on the meaning and purpose of these principles, the question comes up: how can one come to know what the “ unconnected people” actually want, need or have an interest in? This question should be central to those who design and build information and communication technologies for development. It is evident that this answer can be obtained only through dialogue and collaboration.
This book, as an alternative to the idea of intervention and transfer of technology and knowledge, sets out to design and develop an approach to ICT4D that is consistently user-centred. Its central question can be formulated as:
Can we design an operational approach to developing ICT systems and services that really serves the needs and goals of people in low resource communities in less privileged, unconnected regions of the world, such that it (i) takes into consideration the complex realities of local context, and (ii) involves the envisaged users in decision-making, design and evaluation?”
As an operational, actionable answer to this (design) question an approach is proposed, which is practical and field-based. The underlying theoretical framework and methodology, dubbed “ICT4D 3.0” have been developed “bottom-up”. This framework covers the full life cycle of (socio-technical) information systems development. It puts emphasis on (i) the composition of a trans-disciplinary and multi-cultural team and (ii) the importance of early upstream stages of ICT systems development. It emphasises needs analysis on the ground, as ICT4D services have a heavily contextualized nature: the ‘known unknown’ that requires significant amounts of field-based research. It has been extensively tested and validated by local users in the field, during field-based research in West Africa between 2009 and 2019. It is a collaborative, iterative, adaptive approach.
The ICT4D 3.0 framework shows how ICT4D can be “done” in the field. It consists of five stages, all performed in collaboration and co-creation with the envisaged users: (i) context analysis in the field; (ii) needs analysis and collaborative goal construction; (iii) use case and requirements analysis following a structured narrative approach (iv) collaboratively and iteratively building, testing, deploying the system; (v) sustainability analysis and evaluation in local eco-systems.
Based on complexity theory and extensive field research, ICT4D can be conceptualized as complex networked process of innovation, in which knowledge sharing occurs through social networks, whereby many social and cultural factors come into play in rather unpredictable ways. Complexity theory underpins the need for an adaptive, collaborative, iterative approach. Adaptive to fit the variety of contextual requirements of innovation as a networked non-linear process; collaborative to encompass as many viewpoints and knowledge domains (academic/non-academic) as possible on the subject and context; iterative (because of cycles of learning-by-doing and gradual improvement in open, dynamic contexts).
An important critique at current ICT4D policies and programs is that they do not adequately take into account the nonlinear, adaptive lessons from innovation diffusion, complex systems and social network theory. Intervention models, which are based on linear cause-effect models, thus ignore that innovation and its diffusion is a complex nonlinear dynamic process that works out differently and adaptively in different parts of the world.
Finally, when reflecting on the articulation of the ICT4D 3.0 framework, it becomes evident that the general issue is not just about better methodological approaches to ICT4D practice. Beyond the operational level, one has to ask and investigate whose interests in the Global South (or North) one is representing, what goals one is trying to achieve, where these goals and policies are coming from or how they are constructed, and which core values are implicated. Therefore, in this book, we argue that collaboration is not just a method for successful innovation, but also a fundamental human value. It should be an intrinsic part of an open dialogue, in which the voices of the envisaged beneficiaries are truly included, and development goals are not imposed from outside, but emerge from locally expressed needs.
This book therefore proposes praxis: operational methods based on deliberation, practical wisdom and critical reflexion, aimed at serving and supporting people in complex, dynamic low-resource environments. It shows that socio-technical innovation is not a linear transfer of technologies but a networked process, driven by local agency, diffusing and evolving in a complex world.
... • Apart from the above resources, a large body of interesting field-based re- search exists, on the use of ICTs in poor developing regions, for example: [109,104,159,219,217]. This body of research is focused on the use and impact of technologies on local communities, rather than on its design and engineering. ...
... She de- scribed innovative ways in which the phone is used in Mali: "...an example of local context-shaping phone use in, for example, West Africa is the practice of 'flashing' (in French: biper). It entails calling someone with the sole purpose of making the phone ring, without expecting the other person to answer" [217]. ...
... The entanglement of technological innovation with culture and symbolic meaning has been shown in various studies (e.g. [57,164,38,219,217,283]). ...
Over the past decades information system developers and knowledge engineers in ICT projects in wealthy regions of the world have come to realize that technical work can only be successful when situated in a broader organizational context. However, for low-resource environments (such as for example rural Africa), where contextual embedding is even more demanding given the complexity of these environments, practical, context-oriented methodologies how to "do" information systems engineering are still lacking. This book presents a new and comprehensive set of methods that covers the complete lifecycle of information systems engineering, with emphasis on context analysis, needs assessment and use case and requirements analysis.
