Publications accepted: Mobiles, politics and olders

Two book chapters already confirmed for 2015.

• An exploration of mobile telephony non-use among older people, by Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, to appear in the book Ageing and technology: Perspectives from the social sciences edited by Emma Domínguez-Rué and Linda Nierling and published by Transcript within the Aging Studies Series.

The paper explores the meaning of mobile phone non-use in the case of older people (60+). What are the motivations older people have for not using mobile phones? How does this decision shape, if it does, mediated connectivity? What are the perceived effects of non-ownership? Responding to these questions would be relevant for any age group, yet I focus on older population because they constitute the age group that has been less studied in this field.

• The politics of mobile media inclusion in Argentina, by Sarah Wagner, to appear in the book Mobile participation: Action, interaction and practices edited by Caroline Wamala Larsson, Christelle Scharff, Johan Hellström, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

The chapter concerns the process of digital inclusion, which we conceptualize as power struggles over technology and media planning, production and diffusion. We analyse the position of two stakeholder groups in Argentina within the mobile telephony service structure: indigenous communicators and mobile app developers. We find that the mobile app industry doubly excludes indigenous participation. App developers not only are disconnected from the interests of local users due to standardized distribution platforms that do not favour local markets, but also are positioned within a wider social structure that invisibilizes and discriminates indigeneity. We argue that the mobile communication for development (M4D) research area needs to carefully consider how spaces can be created for marginalized groups to participate in mobile service production and planning processes.

Image by Ram Balmur under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license