Living and Livelihoods: ICTs and the Blurring Domestic and Economic Spheres in Emerging Economies

Jan Blom1, Jonathan Donner2, Kathi R. Kitner3, Nimmi Rangaswammy2

1Nokia Design, Bangalore

2Microsoft Research India, Bangalore

3Intel Research, Beaverton, OR

Panel Discussion Proposal for HOIT 2007, Chennai

Introduction

For many people in emerging markets, money is tight, and not always where or what it seems.Even among India’s growing middle class, informal connections, handshake and deals, distributed family ties and local social networks might be as important in the maintenance of a household income (and livelihood) as formal advertisements, contracts, or bank accounts. Home businesses are common, either to augment or replace salaried or wage labor (Mead & Leidholm, 1998).

There are rich threads of previous research illustrating how the economic and the social/domestic spheres are intertwined in developing-world settings. For example:

  • At home, households have ‘economic portfolios’ and must carefully manage expenditures against the relational pressures of maintaining a family(Chen & Dunn, 1996)
  • In the street, and the neighborhood, research on social networks & social capital (Fafchamps, 2002), and on the function of information searching at the bazaar(Geertz, 1978),show the importance of embedded (social) relationships
  • At a broader level, research on remittances is increasing, as the magnitude of long-distance household to household flows continues to grow (Maimbo & Ratha, 2005).

We argue than an understanding of the economic and financial dimensions (even at the family level) of ICT use is an important element of designing ICTs for emerging market homes. This panel will discuss research at three levels: the household, the street/neighborhood, and the region. Each level illustrates the ways in which the already complicatedboundaries between the “domestic” and the “economic” spheres in urban daily life are re-negotiated and influenced by mediated communication technologies.

In ICTs, we see evidence of blurring of, for example, the social and economic in embedded transactional relationships (Sawyer, Crowston, Wigand, & Allbritton, 2003), and of the home and domestic spheres by mobile professional information workers(Chesley, 2005; Gant & Kiesler, 2001). What similar observations can we make about urban users in developing economies?

The role of the mobile phoneis of particular interest, given its rise as the ICT-of-choice for many people in the developing world. Is there something about the mobile, in particular, that lends itself to unifying or complicating the economic and the domestic spheres?

The panel will explore some of the issues surrounding economic constraints faced by the “next billion”. More specifically the aim is to identify principles, perspectives, methods and tools that can be utilized by researchers and developers interested in creating new ICT products and services for this population.

By including research from Africa, India, China, and Latin America, the panel will also enable discussions around the utility and consistency of “the next billion” and “emerging markets” as conceptual domains.

Panel Members and contributions

Nimmi Rangaswamy: Paying for ICTs – Allocating and sustaining a changing communications repertoire in middle class Indian Homes

We focused on distinctive features of urban middle class family relations in India affecting ICT ownership and consumption. From an ethnographic study of 79 low-middle income householdsin 3 Indian cities, we noted aspirational and actual consumption of domestic ICT’s tied to particular social, economic and cultural profiles of families. Observations to be discussed in the panel include:

  • Multiple ownership of domestic media, given complex, mutigenerational and extended families
  • Older children’s roles in the management and selection of household ICTs
  • Space considerations as a factor in ICT selection and use, within the household

Kathi R. Kitner: Housewives on the edge:How an emerging middle class of women is leading PC adoption in the homes of Peñalolén, Chile.

The urban and working class municipio of Peñalolén is experiencing a sharp increase in the numbers of new "cibers," or cafés that are seen to primarily cater to youth.But perhaps not so noticed are the high numbers of housewives now taking computer classes at the telecenters in Peñalolén, and saving pesos or taking out small loans to purchase PCs for their homes.What is driving this phenomenon, where else might it be occurring and what can it tell us about household economies, social class and technology adoption?Based on ethnographic data gathered in three rapid assessments from July 2006 to May 2007.

Jan Blom: Street Smart Businesses

Street Smart Spaces, a joint project between NokiaResearchCenter and Intel Research, aimed to understand people’s practices in the street space to enable empirically grounded design of smart spaces. The studies took place in the UK, China and Brazil; small, local businesses were one of the focus areas. The following themes will be discussed as part of the presentation:

  1. High-trust family networks. Small businesses are often run by families. Such set-ups involve high trust relationships and adaptive business modes.
  2. Connected individuals empower local businesses: Role of so-called social hubs in bridging local customers to businesses and services.
  3. Work vs. leisure:China was associated with clusters of down-time falling within working hours. In Brazil, work and free-time were more distinct.

Jonathan Donner: Mobile phones and remittances: linking households, stretching families

Jonathan’s presentation will focus on ongoing research on the role of mobile telephones in coordinating remittance flows. It will highlight ways in which the handset’s evolving role as a device which handles information, communication, (entertainment) and financial functions complicates existing theoretical explorations of the social impacts of mobile telephony in emerging markets.

References

Chen, M. A., & Dunn, E. (1996). Household economic portfolios. Retrieved June 10, 2006, from

Chesley, N. (2005). Blurring Boundaries? Linking Technology Use, Spillover, Individual Distress, and Family Satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 1237-1248.

Fafchamps, M. (2002). The role of business networks in market development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In M. Aoki & Y. Hayami (Eds.), Community and Market in Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gant, D., & Kiesler, S. (2001). Blurring the boundaries: Cell phones, mobility, and the line between work and personal life. In B. Brown, N. Green & R. Harper (Eds.), Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age (pp. 121-132). London: Springer.

Geertz, C. (1978). The bazaar economy: Information and search in peasant marketing. American Economic Review, 68(2), 28-32.

Maimbo, S. M., & Ratha, D. (2005). Remittances : development impact and future prospects. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Mead, D. C., & Leidholm, C. (1998). The dynamics of micro and small enterprises in developing countries. World Development, 26(1), 61-74.

Sawyer, S., Crowston, K., Wigand, R. T., & Allbritton, M. (2003). The Social Embeddedness of Transactions: Evidence from the Residential Real-Estate Industry. The Information Society, 19(2), 135-154.