Information Access Seminar

Mobile Phones in Rural Uganda

Friday, May 2, 2008
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Jenna Burrell
I'll be talking about the two directions my mobile phone research is taking and about my plans for additional fieldwork this summer. The first is about the moral economy of the mobile phone. This focuses on the mobile phone as a gift, as a device for transferring money, and as a shared community resource. I ask, how are the benefits of mobile phone access distributed in rural communities? The second focus is on the concept of 'information' and to what extent it translates between different languages and cultures. In rural Uganda there was the possibility for new mobile phone services to deliver everything from market prices to football scores. However, what information was needed and under what circumstances it could be acted upon are some key unanswered questions.

Last updated:

March 26, 2015