Mobile telephony, mediation, and gender in rural India

The Eastern Anthropologist, 2020

Here is a book review of Sirpa Tenhunen's "A Village Goes Mobile: Telephony, Mediation and Social Change in Rural India", published in The Eastern Anthropologist (2020), 73(2), Serials Publications (New Delhi).

Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies, 2006

"Drawing on three related studies of middle-class Indian families, this chapter considers how the mobile phone reshapes and reflects existing tensions within families. A wide body of research exists on how personal and mediated-communication technologies affect and reflect family dynamics. However, this chapter breaks new ground by viewing these processes in the context of urban family structures that are being renegotiated in response to rapidly changing social and economic conditions. Thus we argue that mobile use is central to our understanding of the tensions facing the new and expanding Indian middle class; it is not only a symbol of middle-class consumption but also a lens through which to see the family dynamic itself."

The transformational possibilities of smartphones are particularly emphasised in places where there are development needs. Whether framed by international or national development agendas, the link between smart technologies and progress is hard to challenge. Yet we still know little about the actual uses of new technologies by non elite 'invisible users', and their 'changing sense of the wider world and their place within it' formulated through their engagement with new technologies (Jenna Burrell, 2012:4). The frames and theories through which we place people and their uses can blind us to what is happening in particular contexts with particular people. Don Slater (2013) describes the 'holy trinity' of 'new media', 'development' and 'globalization' as irrefutable organising frames for our thinking about the future, and yet he shows how they are in fact just one (albeit dominant) story about the future. He urges us to consider such terms and frameworks as 'part of the fields we study and act within, to render them as topics rather than resources' (2013:2). They represent 'northern cosmologies' and the beliefs around and classifications of these same terms (or elements within them) from the point of view and experience of 'invisible users' often looks different.

As of November 2013, the mobile subscriber base in India was 881.13 million (active lines) according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and with around 6 million new mobile subscriptions being registered every month, a country of (estimated) 1.2 billion population could have more than 1 billion mobile subscribers by the end of 2015. What does this “untethered” technology do to the people of India? This paper discusses how a country steeped in history, culture, and tradition has embraced mobile technology and how the technology is creating a new design in the social fabric of India through transitive culture.

Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute, 2008

Mobile technology is currently emerging as the first extensive form of electronic communication system in many regions of Africa and Asia. This article analyses the appropriation of mobile phones in rural India by exploring what new social alternatives mobile phones enable and how these new social constellations relate to culture and cultural change. The ethnographic description relates phone usage to other communication patterns and ongoing processes of transformation. The article shows how the appropriation of phones draws from the local cultural and social context, but also that phones facilitate new patterns that show great similarity with social processes in other places where phones have been introduced as the first form of communication technology, such as the increased multiplicity of social contacts and the greater efficiency of market relationships. I argue that mobile technology amplifies ongoing processes of cultural change but does so selectively, so that it brings about the homogenization of ‘social logistics’.Mobile technology is currently emerging as the first extensive form of electronic communication system in many regions of Africa and Asia. This article analyses the appropriation of mobile phones in rural India by exploring what new social alternatives mobile phones enable and how these new social constellations relate to culture and cultural change. The ethnographic description relates phone usage to other communication patterns and ongoing processes of transformation. The article shows how the appropriation of phones draws from the local cultural and social context, but also that phones facilitate new patterns that show great similarity with social processes in other places where phones have been introduced as the first form of communication technology, such as the increased multiplicity of social contacts and the greater efficiency of market relationships. I argue that mobile technology amplifies ongoing processes of cultural change but does so selectively, so that it brings about the homogenization of ‘social logistics’.RésuméDans de nombreuses régions d'Asie et d'Afrique, la technologie mobile apparaît aujourd'hui comme la première forme étendue de communications électroniques. L'auteur analyse ici l'appropriation de la téléphonie mobile en Inde, en explorant les nouvelles alternatives sociales que le téléphone portable rend possibles et les liens entre ces nouvelles constellations sociales, d'une part, et d'autre part la culture et le changement culturel. La description ethnographique fait le lien entre l'utilisation du téléphone et les autres modes de communication et avec les processus actuels de transformation. L'article montre comment l'appropriation du téléphone s'inscrit dans le contexte culturel et social local, tout en mettant en lumière la similarité entre la façon dont le téléphone facilite de nouveaux schémas de communication et les processus sociaux qui se déploient dans d'autres lieux où la téléphonie a été introduite comme première forme de technologie de communication : multiplication des contacts sociaux, efficacité accrue des relations de marché. L'auteur affirme que la technologie mobile amplifie les processus actuels de changement culturel, mais quelle le fait de manière sélective, en induisant ainsi une homogénéisation de la « logistique sociale ».Dans de nombreuses régions d'Asie et d'Afrique, la technologie mobile apparaît aujourd'hui comme la première forme étendue de communications électroniques. L'auteur analyse ici l'appropriation de la téléphonie mobile en Inde, en explorant les nouvelles alternatives sociales que le téléphone portable rend possibles et les liens entre ces nouvelles constellations sociales, d'une part, et d'autre part la culture et le changement culturel. La description ethnographique fait le lien entre l'utilisation du téléphone et les autres modes de communication et avec les processus actuels de transformation. L'article montre comment l'appropriation du téléphone s'inscrit dans le contexte culturel et social local, tout en mettant en lumière la similarité entre la façon dont le téléphone facilite de nouveaux schémas de communication et les processus sociaux qui se déploient dans d'autres lieux où la téléphonie a été introduite comme première forme de technologie de communication : multiplication des contacts sociaux, efficacité accrue des relations de marché. L'auteur affirme que la technologie mobile amplifie les processus actuels de changement culturel, mais quelle le fait de manière sélective, en induisant ainsi une homogénéisation de la « logistique sociale ».

