"Taming the beast”: Theorizing the use of mobile phones amongst traders in Accra

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.