Drawing on Latour’s Actor Network Theory work (e.g. Latour 1993) and Haraway’s discussions of blended human-technological cyborgs (e.g. Haraway 1991), it is vital to recognize the place of such technologies as part of wider socio-political environments. Nigel Thrift has expressed this idea as follows: “no technology is ever found working in splendid isolation as though it is the central node in the social universe. It is linked - by the social purposes to which it is put - to humans and other technologies of different kinds. It is linked to a chain of different activities involving other technologies. And it is heavily contextualised. Thus the telephone, say, at someone’s place of work had (and has) different meanings from the telephone in, say, their bedroom, and is often used in quite different ways.” (Thrift 1996, 1468 in Graham 1998, 178).

This paper, therefore considers four broad themes: Current technological capacity in Cape Town; The potential uses of mobile technologies and open learning platforms of urban transformation; The potential uses of mobile technologies and open learning for transforming social relations; and, The use of these technologies to frame, report on, display and create platforms for discussing and presenting urban transformations. The paper will focus on research conducted in Cape Town, drawing on the African Centre for Cities academic networks at the University of Cape Town.

Current technological capacity in Cape Town

During the 1990s there were widespread concerns about the impact of new information and communication technologies on those unable to access these technologies, those unable to bridge the digital divide. The 1999 UNDP Human Development Report noted that at the time, only 2% of the world’s population had access to the internet, of which 80% lived in OECD nations. Users were overwhelmingly relatively wealthy and predominantly male (UNDP 1999). It appeared that access to the internet would have remained limited for the poor, that it would have enhanced the economic, social, political, cultural and spatial exclusions. Technologies such as the internet were seen as incorporating a tendency “deepen the relative advantages of the transnational corporate classes and socioeconomically affluent groups” (Graham 2001, 340).

In many ways, this was true. According to recent research by Research ICT Africa, only 15% of all households in South Africa had a working computer, and only 5% reported having ‘a working internet connection’ (RIA 2009 in Kreutzer 2009, 2). As it would be expected the distribution of access is closely related to race. In a 2003 survey, 2% of Black, Coloured and Indian households had household access to a computer, compared to 46% of white households (South Africa Info 2003 in Chigona et al 2009a, 5-6). Given the funding models in South African education, few schools outside the economic elite schools had access to computer facilities, and even less with viable internet connections. Prinsloo and Walton (2009 in Kreutzer 2009, 2) conclude that even where sub-elite schools have received computers and internet access, their usage remains behind their potential. From personal research experience, computer facilities in such schools are often poorly maintained and reserved for staff use. When pupils do have access, they are taught by staff who are limited in their own understanding of the technology.

For those households that do have access to the internet, the cost of the internet is still high compared to other countrie, and bandwidth remains limited. This week, in an attempt to highlight the slow speed of South African internet connections, a pigeon is being sent carrying 4MB data from Howick to Gillets in KwaZulu Natal(a distance of around 70km) at the same time an email containing the same data was sent from a user in Howick to a user in Hillcrest and bets were raging as to which will win. The pigeon won (Tolsi 2009). Three years ago a local newspaper ran a story saying that it would be cheaper for a South African to fly to Hong Kong and collect a 100GB datafile, than to download it via a South African internet provider (Chibba 2005). The digital divide does exist within South Africa and between South Africa and elsewhere in the world. These are limitations which any exhibition must consider.

