This chapter examines “location” as it emerges in relation to technologies such as the mobile phone. It explores the ways in which location helps to determine how, where, and why particular mobile technologies operate in particular locations. Through a case study of the southernmost border of Haiti (Anse-a-Pitres) and the Dominican Republic (Pedernales), it highlights how “location” is made and unmade through state and regulatory infrastructures. Stressing the importance of “the border” as a particular kind of location, it explores concepts of “bordering,” “disembordering,” and “infrastructuring” as forms of placemaking with and through technologies. Bringing together ethnographic research with Haitian migrants and the broader history of telecommunications liberalization, the chapter examines the ways in which these infrastructures are made, unmade, and stitched together by consumers and companies. The aim is to make “ethnographically visible” the immaterial ways in which mobile phone companies and state agencies shape the everyday lives of Haitian migrants who cross the border between the two countries in the global south in order to challenge the taken-for-grantedness of location in studies of location technologies.

This article analyzes how new media are being appropriated within the Brazilian society. Exploring a range of new media practices-from the use of social network sites, microblogging, gaming, music, video production, and digital photography to youth media programs, LAN houses, and online communities-this article examines changes in the production, consumption, and distribution of new media in Brazil. Specifically, it explores different orientations around new media technology as they emerge in relation to government policies, (new) media industries and ordinary citizens interested in social interaction, entertainment, and information-gathering through new media technologies. I further reveal how three key concepts dominate attitudes and values around new media technologies: free, inclusive, and social. Connecting these values to theories of appropriation in the Latin American region, I conclude by exploring how new media practices reflect, produce, and reproduce Brazilian cultural norms among Brazilians.

The study of the relationship between media and society has a long and varied history in the social sciences and the humanities.1 From the Frankfurt School’s theories of the culture industries and McLuhan’s focus on the relationship between the medium and the message to work on mediation, remediation, and the network society, media continue to be viewed as a driver and a lens for understanding social, economic, and political life. Indeed, the first wave of research on new media—particularly on the Internet—explored how access to networked forms of communication and information may lead to transformations in notions of community, identity, and the nature of being human (Castells, 2000; Van Dijk, 1991; Katz & Rice, 2002; Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2002; Miller & Slater, 2000; Rheingold, 1993; Turkle, 1995; Wellman & Haythornthwaite, 2002). Research on mobile phones, portable music players, and gaming (desktop and console) began to explore the embeddedness of new media in everyday life (Boellstorff, 2008; Castells, Qiu, Sey, & Fernandez-Ardevol, 2006; Horst & Miller, 2006; Ito, Okabe, & Matsuda, 2005; Katz & Aakhus, 2002; Ling, 2004; Ling & Donner, 2009). Exemplified by sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, and others, the presence and participatory properties of new media in the contemporary moment represent an opportunity to reconsider the relationship between media and society in light of the changing media ecology. Are new media technologies appropriated in a similar fashion in what Thomas Friedman calls a “flat” world? Or do particular engagements with such technologies arise from specific local contexts? Even when new media technologies appear to be appropriated in a similar manner (on the surface, anyway), what local sociocultural, economic, or political factors contribute to such appropriations?

How do users incorporate mobile money into their existing practices and adapt it to their needs? The answers can be surprising. Simultaneously a commodity, a store of value, and a social good, mobile money combines a large array of applications within the one platform. This is why mobile money has been touted for its potential for socioeconomic development, as a profitable commercial enterprise, and even as a tool for strengthening governance. The fact that customers rarely use it for just one purpose can also make it difficult to untangle customers’ motives and behaviors. In this paper we compare our own research with other studies to demonstrate how deploying a full suite of ethnographic methods (qualitative and quantitative) can provide significant insights into users. We present three key insights relating to time, trust, and traces / trajectories, and make suggestions for the future of mobile money research.

This article draws upon recent work among Haitian migrants living at the Haitian-Dominican border in order to examine the role of mobile phones in cross-border movement in the region. Like other migrants and displaced populations, Haitians use technologies such as mobile phones to keep in touch with their families and maintain social relations as well as organising economic activities and the circulation of remittances. Yet the dependence of Haitian workers on geographic mobility for work and livelihood also requires developing and maintaining relationships across borders. The focus upon understanding relationships formed within and beyond the southern border region of Haiti and the Dominican Republic seeks to make ethnographically visible the role of the mobile phone in mediating different forms of mobility.

In November 2010, Digicel and Voilá both made mobile money services publicly available in Haiti. Building uponour previous research on domestic remittances and financial practices, we returned to Haiti from Decemberto April to identify mobile money’s potentials and challenges given the specific characteristics of the mobile money services offered and the needs of the Haitian population. This report presents our analysis of how the new mobile money services fit into Haiti's existing socioeconomic environment, and how customers are adapting and using the services. We identify six key insights and make recommendations for the development of mobile money in Haiti.

This report provides a qualitative snapshot of Haitian monetary ecologies six months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. The research examined the variety of ways in which money, people and goods circulate throughout Haiti in light of the changing economic, social and financial landscape. Based upon over ninety qualitative interviews and focus groups with Haitians located in four key sites throughout the country, the report focuses upon the challenges that many Haitians face in their efforts to send, receive, exchange and store money, and the role of mobile phones and other conduits in this process. Specifically, we address three key challenges that shape everyday Haitians’ attitudes towards money, trade and exchange and the potential for social change through new financial services: (1) Bureaucracy and Power; (2) Time and Cost; and (3) Security. The report concludes by providing a series of recommendations concerning the importance of social networks and intermediaries in moving money, the incorporation of the Haitian diaspora into financial inclusion models and the broader need to address Haitian values concerning savings, time and forms of exchange.