This book can be used as a practical guide to designing, building and deploying information and communication technologies for development. It can be used by students and practitioners (in the development sector or in ICT business). It can inform policymakers and people interested in international development and technology. It gives a basic but thorough insight in how to develop information systems and services for people in low resource environments, from a socio-technical, information systems engineering perspective.
... The possibility for such an avoidance or postponement is put under question by the new communication technologies and forms of interconnectedness (Pelckmans 2009). cal, anthropology, they argued that dialogue is not only central in the early phase of knowledge production but also generates a specific discourse in its later phases, up until completion of the written text (Fabian 1990: 764). ...
... The possibility for such an avoidance or postponement is put under question by the new communication technologies and forms of interconnectedness (Pelckmans 2009). ...
This special issue brings together a diverse range of contributions on how to write ethnography. Contributors reflect on ethical challenges, including issues of confidentiality and questions of representation. Writing is discussed as a way to construct and deconstruct truth(s). Temporalities of ethnographic writing are scrutinised and different writing styles, like vignettes and portraits, are introduced. Engagement with other modes of representation and storytelling, like film-making and photography, pushes beyond the written medium. The special issue concludes with two contributions on how to teach and learn ethnographic writing.
... Internet a également été l'objet de plusieurs études en tant que méthode d'enquête pour des sujets plus spécifiques (Miller et Slater (2000), Hine (2000;2005), Horst (2006)). Le seul travail qui s'apparenterait à celui que j'aimerais entamer ici et dont j'ai eu connaissance est la réflexion menée par Pelckmans (2009) sur les différents impacts méthodologiques de l'utilisation par le chercheur du téléphone mobile pour entrer en relation avec ses informateurs. Bien que fort diversifiées et extrêmement intéressantes -Pelckmans relève, par exemple, plusieurs avantages et désavantages de cet usage du téléphone mobile pour conclure qu'il s'agit d'un outil complémentaire non négligeable mais certainement pas substituable à la méthode du face--à--face dans le cadre d'une enquête ethnographiqueusages de TICs dont l'objectif premier est de répondre à un « besoin » privé (bien--être, amitié ou relations familiales, loisir…) sans avoir prémédité ni recherché d'effet direct sur l'avancement de la recherche en cours ». ...
This conference paper (unpublished - work in progress) aims to reflect on the use of technology on the field by the ethnographer.
... First, researchers' use of the mobile phone in ethnographies can offer several key benefits, including facilitating meaningful rapport with participants, providing a sense of security while in the field, increasing the likelihood of continued informant participation in longitudinal studies and fostering sustained contact with participants after the researchers leave the field (Lankenau et al. 2010;Pelckmans 2009;van Doorn 2013). However, although such benefits accrue to researchers, the need to capture more naturalistic bottom-up data than the data researchers capture alone is still warranted (Hein, O'Donohoe, and Ryan 2011). ...
Mobile phone proliferation in developing economies has arguably affected the everyday lives of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs like no other technology in recent times. This impact is evidenced by mobile phones’ embeddedness in everyday consumption and business practices. Surprisingly, mobile phones have only minimally been incorporated into bottom-up research approaches in subsistence marketplaces and/or ethnographic transformative research methodologies and methods. To begin addressing this important gap, the authors conducted a systematic review of the literature on mobile phones and ethnography and then gained practical experience with a new bottom-up methodology called mobile phone visual ethnography (MpVE). Using research experiences as data, the authors share micro-level details about African microentrepreneurial everyday life and highlight important methodological issues associated with conducting MpVE in subsistence marketplaces. They find that MpVE affords methodological naturalism, unpacks informant perspectives of everyday life, captures human mobility within marketplaces, and begins to democratize the research process. In doing so, this article offers a new way of giving voice to subsistence marketplace populations through more active and visible participation in research.
... First, researchers' use of the mobile phone in ethnographies can offer several key benefits, including facilitating meaningful rapport with participants, providing a sense of security while in the field, increasing the likelihood of continued informant participation in longitudinal studies and fostering sustained contact with participants after the researchers leave the field (Lankenau et al. 2010;Pelckmans 2009;van Doorn 2013). However, although such benefits accrue to researchers, the need to capture more naturalistic bottom-up data than the data researchers capture alone is still warranted (Hein, O'Donohoe, and Ryan 2011). ...
