Connections and Transformations

Sub programme 1
Technologies of Mobility and Communication, New Dynamics in Spatial Relations in Africa and Beyond

In this sub programme we are investigating the notion of mobility as a social technology in itself and in relation to other ‘hard’ technologies. Mobility is an important technology of connecting; new social relations are established as well as new ideas of relating developed. How can we understand mobility and patterns of mobility as a social technology, as a linking technology? The sub-programme inscribes itself into the now well-established paradigm that takes mobility instead of sedentarity as the norm and considers mobility and being mobile in a geographical sense as one of the basic parameters of the formation of societies and social transformations (studies of translocality and transnationalism). However, these studies do not pay much attention to the realization of communication or transmission in mobile societies. In this programme we take as an explicit research problematic the introduction of new communication technologies and how they are related to old and new forms of transmission in these cultures. We are particularly interested in how they transform feelings of belonging, cultural terms and religious forms, leading to new repertoires of connections and disconnections, and to new mobility patterns and mobile communities. This will be explored by looking at the past introduction of technologies such as the motor car and the building of roads, but also the current introducing of the mobile phone and ICT technologies. This invites ethnographical work with a longitudinal perspective.

The interlinkage and dynamics between mobility, the introduction of new communication technologies and social transformations is to be researched in different social fields in this programme. The first concentrates on the changes in mobile margins, i.e. the social spaces that exist between remote areas and other parts of the world. This research will be a continuous follow-up of research in marginal areas and its people who have become connected through today’s new technologies, but also in a historical perspective. The second project explores a very modern form of mobility: tourism. The third field relates to the study of children and youth. How do new forms of child mobility inscribe old traditions, and how do these new patterns of mobility influence the communication/transmission between generations? To what social and cultural transformations and continuities does this lead?

Countries of research: Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Angola, Tanzania

Research Projects:

1) Mobile Africa Revisited: A Comparative Study of the Relations between New Communication Technologies and New Social Spaces (Chad, Mali, Cameroon, Angola, Tanzania, Sudan)
Mirjam de Bruijn, Inge Brinkman, Francis Nyamnjoh

In Africa, the use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) − the Internet and mobile telephony in particular − has accelerated remarkably since these were introduced in the late 1990s. This explosion of the Internet and mobile telephony on the African continent is oftentimes portrayed as a straightforward economic success and an opportunity for marginalized areas to overcome their assumed isolation. In the development discourse the new ICT are unequivocally regarded as a means for ‘development’. There are problems still; the ‘digital divide’ and the ‘technology gap’ threaten to slacken the process of Africa’s inclusion as active participants in the global village. Yet, these problems are interpreted only in terms of inclusion and problems of access. Within development circles the aim is to capacitate people (especially disadvantaged groups) so that they can afford these technologies and are no longer blocked from usage. The relation between development and communication technologies as such is not questioned.
This view has been criticized by a number of scholars. For these scholars the new ICT are a hegemonising force comparable to a new form of imperialism and neo-colonial control. Introduced by Western companies, these new technologies merely serve to bring Africa more firmly into the orbit of worldwide neo-capitalism. The new technologies are based on illegal coltan-mining, pushed onto African customers with misleading and aggressive advertisement campaigns, undermining local traditions of face-to-face communication, and, on top, old models from the West are dumped on the African continent, adding to the problem of pollution.
These notions about the dis/advantages of modern communication technologies are hardly based in empirical research and furthermore, they are largely framed in a macro-perspective on society. In our research programme on social relations, mobility and new communication technologies in Africa we seek to address the issue of development and communication technologies through the interpretation of African end-users. Instead of the macro-perspective we propose to deal with large structures and big issues from a bottom-up perspective: the daily lives of people and their evaluations of new technologies are central to our endeavour. Combining historical and anthropological methods we hope to address how people in Africa are appropriating new ICTs and how they did so in the past. Such an approach may redirect the debates mentioned above towards more emphasis on agency in historically specific contexts.
Exchange with organisations in the telecommunication business sector and in development organisations is essential to this programme.

WOTRO Proposal
Workshop Mobile Telephony
Thurnau workshop
APAD Paper
ECAS New Social Spaces

Sub projects/Case studies:

a. Strategies of uncertainty: Sahelian societies confronting ecological and political insecurity
J.W.M. van Dijk, M.E. de Bruijn, Boureima Alpha Gado (University of Niamey), LASDEL (Niger) to be established and PRASAC (Chad)

This comparative project examines how people in different parts of the Sahel are trying to make a living while their subsistence base is constantly at risk. This profound insecurity in their environment influences the way people perceive themselves and how they perceive others, i.e. it is part of their identity. Research has already been done in Mali among the pastoral Fulbe and a new research project will be set up in Chad in a comparable ecological environment among sedentary and pastoral people. The differences between both research sites are largely related to the risks people have been exposed to. In Mali this is mainly their ecological environment, whereas in Chad the never-ending civil war has profoundly marked people and their societies. The changing patterns of nomadism and interethnic relationships are an important issue in this research.

Funding: WOTRO/NOW; various other options