An ethnographic study of low-income cell-phone use primarily among domestic aid workers in Calcutta. Unpublished MA Dissertation in Anthropology, SOAS, 2013

The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent of the change is huge. In 1987, India had 2.3 million phone connections (0.3% of its population). By January 2010, that number had gone up to 688 million phone connections (about 60% of the population if phones had been evenly distributed). More than 90% of the phones by 2010 were mobile phones. Charting the vast universe of India's mobile telephony, this article identifies three categories of people: controllers, servants and users - those who control radio frequency spectrum; those who perform the host of tasks required to package and sell the spectrum; and those Indians, now numbering hundreds of millions, who use mobile phones every day. The theme is the profound transformation that mobile phones bring to individual lives, perhaps more fundamental in India than in other parts of the world. The mobile phone can be an equalizer: it has the potential to open to low-status people possibilities that they have never had before. The mushroom growth of the cell phone raises questions about effects on society, politics and economy. At the top of India's class pyramid, how does one understand the great political-economic contests generated by struggles to control the cell phone market? At the base of the pyramid, to what extent does the mass availability of cheap cell phones and services alter the lives of poor, low-status people? And what of those in between? Is the cell phone destined to change human activity as profoundly as the printing press? This exploratory article begins to identify key questions related to mobile phones and sketches how a holistic account of the device and its implications might be composed.

SAMPRITI, Sampriti Publications, 6(1), pp. 275-288, UGC-Care List Indexed, ISSN 2454-3837 , 2020

The unprecedented growth of mobile telephony, in terms of technology, network and subscriber base, has established India as one of the most vibrant markets in the world. The thrust by the government of India to expand smart phone user base and encourage citizens for pursuing digital environment has made the market more dynamic than ever before in the recent times. Technology is ever considered to be the greatest equalizer and enabler by communication scientists. The way mobile phone has made inroads into the rural heartlands of India, some of the theoreticians claim too much about the constructive and empowering impacts of this ‘miraculous’ gadget on the indigenous population. Empowerment of individuals and community means greater control over life, increased options in decision-making and enhanced capacity/skills to cope with challenges and optimising their life. According to Census 2011, Oraons are the second largest tribal population in Jharkhand. Scholars believe that there have been vast changes in the life style, traditions, community habits and communication patterns of the Oraon tribe during last two decades. But how far these changes have been caused by the mobile phones is yet to be traced out. Moreover, how does mobile phone transforms communication habits and patterns in a village community and eventually how these changes result in to silent transformation of the socio-cultural, political and economic sphere is a question yet to be answered. The main objective of this study is to find out how mobile phone is contributing to the transformation of communication patters among Oraon community as whole and family and individual in particular. This study also endeavours to trace the emerging new digital culture in Oraon community of Jharkhand. A survey through interview schedule along with focus group is carried out among 400 mobile users with equal gender representation in 20 villages of two districts in Jharkhand. Outcome of this research helps understand about the changing ways and means of communication of marginalised tribal community living in socio-economic backwardness and information poverty. Key words: Digital Culture, Mobile Communication, Oraon Community, Mobile phone, Marginalized Community, Tribal Society

The concept of gender empowerment is a common concern all over the World. This issue has now acquired new dimensions with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in development countries like India. It has potential to empower women through by overcoming their physical boundaries and access to better economic & business opportunities and education & health services. This paper aims to study the impact of mobile phone access and usage by women from rural areas who are hitherto deprived and isolated due to various social and economic reasons. In total, 200 women (100 users and 100 non-users) were interviewed in two villages in backward or poor districts of Uttar Pradesh. The women interviewees described their experiences, their access & uses of mobile phone and its impact on their lives and barriers or obstacles of accessing.