... First, researchers' use of the mobile phone in ethnographies can offer several key benefits, including facilitating meaningful rapport with participants, providing a sense of security while in the field, increasing the likelihood of continued informant participation in longitudinal studies, and fostering sustained contact with participants after the researchers leave the field (Lankenau et al. 2010;Pelckmans 2009;van Doorn 2013). However, while such benefits accrue to researchers, the need to capture more naturalistic bottom-up data than what researchers capture alone is still warranted (Hein, O'Donohoe, and Ryan 2011). ...
Mobile phone proliferation in developing economies has arguably affected the everyday lives of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs like no other technology in recent times. This impact is evidenced by mobile phones’ embeddedness in everyday consumption and business practices. Surprisingly, mobile phones have only minimally been incorporated into bottom-up research approaches in subsistence marketplaces and/or ethnographic transformative research methodologies and methods. To begin addressing this important gap, the authors conducted a systematic review of the literature on mobile phones and ethnography and then gained practical experience with a new bottom-up methodology called mobile phone visual ethnography (MpVE). Using research experiences as “data” they share micro-level details about African microentrepreneurial everyday life and highlight important methodological issues associated with conducting MpVE in subsistence marketplaces. They find that MpVE affords methodological naturalism, unpacks informant perspectives of everyday life, captures human mobility within marketplaces, and begins to democratize the research process. In doing so, this article offers a new way of giving voice to subsistence marketplace populations through more active and visible participation in research.
Diasporas are conventionally perceived in terms of dispersed populations on a transnational scale. However, this paper demonstrates that the international dimensions of diasporas do not discount their potential for manifestation at intra-national levels, especially within countries made up of various distinct ethnic 'nations'. In the multi-ethnic African context, populations tend to construct an 'imagined community', within which connections are maintained among members scattered beyond the boundaries of the homeland, but still within the confines of the nation in question. In this paper, attention is paid to the dynamics involved in the local ethnic populations' appropriation of communication technologies to render mediated popular culture and construct translocal spaces in Kenya. It emerges that through vernacular radio, television, and mobile phones, the in-country diasporas maintain vital socio-cultural contact among members. By mainstreaming local migrants, whose experiences remain hardly visible in contemporary scholarly discourse, this paper accordingly expands the definition of diaspora.
There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-Saharan Africa, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek their fortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physical and virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex and contingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently of crucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material) well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. This article explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increasing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries – Ghana, Malawi and South Africa – drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research from twenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a world in which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a different kind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substitute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobilization opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures on migrant kin.
Emigration from Senegal increased rapidly between 1980 and 1990, and its economic and social implications grew in significance. These migratory flows diversified in terms of their departure points and destinations, making complex the challenge of preserving relationships with families at home. As Senegalese emigrated to countries with fewer links to Senegal, the need to find ways of maintaining long-distance relationships became more urgent.
How do the émigrés appropriate New Information and Communications Technologies (NICT)? How do the new technologies provide for financial transfers without the physical movement of funds? What role do the émigrés play in the penetration of new technologies in certain disadvantaged sectors? What are the economic and social implications of this advance of NICTs? Tall shows that the types of use made of the new technologies follow from a complex process of appropriation that can make a highly personal tool such as the cellular telephone into a collective instrument to bring a village out of its isolation and connect it with the world.
Tall concludes that the emergence of the new technologies and their appropriation by émigrés creates new social configurations both in the new home and in the community of origin, and contributes to the emergence of new spatial understandings.
Multi-site, or multilocal, field work has become increasingly practiced and acknowledged in anthropology since the 1980s. Drawing on several field studies by anthropologists at Stockholm University but particularly on the author's study of the work of news media foreign correspondents, this article identifies differences in practices and assumptions between such work and the classic model of single-site field work as enunciated in the mid-20th century. It discusses the construction of multi-site fields, including the selection of sites; the quality of relationships with informants in such fields; the temporal aspects of field work and of the sites themselves; the dominant types of data in multi-site studies; and the fit between field work and organizational and career circumstances; as well as particular topics dealt with in the foreign correspondent study.
In this article the nature of anthropological knowledge is discussed with a view to a reassessment of the call for evidence. It will be argued that the traditional view of evidence as being somehow outside a particular argument is untenable, given the way in which anthropology accesses knowledge by engaging a particular field. This may be seen to lead to an uneasy question of authority in anthropology, yet at closer inspection, it is possible to establish new grounds for anthropological authority and to arrive at a new sense of ‘getting it right’. The general discussion is substantiated by reference to the author’s work on Icelandic history as well as her fieldwork in Iceland.