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'ICT and Human Mobility: Cases from developing countries and beyond' for a special edition of Journal of Information Technology for Development
| Publication Date: | 2010-11-22 (Archive) |
| Date Submitted: |
2010-10-11 |
| Announcement ID: |
179639 |
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Call for Papers: Journal of Information Technology for Development. Special Issue on 'Information and Communication Technology and Human Mobility:
Cases from Developing Countries and Beyond'.
Special Issue guest editors
• Thomas Molony (Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK)
• Denis Galava (Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Information Technology for Development
• Sajda Qureshi (College of Information Science & Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA)
Aims and Scope
Humans have always been mobile, but telephony has not. Even since the widespread uptake of mobile phones in developing countries, the devices have not always been carried by their itinerant owners as they travel very locally or further afield. For more aged users in particular, but also for those travelling to areas not served by mobile coverage, a mobile phone is still sometimes regarded more as a landline that remains at home (or remains at an area of coverage) than a means of communication that an individual will always carry along with his/her keys and money. This attitude is changing as coverage becomes ever wider in developing countries, mobile phones become more essential to the everyday lives of users, and as travellers are more able to use handsets farther and farther from home.
This increase in use of mobile phones and, to a lesser extent, other ICTs, is happening during what has been termed as ‘the age of migration’ – a time marked by a rapid increase in the rate of urbanisation in developing countries, and a growth in the number of international migrants (for which people from developing countries comprise over half the total population). As these migrants move to new locations, they frequently bring with them their mobile phones – a device that for many of the poor is the only technology, save perhaps a small radio, that they own.
Whatever the motivation for migration – whether voluntary or involuntary – it is here that the very mobility of the mobile phone comes into its own, enabling migrants to remain in communication with existing contacts, and to communicate within new networks as they develop. This special edition is interested in the use, and implications of use, of mobile phones and/or the internet (and other ICTs, where applicable) among migrants in and beyond developing countries. The particular concern is how migrants from developing countries employ ICT in their strategies to reach new pastures, and when (or if) they arrive, how they communicate with home and within the diaspora, and how these networks develop.
‘Migrants’ are understood here to be a broad group of individuals with different motivations, and can include domestic migrants within developing countries (rural-urban, urban-rural, rural-rural, urban-urban), south-south (developing country-to-developing country) migrants, south-north (developing country-to-developed country) migrants, and north-north (developed country-to-developed country) migrants.
Topics addressed
The papers may be theoretical, conceptual, analytical, or empirical in nature. Possible contributions in relation to ICT and human mobility may include, but are not restricted to, the following categories:
- Physical mobility
- Socio-economic mobility
- The development of new and existing social networks
- The use of mobile phones in concert with other information and communication technologies, and when and why one ICT is favoured over the other
- Overland migrations in challenging conditions
- Forced migration
- Youth mobility
- Physical mobility and mobile money over large distances, especially across borders
- ICT and migrants’ social and/or economic mobility in new locations
- Changing notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’
The above may include reporting of illegal practices (with due anonymity recommended) or papers reporting failed ventures. Papers must explain how the work is related to the notion of human development (economic or otherwise) and how it contributes to a better understanding of ways in which the field of ICT4D can better engage with ICT and development, especially in relation to migration. Submitted work will be evaluated for originality, methodological soundness, empirical completeness, and academic rigour.
Paper Submission Instructions
Authors are invited to submit original research papers or views from practice that relate to ICT and human mobility.
Submissions may either be full research papers of up to a maximum of 9,000 words that would be published in the main part of the Journal, or commentaries of up to a maximum of 2,000 words that would be published in the ‘Views from Practice’ section. For full research papers, reviewers will pay particular attention to the use of chosen research method.
Your paper must contain original results and must not be submitted elsewhere while it is being evaluated for the Journal. The submission should be anonymous and the main manuscript should not contain any personal identifiable information. When developing your manuscript, please refer to the latest issue of ITD to inform you of the styles of papers published by the Journal.
To submit a document, authors must first create an account at the ITD submission and reviewing web site. This process, along with details of the Journal’s submission guidelines, are outlined in the Instructions for Authors webpage.
To help ensure that your paper reaches the appropriate reviewers in good time, please indicate that it is being submitted for the ‘ICT and Human Mobility’ special issue. Authors must also simultaneously e-mail an electronic copy of the submitted paper to the guest editors (email addresses below).
All papers will undergo a process of one or more rounds of double blind review. After initial screening, full research papers will be reviewed by selected members of the editorial board and peers from an international pool of researchers for quality, consistency and research contribution.
Deadlines
Submissions of papers: 22 November 2010
Notification of initial acceptance: 3 December 2010
Revised papers: 17 January 2011
Notification of final acceptances: 31 January 2011
Final versions: 16 February 2011
Further information
Any questions regarding submissions should be sent simultaneously to:
Thomas Molony
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
Thomas.MolonyATed.ac.uk
and
Denis Galava
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
Denis.GalavaATed.ac.uk / denis.galavaATgmail.com
Soliciting of Papers
Papers will be advertised online using list servs, among them IFIP 9.4, ISWorld and list servs that are regularly used by researchers and practitioners in various Areas Studies disciplines, such as those within the H-Net Network (e.g., H-Africa), as well as researchers in refugee studies and development studies. Individuals whom to send tailored invitations have been identified, along with reliable and tried contacts who will be asked to disseminate the Call within their networks.
Background of special issue editor(s)
Thomas Molony, Senior Research Fellow, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. Much of his research, based largely on ethnographic methods of enquiry, is on the use of ICT in countries across Africa, especially East Africa. His Ph.D., “Food, Carvings and Shelter: The Adoption and Appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies in Tanzanian Micro and Small Enterprises,” is one of the earliest detailed studies of the effect of mobile phones and the Internet on business in an emerging economy and is listed in the GSMA Development Fund’s “Top 20 Research on Economic and Social Impacts of Mobile Phones in Developing Countries.” His research has been published in some of the leading Africanist and ICT for Development journals, among them Information Technology and International Development and Information Technology for Development.
Denis Galava, Ph.D. student, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, where his thesis assesses the use and effects of mobile telephony in political violence in Kenya. Formerly Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, and St Paul’s University, Limuru, Denis holds an M.A. in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University, UK, and a B.Ed. from Kenyatta University, Kenya. A retired Senior Associate Editor with a leading newspaper group in Kenya, Denis is hugely experienced in working with authors to produce quality work for deadlines.
See also http://itd.ist.unomaha.edu/.
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