Digital Technologies and Generational Identity, 2017

My article poses the question of whether intergenerational differences contribute to diversity in the appropriation of digital media in rural India. Thus, the article develops the theory of generations, originally build to account for changes and variations in Western societies, by applying it to a non-western context. My earlier research has revealed how positions in the kinship system influence mobile phone use patterns in rural India and, in turn, how phone use has mediated changes in family and kinship (Tenhunen 2014, 2015). Improvements in the education system and economic changes have contributed to how different generations experience their life in diverse ways making it necessary to account also for the generational differences of mobile phone use. The article explores how generational differences in mobile phone use coincide or clash with kinship positions and class differences in rural India. The article is based on interviews, observation, and survey data on the use of mobile phones in a village in rural West Bengal during 2005, 2007–2008, 2010, and 2012–2013. A wealth of studies have demonstrated how teens and children use digital media to construct identity and fine-tune social relationships, especially in Western countries. In Janta the generational divide is different from most Western countries since children and teens in rural India still rarely have a chance to use digital media autonomously. However, the younger generation as a broader concept consisting of people who are in junior positions in their families use phones to contest the family hierarchies and build networks outside the family and home. The identifications of different user groups of phones help reveal that it is groups whose structural position has undergone changes that use phones to negotiate local hierarchies: youth, high-caste women, the low-caste people. My data also shows that in rural India generational differences relate to class and caste.

The journal of media literacy education, 2023

This ethnographic case study presents findings of an 18-month research study focusing on the ways in which families residing in an urban slum were using mobile phones and how this use supported literacy practices. Data collection included participant observations and interviews with 42 participants including parents, children and community members. Results of the data analysis indicated that in this urban slum, most participants owned a mobile phone which provided multiple entry points to learning. The phones ushered in new ways of brokering knowledge where children acted as 'experts' and enabled parents to perform everyday tasks while parents mediated as cultural brokers and fostered religious and cultural practices and knowledge of the mother tongue. The implications of the study point to the evolving nature of literacy practices, the versatility of the device, the uneven landscape of smartphone use and the limitations posed by the schooling contexts.

Granthaalayah Publication and Printers , 2023

The widespread use of digital technologies has expanded globally and penetrated even the most remote regions of the global south, including people living in underprivileged and marginalised conditions. Despite the increasing influence of mobile phones in all aspects of social life, there is limited knowledge about how mobile phone practices impact the local culture of the Mukkuva community in Kerala. Though Kerala has made remarkable socioeconomic progress, the Mukkuva fishing community remains marginalised and neglected. The fishers' exclusion from mainstream society, resulting from the caste system, has historically limited their interaction with others. This study employs in-depth interviews and non-participant observation to explore the mobile phone practices of the fishing community in two selected coastal villages of Kerala and how it affects the community's language and culture. Using the cultural identity framework of Stuart Hall and a thematic method of data analysis, the paper examines the changing dynamics of the relationship between the church and the community, the evolving self-concept of community members, and their economic activities. The research demonstrates the significance of mobile phones in the changing cultural dynamics of the Mukkuva community, highlighting its role in enabling increased communication and interaction with mainstream society. The study's findings suggest that mobile phones have enabled the community to create a new identity, distinct from their traditional practices, thereby allowing them to engage more actively in social, economic, and political activities. The paper concludes that the increasing use of mobile phones in marginalised communities provides an opportunity to bridge the gap between mainstream and marginalised societies, and encourages the empowerment of these groups.

Communicator, 2021

Communication experiments through audiovisual technologies to harness and use them as potential instruments to accelerate the process of development and empowerment has become evident in India. In India, projects like the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), Radio Rural Forums, Video SEWA, Dalit women handling camera in Deccan Development Society (DDA) in Pastapur, Telengana, CGNet Swara etc., have been the major landmarks of communication for change and empowerment in the country. The rapidly changing technologies in audiovisual and recording mechanisms have brought new opportunities for the process of developmental dialogues and narratives. The rise of the internet and smartphones brought immense possibilities that were not easy to use for creating media contents, earlier. The audio recording with non-smartphones has gain fully employed in empowering tribal culture and communication by projects like CGNet Swara. Such kind of participatory communication enabled the community to foster emancipatory forms of communication meant for their individual and societal development. This study is an attempt to understand and assess the potential of Mobiles for Development (M4D) in strengthening more effective communication meant for development communication in India.