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

手机被誉为减少全球贫困的变革性新工具。学者和开发专业人士都指出，电话和其他信息和通信技术(ICT)可以极大地减少信息壁垒，提高市场效率，增加工人的劳动回报，增加储蓄，并加快应急响应。然而，另一种观点是，手机可以放大情况，而不是改变情况。对于少数族裔、妇女或穷人等社会地位不佳的人来说，有价值的工具可能不那么有价值。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。该项目的问题是：在什么情况下，手机赋予弱势群体，特别是女性的权力或使其丧失权力？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，这项研究将测试手机对以下方面的影响的假设：(1)女性和男性社交网络的结构和功能；(2)他们获取信息和决策的途径；以及(3)他们应对不同类型冲击的能力。在该项目的三年期限内，我们将对小组和利益攸关方进行定性访谈(n=60)，对男女个人进行标准化调查(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。这个项目将提供关于信息和通信技术对等级社会中权力动态的影响的早期研究。它还将通过审查移动电话对妇女赋权的各个方面的影响，包括妇女应对冲击的能力，为妇女赋权学术做出贡献。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基础教育。

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