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SUMMARY:Phones\, foreigners and the fluctuating digital divide in Southern
  Mozambique - Dr. Julie Soleil Archambault\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20111027T160000Z
DTEND:20111027T173000Z
UID:TALK33617@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gabriela Martinez
DESCRIPTION:Mobile phones played an ambiguous role in Mozambique’s riots
  against rising food prices in early September 2010. If they were initiall
 y used to coordinate mobilisation\, they soon became useless when the coun
 try was hit by network failure of an unprecedented scale. Mobile phones ha
 ve in fact been more successfully put to the service of the petty crime ec
 onomy as coveted objects that circulate and as communication tools that fa
 cilitate the circulation of other stolen goods. For many\, crime is not a 
 way of life but rather an alternative to address some of the social contra
 dictions that sparked the riots in the first place: a postwar post sociali
 st economy marked by growing disparity\, expanding individual potential an
 d decreasing opportunities to secure a reliable livelihood. Based on resea
 rch conducted in the city of Inhambane\, southern Mozambique\, the paper f
 ocuses on the social dimensions of petty crime that mobile phone use both 
 reveals and animates. It argues that mobile phones\, which act as quasi-cu
 rrency\, and mobile phone communication offer alternative avenues—albeit
  uncomfortable ones—for young adults to claim a space for themselves in 
 Mozambican society
LOCATION:Senior Common Room\, 17 Mill Lane\, Cambridge CB2 1RX
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