However, South Africa has one of the highest mobile phone take-up rates in the world – thanks to a large part by the failure of the current and previous governments to invest in landlines. Cell phone ownership for those over the age of 16 in South Africa is currently 60%, up from 18% in 2000 (RIA 2009 and ITU 2001 in Kreutzer 2009, 1). By contrast, just 28% of India’s population were mobile subscribers in 2008 (Donner & Gitau 2009). Access to cell phone technology has provided potential internet access to vast numbers of people excluded from computer based, fixed line connection. Currently there are 9.5 million mobile internet users in South Africa (20% of the total population, compared to 4.7 fixed internet users (10% of the total population) (Donner & Gitau 2009). It appears that mobile technologies are the preferred/only means of access to the internet for many South Africans. Kreutzer’s 2008 survey of high school pupils in poor areas of Cape Town found that 77% owned their own phone, 18% used other people’s phones, 4% owned a sim card, but used other people’s phones to use it, and just 1% did not use a phone or had recently had one stolen (Kreutzer 2009, 10). Intent usage amongst these young people was high, with 93% having ever used the internet on cell phones and 83% having ever used the internet on a computer. Cell phones were clearly the preferred means of internet access though, with 68% using their phones for internet access on a typical day, opposed to 39% using computers (Kreutzer 2009, 12).

While there is high internet take up through cell phones, it cannot be assumed that user patterns will be similar to those of computer based internet users. Kreutzer’s survey indicated that pupils used their cell phones predominantly for mobile instant messaging (MIM) services, namely MXit, and for downloading songs, pictures and ringtones. Pupils were more likely to use computer-based internet for research for school work, looking for medical information and YouTube (the benefits of a larger screen perhaps) than their cell phones (Kreutzer 2009, 16).

Within the South African context, one of the most interesting mobile phenomena is MXit, the most popular MIM system. If a phone has GPRS capabilities, the MXit programme can be downloaded and used. This allows users to chat individually or in chat rooms with the only charge being the cost of the data sent, making it far cheaper to send messages via MXit than SMS (around 2c per message, compared to 70c per message) (Chigona et al 2009b, 3). There are over seven million MXit users in South Africa and a further 9000 are added to this per day (Chigona et al 2009b, 2). While there have been moral panics associated with MXit, and attitude that seems to re-emerge with every new technology, there is a growing body of work suggesting the value of MXit for M-learning (e.g. Dourando et al 2007 and Butgreit 2007).

Mobile internet technologies have significant benefits over computer-based, fixed line internet technologies. The most obvious amongst these are that they are lower cost and require fewer infrastructure investment. These have led to the massive take up in these technologies in the past decade. Cell phones are perceived as less complicated than computers, users believe that only limited technological knowledge is required to begin using the internet capabilities of a cell phone. A further advantage of this is that they are mobile. Not only does their mobility ensure flexibility and constant availability, but it also prevents the technology of being hampered by culturally inappropriate spaces. Warschauer (2003 in Chigona 2009b) conducted research in Egypt and found that despite the presence of hardware and software for a computer laboratory, the laboratory remained under-exploited because the social environment was not appropriate for the users. The mobility of cell phones enables users to create the appropriate spaces for use.

However, while mobile internet connectivity seems at a first glance to address many of the challenges of the digital divide, it is not itself without challenges. The massive take up in cell phone usage within the last decade has been driven by the availability of pre-paid accounts and cheap handsets. These cheap handsets tend to have bad access to the internet, if they have it at all. Bottom end users cannot therefore take full advantage of the possibilities of the web on phones. In addition, users often don't to have the spending capacity to use the internet beyond instant messages, the popularity of which can largely be attributed to its economic efficiency compared to SMS. Furthermore, while users state that the internet is easy to use on a cell phone, research demonstrates the many users have only limited understanding of the full capabilities of their phones and have no means by which to learn further (Chigona et al 2009b, 7). Finally, as with the internet more broadly, access and utilization is strongly dependent on literacy and language skills. Both international and local technology and content are predominantly English language (Chigona et al 2009b, 9). In addition, the communities of practice within user groups can exclude on the basis of language. In Deumert and Masinyana’s 2008 study of bilingual students it was found that in a sample of emails sent by IsiXhosa-English bilingual students, over 60% were sent in English, and less than 20% in IsiXhosa (Deumert 2009). Even when communication informally with peers from the same language groups, users defer to the English language. What does this mean for processes of inclusion and exclusion, for language and culture and for the development of the exhibition we're thinking of? How can and should these technologies be utilized for an exhibition on urban transformations?

