"Taming the beast”: Theorizing the use of mobile phones amongst traders in Accra
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Date
2015-04-17
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University of Ghana
Abstract
Over the years, the domestication theory has been used to explore the
"taming" of the television within the household space of western
nations. However, few studies have employed this theory to examine
the "taming" of other technologies outside the private space of people.
This paper will attempt to show the process involved in the taming of
technology outside the private space of people within the Ghanaian
context by examining how traders in Accra domesticate the mobile
phone considering data from 374 randomly selected traders. The
findings showed that the taming of the mobile phone in the public-private
space of the traders is largely conditioned by the culture of
their public-private space. Additionally, the taming process for the
mobile phone follows a parallel- cyclical process and not the inherent
unilineal process described by the domestication process.
Description
School of social sciences colloquium
Keywords
traders, domestication, technology, culture