Wired mobile phones: the case of community technology centers in favelas of Brazil

David Nemer

Information Technology for Development, 2018, vol. 24, issue 3, 461-481

Abstract: The growing spread of mobile phones and internet has some practitioners and scholars arguing about the possible irrelevance of community technology centers (CTCs) serving low-income communities. However, although mobile internet is making great strides, it does not yet substitute for public access; in actuality, mobile phones and computers at CTCs complement each other in providing those who face digital inequalities with a broader sociotechnical experience. In order to explore this problem, this paper explores this experience by investigating how favela residents appropriate mobile phones, posing the question, “how do marginalized populations perceive CTCs in the mobile internet era?” To address this question, I draw on a 10-month ethnography in the favelas of Vitória, Brazil which examines slum residents’ uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers and smartphones. Through this research, I demonstrate how marginalized people take advantage of smartphones and computers in a complementary way, using these ICTs to best meet their needs as they experience daily life in a relatively severe environment.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02681102.2018.1478383 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:24:y:2018:i:3:p:461-481

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/titd20

DOI: 10.1080/02681102.2018.1478383

Access Statistics for this article

Information Technology for Development is currently edited by Sajda Qureshi

More articles in Information Technology for Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().