Collaborative Research: Network Sovereignty: A Comparative Study of Local Network Initiatives in Rural, Low-income Communities

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This project will advance understanding of the importance of local ownership and culture when developing telecommunication networks in rural, low-income, indigenous communities. Using the concept of "network sovereignty" as an analytical framework, the project investigates how varying degrees of network ownership, design involvement, and technical knowledge can impact and empower marginalized communities and result in networks that are more useable and sustainable. By engaging with research in areas of critical infrastructure studies and technological literacy and by leveraging strong local partnerships, the project will build a model for understanding how telecommunication network development can best be organized to support diverse, low-income, rural communities. A particular contribution will be to convey the importance of local cultural practices to network innovation and adoption, and to describe the enabling conditions and long-term effects of such processes. There is common assumption that low-income, rural communities can benefit economically from their integration within telecommunication networks, but there is a tendency to neglect how important issues of local community deliberation, ownership, design, and culture are to such processes. When telecommunication networks are extended to "last mile" communities, how involved are members of these communities in such processes? How important is the local ownership and control of network facilities? How do local community members understand and make sense of their network integration? What do they hope to gain from such technological developments? And how have communities addressed these issues in different ways? To answer these questions researchers employ a collaborative ethnographic approach and conduct fieldwork and interviews in three diverse communities that have formed local network initiatives. Case studies include Rhizomatica in Oaxaca, Mexico, Oki Communications in the Blackfeet Indian community of Browning, Montana, and the Serengeti Broadband Network in the Mara region of Tanzania. Researchers will partner with community organizations to explore the emergence and relative success of these local network initiatives and, at the end of the project, will provide an analytical framework for evaluating such initiatives in other communities. The project also includes a workshop that enables community partners to discuss and share best local network practices with one another.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.