The potential uses of mobile technologies and open learning platforms of urban transformation

The proposed exhibition is on urban transformations. However, I believe it is important to consider the role that mobile technologies and open learning platforms can play in urban transformations themselves. Cell phone technologies (mobile internet or SMS or photography) have a wide range of potential and real uses in urban transformations. From a land surveying and planning perspective it is possible to use SMSs on cell phones as a mean of keeping a record of property transfers and to use cell phone GPS capacity as a mean of mapping valuable community places for participatory urban planning. The Programme in Urban Food Security at UCT is realized in partnership with a social entrepreneur who wants to use cell phones in addressing the cost gap between supermarkets and spaza shops by establishing a wholesale network for spaza shops which uses small mobile computers and cell phones as a way to communicate automatically sales to the wholesaler to ensure stock replacement. The application of SMS technology to send health screening and medicine reminders is well established (c.f. Kaplan 2006). The City of Cape Town has a Smart City initiative which aims to give all citizens access to internet facilities through libraries and trucks offering mobile access. The aim of this is to “improve the efficiency of service delivery and the administration of the City, to better communicate with and deliver services to citizens and businesses, and to bring about social and economic development” (City of Cape Town undated)

Through these applications the physical, infrastructural, economic, and health profiles of our cities can be transformed. There is a danger that in our enthusiasm for the cultural, we may miss the material and the everyday and the connections between the material and cultural transformations of our city. I would like to suggest that one way in which urban transformations can be affected by such technologies is through the display and discussion of cell phone photography. Kindberg et al (2005) examined the subject matter and purpose of cell phone photos, recognizing their role as information sources, knowledge distributors and community developers. Johnson et al (2008) have used autophotography as a way of understanding the use of space and experiences of spatial exclusion by the invisible and excluded.

The potential uses of mobile technologies and open learning for transforming social relations

Mobile technologies are not just tools to reflect social transformations, but are also agents of change. MXit and SMS have transformed communication norms. Deumert and Masinyana (2009) have highlighted how SMSs are generating new forms of linguistic code switching and language norms. Given the strong linkages between language and identity, the role these technologies in cultural change must be acknowledge and reflected in the exhibition. In addition, the role of these technologies in time-space distanciation (see Giddens 1984) is important to note, as remote interactions (e.g. phone calls or SMSs) become increasingly important in social and economic interactions. Mobile technologies enable individuals to engage in real time with people and processes physically removed from them, thus reshaping spatial and social relationships. How can the transformative power of these technologies be reflected upon in the exhibition?

The use of these technologies to frame, report on, display and create platforms for discussing and presenting urban transformations

Kreutzer states, “[W]e know more or less how many South Africans have access to mobile phones, and what kind of things researchers and activists think they should be doing with the phones for developmental purposes. In contrast, we know very little about how South Africans actually choose to use mobile phones to access information or entertainment media or to create and distribute their own media” (Kreutzer 2009, 4). It is important not to ascribe uses on the basis of abstract assumptions of usage abilities in the context of this project. The exhibition on urban transformations needs to be able to draw on available technologies to democratize the exhibition. However, in order to do this effectively it will be vital to draw on local knowledge about how mobile technologies are being used and interpreted by local users. It will be important to consider the inclusionary and exclusionary characteristics of these technologies in the planning of the exhibition.

In conclusion, I return to my opening comments. The relationship between technologies and urban transformations are complex and multi-directional. These complexities must be addressed within the exhibition. The work of Latour and Haraway may provide a theoretical entry point to help improving the discussion. The exhibition must be aware of both what these emerging technologies can do for citizens, as well as what they actually do to these citizens and the communities and spaces they occupy.

References:

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Kreutzer, T. (2009) Internet and online media usage on mobile phones in low-income urban youth in Cape Town, Paper submitted to the pre-conference workshop of the 2009 Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Chicago, 20-21 May 2009.

Tolsi, N. (2009) Winston the homing pigeon draws tweets of support, Mail and Guardian 10 September 2009 - http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-10-winston-the-homing-pigeon-draws-tweets-of-support

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