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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (3 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
Final Reports (2015)
In this project, I propose a reimagination of rurality in mobile money times, basing upon ethnographic data from fieldwork research conducted in Southern Uganda. I show how with the emergence and dispersion of mobile money services, the rural has attained a certain kind of dynamism and fluidity, and a whole new identity through varied features of lifestyle, community, tradition and landscape. I ask: [1] how (and what) are the emergent mobile finance options shaping the social life of groups and communities most at risk of rural poverty and social exclusion; and, [2] what forms of identity, community and lifestyle are emerging around mobile money products and services in geographically remote territories in Southern Uganda? To this end, I adopt a small-scale and brief fieldwork approach, deploying multi-sited ethnographic cum interpretive research methods. Together, these methods make an important methodological and substantive contribution toward facilitating observations as well as verbatim accounts of the poorest of the poor in remote settlements who are not 'automatically' reached by government and community financing initiatives. The project hopes to invite further debate on these important phenomena.
    Cover page: Reimagining Rurality in Mobile Money Times: Life, Identity, and Community (Final Report)Creative Commons 'BY-NC' version 4.0 license
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    Final Reports (2015)

    In some parts of rural Uganda, a whole village will use one or two phones to bank, to contact relatives, to share money amongst themselves, to access loans, and simply to check weather reports. Low teledensity does not imply lack of mobile money use and spread. Freed from the expense of ownership and maintenance, an individual of a particular group or community will spend longer periods of time per use on the available gadget(s), hence generating more revenue not just for the individual or group involved, but for the whole village. Such collective use by a community makes the dream for financial inclusion plausible—even a reality—for rural life.

    In this 2-part blog post series I present vignettes organized around three themes—life, identity, and community—through which mobile money and rurality is re-imagined. Mobile money inclusion is providing new tools to maintain existing practices and values, reshaping but also reinvigorating rural-urban ties, and along with these, new understandings of the rural. This is Part 1.

      Cover page: Reimagining Rurality in Mobile Money Times: Life, Identity, and Community in Southern Uganda - Part 1 (IMTFI Blog)Creative Commons 'BY-NC' version 4.0 license
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      Final Reports (2015)

      In some parts of rural Uganda, a whole village will use one or two phones to bank, to contact relatives, to share money amongst themselves, to access loans, and simply to check weather reports. Low teledensity does not imply lack of mobile money use and spread. Freed from the expense of ownership and maintenance, an individual of a particular group or community will spend longer periods of time per use on the available gadget(s), hence generating more revenue not just for the individual or group involved, but for the whole village. Such collective use by a community makes the dream for financial inclusion plausible—even a reality—for rural life.

      In this 2-part blog post series I present vignettes organized around three themes—life, identity, and community—through which mobile money and rurality is re-imagined. Mobile money inclusion is providing new tools to maintain existing practices and values, reshaping but also reinvigorating rural-urban ties, and along with these, new understandings of the rural. This is Part 2. 

        Cover page: Reimagining Rurality in Mobile Money Times: Life, Identity, and Community in Southern Uganda - Part 2 (IMTFI Blog)Creative Commons 'BY-NC' version 4.0 license
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