SBE-RCUK Lead Agency: The effects of mobile phones on gendered social networks, decision-making and vulnerability

移动电话被誉为减少全球贫困的变革性新工具。学者和发展专业人士都指出，电话和其他信息和通信技术（信通技术）可以大大减少获取信息的障碍，提高市场效率，增加工人的劳动回报，增加储蓄，并加快应急反应。然而，另一种观点是，手机可以放大情况，而不是改变情况。有价值的工具可能对少数民族、妇女或穷人等社会地位不佳的人不那么有价值。此外，在农村地区，电信基础设施可能参差不齐，医疗保健等资源的获取也可能参差不齐，干旱等环境冲击可能是毁灭性的。该项目提出的问题是：在什么情况下，手机会增强或削弱弱势群体，尤其是女性的能力？这个问题将在坦桑尼亚的马赛牧民社区进行调查。为了解决这个问题，本研究将测试关于手机对以下方面影响的假设：(1)女性和男性社会网络的结构和功能；(2)获取信息和决策的权利；(3)应对不同类型冲击的能力。在项目的3年期限内，我们将进行定性小组和利益相关者访谈（n=60），对个人女性和男性进行标准化调查（n=370/年），并在广泛的地理区域内对蜂窝信号进行空间测量。我们将使用标准的描述性、多变量和空间建模工具分析这些数据。该项目将提供信息通信技术对等级社会内权力动态影响的早期研究。它还将通过审查移动电话对赋予妇女权力的各个方面的影响，包括妇女应对冲击的能力，为赋予妇女权力的学术研究作出贡献。这项研究的更广泛影响包括向社区和非政府组织传播研究结果、研究生培训和坦桑尼亚的初等教育

Mobile phones have been heralded as transformative new tools to reduce global poverty. Scholars and development professionals alike have pointed out that phones, and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), can greatly reduce barriers to information, promote market efficiency, increase workers returns to labor, boost savings, and expedite emergency response. An alternative perspective, however, is that phones can magnify situations rather than transform them. Valuable tools may be less valuable to people who are not well positioned in society like minorities, women, or the poor. Furthermore, in rural areas telecommunications infrastructure can be patchy, as can access to resources like health care, and environmental shocks like droughts can be devastating. The project asks: under what conditions do mobile phones empower or disempower vulnerable groups, especially women? This question will be investigated in pastoralist Maasai communities in Tanzania. To address this question, the research will test hypotheses regarding the effects of mobile phones on: (1) the structures and functions of women's and men's social networks; (2) their access to information and decision-making; and (3) their capacities to respond to different types of shocks. Over the 3-year term of the project, we will conduct qualitative group and stakeholder interviews (n=60), standardized surveys of individual women and men (n=370/year) and spatial measures of cellular signal across a broad geographic area. We will analyze these data using standard descriptive, multivariate, and spatial modeling tools.This project will provide early research on the effects of ICTs on power dynamics within hierarchical societies. It will also contribute to the scholarship on women's empowerment by examining the effects of mobile phones on aspects of women's empowerment, including women's capacities to respond to shocks. The broader impacts of this research include dissemination of findings to communities and NGOs, graduate training, and elementary education in Tanzania