Mobile phones for development. An information case study of mobile phone kiosk vendors in the Congo
| Date | 15 May 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-09-2016-0151 |
| Pages | 294-315 |
| Published date | 15 May 2017 |
| Author | Sylvain K. Cibangu,Mark Hepworth,Donna Champion |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Mobile phones for development
An information case study of mobile
phone kiosk vendors in the Congo
Sylvain K. Cibangu and Mark Hepworth
School of Business and Economics,
Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK, and
Donna Champion
School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper relayed an important line of Mark Hepworth’s work, which engages with information
technologies and development. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a subfield of library and information
science (LIS) for development to reclaim the role of information services and systems for social change in rural
areas. The paper looked at the extent of development gained with the advent of mobile phones.
Design/methodology/approach –Rather than undertaking traditional large-scale, quantitative,
context-independent and survey-type research, the paper employed capability approach and semi-structured
interviewsto ascertainthe experiencesthat mobile phonekiosk vendors in the ruralCongo had of mobilephones.
Findings –It was found that mobile phones should be geared towards the liberation, and not utilization or
commodification of humans and their needs and that mobile phones were not a catalyst of human basic capabilities.
Research limitations/implications –Since the method employed is an in-depth qualitative analysis of
mobile phone kiosk vendors, obtained results can be used to enrich or inform mobile phone experiences in
other settings and groups.
Practical implications –This paper provided empirical evidence as to how an important group of mobile
phone users could harness development with their mobiles.
Originality/value –Most LIS literature has presented mobile phones along the lines of information freedom
or access, mass subscription, adoption rates, technological and entrepreneurial innovation, micro-credits, etc.
However, the paper placed the topic development at the heart of LIS debates.
Keywords Development, Impact, Capability, Mobile phone, Information science for development, Prepaid card
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Mark Hepworth (Hepworth and Duvigneau, 2012) worked with a variety of disadvantaged
groups and communities and in different settings across the globe. Hepworth consecrated
much work in promoting an information science’s sensitivity to and engagement with
development in developing countries particularly in Africa, with participatory method being
his underlying method. Therefore, development of, for and by the poorest has been Hepworth’s
central theme. This includes everything from hospices or healthcare units, university learning
systems, information literacies and environment to agriculture. This paper is a testimony to
and recognition of this work. The paper is part of a doctoral work that Hepworth spearheaded
to allow for development among illiterate mobile phone users in rural areas of the Congo. Sure
enough, the topic mobile phones for development is gaining prominence in developing
countries even as mobile phones are becoming the information technologies of the poor.
The research questions were as follows:
RQ1. Do mobile phones produce development among kiosk vendors in rural areas of
the Congo?
RQ2. Do mobile phones improve the living conditions of kiosk vendors?
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 69 No. 3, 2017
pp. 294-315
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-09-2016-0151
Received 12 September 2016
Revised 16 November 2016
28 February 2017
Accepted 6 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
This festschrift paper is published exclusively in honour of the late Dr Mark Hepworth for his
exemplary mentorship and friendship despite the terminal illness that he battled lately.
294
AJIM
69,3
The aims of the study were:
(1) to inquire into ways in which mobile phones produce development in rural areas of
the Congo from the perspectives of kiosk vendors; and
(2) to give voice to kiosk vendors to capture their own accounts or lived experiences
of mobile phone uses and development.
However,despite their popularity and their increasinglyPC-like and internet properties,mobile
phones and their link to development or well-being are often taken to be unsuited for library
and information science (LIS) research and journals. This sharply contrasts with the role that
libraries, information services and systems have played in human history. For example,
information technologies were key in modernizing all spheres of social life in Western Europe
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Habermas, 1992, 2002). One reason for this
shortcoming is that LIS is still suffering from the limitations andlegacies of Shannon’s (1948)
information theory, which presents information as a function of the information channel and its
content. Another reason why development is shunned by information studies might be that
“many studies have considered information in the sense of a product”(Starasts, 2015, p. 157).
This causes authors to pursue new information products and their innovations, leaving aside
the discussions on the actual capabilities of humans to be fully actualized or developed
regardless of the possessions, technologies, or mobile phones being held.
As a result, despite strident remarks that LIS has been unconcerned with the contexts in
which the information channel and its content are embedded, LIS remains preoccupied with
the management and functionality of the channel and the seeking of the channel content,
without paying heed to the well-being of society and its members. This has motivated
Savolainen (2016) to recently lament LIS status, saying:
Despite the growing number of people using the Internet for information seeking, there continue to
be socio-economic gaps in use of networked information between majority and minority
populations, such as lower income African Americans […]. Economic barriers combined with
physical disabilities or spatial barriers can be particularly compelling because they effectively
block access to sources of information […]. Barriers due to the lack of social and economic capital
are typically characterized by poor contact networks and insufficient economic resources (p. 56).
As is clear from the above statements, access to information or to the channel content and
the research into it are no doubt insufficient to ensure a better or fairer society. Society and
its members are irrevocably the best indication of how information science research leads to
human flourishing. This is also exacerbated by the fact that while mobile phones have been
shown to be linked to the Arab Spring (Castells, 2015), for example, the development of
Arab nations is still lagging behind. More particularly, the evidence that mobile phones
create development in developing nations is lacking (Aker and Blumenstock, 2015;
Chéneau-Loquay, 2010). Hence, this paper was reclaiming the social engagement of LIS
research. Pertinently, Ferguson (2016) insisted, “indeed, knowledge is at the heart of
development practice and debate; the development sector can, therefore, be characterized as
knowledge-intensive, involving heterogeneous and often dispersed stakeholders who rely on
one another”(p. 5, emphasis added). It is worth noting that efforts were made in the
social sciences to rethink and revamp the process of development around the world.
A brief background of the debates related to development is helpful.
The rethinking of development was needed in order to debunk the merely economic
programmes of development or economic growth, hence a variant word also usedby authors
was socio-economic developmentand more recently sustainable development (Servaes, 2013).
The main reason was that since the late nineteenth century onwards, authors have raised
concerns over theincreasing disconnect between information technologies and social change,
the kind of social change that radically transformed and modernized Western Europe in the
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