IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v42y2015icp39-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Uphi?’1 ICTs and the mitigation of distance in a South African township

Author

Listed:
  • Powell, Crystal

Abstract

Langa Township, located in Cape Town, South Africa is home to many internal South African migrants and external African immigrants. As a mobile population, many Langa residents have embraced the mobile phone as a means of securing relationships with family members living elsewhere, while also maintaining relationships forged within the township and South Africa in general. Addressing the role of technology in a historical perspective, this article addresses the various ways that mobile phones have both mitigated and exacerbated distance for residents while also acknowledging the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones for different generations of migrants in the township.

Suggested Citation

  • Powell, Crystal, 2015. "‘Uphi?’1 ICTs and the mitigation of distance in a South African township," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 39-48.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:42:y:2015:i:c:p:39-48
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X15000305
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hodge, James, 2005. "Tariff structures and access substitution of mobile cellular for fixed line in South Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 493-505, August.
    2. Enock Yonazi & Tim Kelly & Naomi Halewood & Colin Blackman, 2012. "The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 26791, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peters, Jörg, 2016. "Infrastructure and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: A review," Ruhr Economic Papers 628, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Suárez, David & García-Mariñoso, Begoña, 2013. "Which are the drivers of fixed to mobile telephone access substitution? An empirical study of the Spanish residential market," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 282-291.
    3. Peters, Kay & Albers, Sönke & Kumar, V., 2008. "Is there more to international Diffusion than Culture? An investigation on the Role of Marketing and Industry Variables," EconStor Preprints 27678, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Barth, Anne-Kathrin & Heimeshoff, Ulrich, 2014. "What is the magnitude of fixed–mobile call substitution? Empirical evidence from 16 European countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 771-782.
    5. Nour, Samia Satti Osman Mohamed, 2010. "The impact of ICT in the transformation and production of knowledge in Sudan," MERIT Working Papers 2010-063, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Buys, Piet & Dasgupta, Susmita & Thomas, Timothy S. & Wheeler, David, 2009. "Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1494-1505, September.
    7. Michael Clemens and Timothy N. Ogden, 2014. "Migration as a Strategy for Household Finance: A Research Agenda on Remittances, Payments, and Development- Working Paper 354," Working Papers 354, Center for Global Development.
    8. Franck Essosinam KARABOU & Komlan Ametowoyo ADEVE, 2018. "ICT and Economic Growth in WAEMU: An Analysis of Labor Productivity," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 12-20.
    9. Nour, S., 2014. "The impact of ICT in public and private universities in Sudan," MERIT Working Papers 2014-018, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Jörg Peters, 2017. ", by A. Estache and Q. Wodon," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 460-462, March.
    11. Graham, Carol & Nikolova, Milena, 2013. "Does access to information technology make people happier? Insights from well-being surveys from around the world," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 126-139.
    12. Jahanbakht, Mohammad & Mostafa, Romel, 2020. "Coevolution of policy and strategy in the development of the mobile telecommunications industry in Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4).
    13. Ben Youssef, Adel & Bester, Coetzee & Chuka, Aduba & Dahmani, Mounir & Malan, Beverley, 2014. "Building e-skills in Africa," MPRA Paper 112240, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2014.
    14. Ezzat Riham Ahmed, 2017. "Fixed-Mobile Substitution in MENA Countries: The Future of Fixed-Line Markets," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 387-417, December.
    15. Kere, Safilidin & Zongo, Amara, 2023. "Digital technologies and intra-African trade," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 359-383.
    16. Nour, Samia, 2011. "The Use and Economic Impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Sudan," MERIT Working Papers 2011-060, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Simon Batchelor & Linda Waldman & Gerry Bloom & Sabrina Rasheed & Nigel Scott & Tanvir Ahmed & Nazib Uz Zaman Khan & Tamanna Sharmin, 2015. "Understanding Health Information Seeking from an Actor-Centric Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, July.
    18. Theodore Ahlers & Hiroshi Kato & Harinder S. Kohli & Callisto Madavo & Anil Sood (ed.), 2014. "Africa 2050: Realizing the Continent's Full Potential," Books, Emerging Markets Forum, edition 1, number africa2050, May.
    19. Gamboa, Luis Fernando & Gutiérrez, Luis H., 2010. "Public resale of mobile telephone minutes: An alternative access for low-income households in Colombia," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 122-129.
    20. Ryan Hawthorne & Lukasz Grzybowski, 2019. "Narrowing the 'Digital Divide': The Role of Complementarities Between Fixed and Mobile Data in South Africa," CESifo Working Paper Series 7711, CESifo.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:42:y:2015:i:c:p:39-48. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.