Hello all, I was just alerted to the following publication on mobile phones in Africa.
Rich L. The link to the Ning site is: http://mobilesociety.ning.com/profiles/blogs/now-available-mobile-phones Now Available: Mobile Phones: The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa. Edited by Mirjam de Bruijn, Francis Nyamnjoh and Inge Brinkman. Langaa Publishers / ASC, 2009. Available on amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Phones-Talking-Everyday-Africa/dp/9956558532/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237981472&sr=1-1> and ABC Books. ‘We cannot imagine life now without a mobile phone’ is a frequent comment when Africans are asked about mobile phones. They have become part and parcel of the communication landscape in many urban and rural areas of Africa and the growth of mobile telephony is amazing: from 1 in 50 people being users in 2000 to 1 in 3 in 2008. Such growth is impressive but it does not even begin to tell us about the many ways in which mobile phones are being appropriated by Africans and how they are transforming or are being transformed by society in Africa. This volume ventures into such appropriation and mutual shaping. Rich in theoretical innovation and empirical substantiation, it brings together reflections on developments around the mobile phone by scholars of six African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania) who explore the economic, social and cultural contexts in which the mobile phone is being adopted, adapted and harnessed by mobile Africa. Commendations "The astounding uptake of the mobile phone in African societies raises a range of interesting and complicated questions. [] This timely book refuses easy answers of the technological determinist kind, but seeks to understand mobile phones as part of the everyday lived experience of Africans in all its precariousness and unpredictability. Its multi-dimensional approach promises a richness that scholars will be able to draw upon for years to come. The book fills an important gap in the scholarly literature about new media in Africa and contributes a valuable perspective from the margins on global new media debates." -- Herman Wasserman, University of Sheffield, UK and University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Editor of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies. "This book goes beyond the technology hype on wireless and mobile. It digs deep in the social roots and relationship patterns that are impacting on Africa's cultural identity and communication modes. The emerging picture may be troubling for some, and liberating for others. A must read!" --Professor Jan Servaes, Director 'Communication for Sustainable Social Change' Center, University of Massachusetts. "An insightful introduction to mobile cultures in Africa and, in particular, the relationship between mobile phones and identity formation in the formal and informal arenas of marginality, its role in disabling tradition and enabling social change. A must read." --Associate Professor Pradip Thomas, University of Queensland, Australia. Editors Mirjam de Bruijn is Professor in African Studies at Leiden University and a researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands. Francis B. Nyamnjoh is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Inge Brinkman is an historian and literature scholar at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands. Since 2008 the editors of this volume have been doing research on the relationship between society and ICT and mobile phones in Africa in a NWO/WOTRO-sponsored programme entitled 'Mobile Africa Revisited, A comparative study of the relations between new communication technologies and social spaces'. (www.ascleiden.nl/Research/ConnectionsAndTransformationsSubprogramme1.aspx<http://www.ascleiden.nl/Research/ConnectionsAndTransformationsSubprogramme1.aspx>) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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